Sunny Hill Festival

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Sunny Hill Festival
Sunnyhill Festival.svg
Buhne und VIP-Tribune Sunny Hill Festival .jpg
2018 Sunny Hill Festival
GenrePerforming arts festival
FrequencyAnnually
Location(s)Flag of Kosovo.svg Pristina
CoordinatesSunny Hill Festival Park - Pristina 42°42′28″N21°07′31″E / 42.70785312°N 21.12538523°E / 42.70785312; 21.12538523
Years active5 years
Inaugurated10 August 2018 (2018-08-10)
FounderDukagjin and Dua Lipa
Most recent25 – 28 July 2024
Next eventJuly/August 2025
Organised bySunny Hill Foundation[ citation needed ]
Website sunnyhillfestival.com

The Sunny Hill Festival is an annual international music festival in Pristina, Kosovo, organised by English and Albanian singer Dua Lipa and her father Dukagjin Lipa. It has established itself as the largest music festival in Kosovo.

Contents

Editions

First Edition: 2018

In its inaugural year, Sunny Hill Festival attracted over 52 million search results on Google,[ citation needed ] and garnered attention from a number of global publications such as Metro, [1] The New York Times, [2] The Guardian, [3] Billboard,[ citation needed ] MTV UK,[ citation needed ] Areavip,[ citation needed ] Rolling Stone,[ citation needed ] Anabel Magazine,[ citation needed ] and MTV Italia.[ citation needed ]

The first edition of the festival took place on 10 to 12 August 2018 at the Germia Park, near Pristina in Kosovo. Dua Lipa was the headliner and her father also performed with his band, ODA and belonged to another line-up alongside many artists from Kosovo and Albania. [3]

Second Edition: 2019

The festival featured major stars like American artist Miley Cyrus, Scottish DJ Calvin Harris, and Albanian-American rapper Gashi. [4] The second edition of the Sunny Hill Festival took place on 2, 3 and 4 August 2019 at the Gërmia Park in Pristina. [5] In addition to several musicians of Albanian origin, namely Buta, Elvana Gjata, Ilira, Kejsi Tola, Kida, Ledri Vula, Lyrical Son, MC Kresha, Njomza and Yll Limani who performed as well. [6]

Calvin Harris concluded the festival with a performance accompanied by Dua Lipa, who performed her hit "One Kiss". The event solidified Sunny Hill's reputation, drawing larger crowds and receiving extensive media coverage.[ citation needed ]

2020-2021 - COVID-19

The festival was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was postponed again in 2021 because of rising coronavirus cases, rescheduling for 2022.[ citation needed ]

Third Edition: 2022

The third edition of Sunny Hill Festival in 2022 saw more than 15,000 attendees each night,making the Gërmia Park venue unable to accommodate the growing audience. Since 2019, organizers had been advocating for a larger space to expand the festival. [7] Procedural issues delayed securing a new location, and by June of that year, state institutions and organizers had not reached an agreement, leading to an announcement of the festival's potential move to Tirana, Albania.[ citation needed ]

However, after significant public pressure, a consensus was reached with the government and the municipality of Prishtina. As a result, the festival was held in Prishtina from August 4 to 7, with plans to continue working on a permanent location for future editions. This announcement was followed with criticism due to the legal status of Gërmia Park as a protected landscape and concerns for pollution. It was also announced that Tirana would host a separate edition with a different lineup on August 26, 27, and 28.[ citation needed ]

The festival was headlined Dua Lipa, and also features other international stars, including J Balvin, Skepta, and Diplo, also performed alongside local and regional artists. [8] That year's festival theme was a call for visa liberalization for Kosovo under the slogan "Set Me Free."[ citation needed ]

2023 - Getting our home ready

In 2023, Sunny Hill Festival continued to gain international recognition.[ citation needed ] The festival was also listed as one of the top five must-attend festivals in Europe. [9] [ failed verification ][ by whom? ]

Fourth Edition: 2024

In an official statement in May 2023, the festival's organizers announced that they were "getting our new and permanent home ready". [10]

This year, the festival will be held at its new permanent location in Bërnica i Poshtme from July 25 to 28. [11] The lineup includes artists such as Bebe Rexha, Burna Boy, Stormzy, The Blaze, the Martinez Brothers, and more.[ citation needed ] The festival will offer performances across three stages: the Main Stage, the C4 Stage, and the Tent Stage.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

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This is a list of some of the major festivals and events held in Kosovo's capital city Pristina, which are common occurrences throughout the year in the city.

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As the capital city of Kosovo, Pristina is the heart of the cultural and artistic development of all Albanians that live in Kosovo. The department of cultural affairs is just one of the segments that arranges the cultural events, which make Pristina one of the cities with the most emphasized cultural and artistic traditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transport in Pristina</span> Aspect of life in Pristina

Pristina's transport forms the hub of road, rail and air networks in Kosovo. The city's buses, trains and planes together all serve to maintain a high level of connectivity between Pristina many different districts and beyond. An analysis by the Traffic Police has shown that from 240,000 cars registered in Kosovo, around 100,000 cars are from the District of Pristina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tourism in Pristina</span>

Tourism in Pristina attracted 36,186 foreign visitors in 2012, which represents 74.2% of all visitors that visited Kosovo during that year. Foreign visitors mostly come from countries like Albania, Turkey, Germany, United States, Slovenia and North Macedonia, but also from other countries. Some of the most visited places in Pristina are Lake Batllava and Gadime Marble Cave, which are also among the most visited places in Kosovo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dren Abazi</span> Albanian singer-songwriter

Dren Abazi is a Kosovan singer-songwriter and a producer of Albanian origin. He is the founder and leader of Zig Zag Orchestra, a popular band in Kosovo, Albania, and other Balkan countries. His music is a fusion of Balkan music, jazz, klezmer, ska and rock.

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Dua Lipa is an English and Albanian singer and songwriter. Her accolades include seven Brit Awards and three Grammy Awards. Time included her in its list of the top 100 most influential people in the world for 2024.

Visar Bekaj is a Kosovan professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Turkish club Hatayspor and the Kosovo national team.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fustani (song)</span> 2019 single by Elvana Gjata featuring Capital T

"Fustani" is a song recorded by Albanian singer and songwriter Elvana Gjata featuring Kosovo-Albanian rapper Capital T. It was written by both aforementioned artists and produced by Albanian producers Rzon and Arbre Blass. Swedish producer Johan Bejerholm further mastered and mixed the song. An official music video for "Fustani" was shot in Turkey and was uploaded on 29 June 2019 onto YouTube to accompany the single's release. A vibrant video, it features scenes of the pair performing to the song in the outskirts of Istanbul in variety of sets, and Elvana appearing with five different dresses throughout the entire video. The single experienced commercial success in Albania and went on to the country's number one The Top List chart. The record was further promoted by both artists with live performances at the Alba Festival 2019 in Zürich and soon after, at the Sunny Hill Festival 2019 in Pristina.

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The Future Nostalgia Tour was the second concert tour and first arena tour by English and Albanian singer Dua Lipa, in support of her second studio album, Future Nostalgia (2020). It began on 9 February 2022 at the FTX Arena in Miami and ended on 28 November of the same year at Tirana's Skanderbeg Square. The tour visited cities across North America, Europe, Latin America and Oceania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ledri Vula</span> Kosovo Albanian rapper (born 1986)

Ledri Vula is a Kosovo Albanian rapper, singer and songwriter.

References

  1. Baillie, Katie (18 June 2018). "Dua Lipa's dad is putting on a music festival and of course the singer will sing". Metro . Retrieved 31 July 2024.
  2. Marshall, Alex (17 August 2018). "Can a Music Festival Make Kosovo Cool?". The New York Times . Retrieved 31 July 2024.
  3. 1 2 Walker, Shaun (5 August 2018). "Dua Lipa's father stages music festival for 'peace-loving' Kosovo". The Guardian . ISSN   0029-7712 . Retrieved 31 July 2024.
  4. "Dua Lipa announces Sunnyhill headliners". Prishtina Insight. 1 July 2019. Retrieved 31 July 2024.
  5. "'Sunny Hill Festival 2019' mbahet më 2, 3 dhe 4 gusht 2019". Telegrafi (in Albanian). 2 April 2019. Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  6. "Line Up 2019". Sunny Hill Festival. Archived from the original on 13 August 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  7. "Dua Lipa's Father Will Host His Music Festival in Kosovo After All". Billboard .
  8. "Dua Lipa Thrills Fans Performing on First Day of Sunny Hill". 5 August 2022.
  9. "Sunny Hill Festival".
  10. "Instagram". www.instagram.com. Retrieved 31 July 2024.
  11. "The first tickets for the "biggest edition" of the "Sunny Hill" festival go on sale".