Music festivals have flourished in Montenegro, and the public can often hear assessments that state institutions do not sufficiently recognize their importance for the culture, tourism and economy of Montenegro.
The news, in communication with some of the most significant manifestations of this kind (Sea Dance, Lake Fest, Southern Soul, Bedem Fest, Royal Music, Refresh) and the largest state donors (National Tourism Organization and Ministry of Culture), investigated how much this aid actually is.
The same for Bedem and Lake
Some are more, some less satisfied with the support, but the organizers of almost all festivals in Montenegro believe that they deserve it to be greater. On the other hand, many say that this is also good so far, since there was almost no such content until a few years ago.
By looking at the information provided by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MKT) and the National Tourism Organization (NTO), it should be noted that sometimes the size and attendance of the festival is not the most important for the infusion of state money.
Thus, Bedem Fest received from MKT the same amount as the much larger Lake Fest - 5.000 euros as part of the program to support the development of culture in Nikšić and cooperation with the Municipality of Nikšić. For the sake of comparison, within the same program the Guitar festival received twice as much money.
The biggest support of this institution was mostly given to manifestations recognized as events of special or capital importance for the culture of Montenegro: Don Branko's days of music (87.000 euros) and A tempo (20.000 euros). Based on the MKT competition, the festival of children's music from Rožaj, Zlatna pahulja, received 30.000 euros.
NTO gives the most for events on the coast
When it comes to the NTO, this institution helped the most with the manifestations on the coast. Thus, Ulcinj's Southern Soul, whose premier edition hosted around 3.000 people, and for this year no information on the number of visitors was announced, received 10.000 from the NTO, twice as many as Lake Fest, which this summer, according to the organizers, gathered 30.000 people.
Sunčane Skale (20.000), the International Fashion Show in Kotor (7.000) and the Vivienne Westwood fashion show (5.500) were easily overtaken.
The first edition of the Budva Sea Dance, the largest festival held in Montenegro, received 100.000 euros from NTO, Bedem Fest and Cucka jeka each received 2.000 euros, and Sea Rock 1.000 euros.
Lake Fest believes that during the past four years of work, they have not received significant support. Director Peđa Zečević revealed that, in addition to the aforementioned assistance, Lake received 5.000 euros from the Municipality, from which it also had good logistical support. He also collaborated with many non-governmental organizations, the Red Cross and, of course, the police, the army...
"The festival succeeded and survived mostly thanks to the sale of tickets, which should be seen as a certain donation to the festival by every visitor, as well as our sponsor club," said Zečević, without specifying how much the traditional event in Krupac costs.
Something now, something later
According to the organizers, the debut edition of Sea Dance cost more than one and a half million euros, and it was previously known that the festival received 500.000 euros from the local administration.
"A part of the allocated funds has been paid, and a part will be paid in the following period. What should be especially emphasized is that the Sea Dance festival brought about seven million euros to the tourism economy of Montenegro, while the Tourist Organization of Budva announced that the visit to the Budva Riviera during of the festival increased by 11 percent compared to the same period last year, which is the highest tourist growth in the season of 2014. During the three days of the festival, visitors spent an average of 327 euros per person," announced Sea Dance, which was visited by more than 80.000 people, about as many as the first three Lake Fests.
Unlike the one in Nikšić, which primarily gathers domestic audiences, the Budva festival had visitors from around thirty countries and is in the running for the best new festival in Europe.
The largest festival dedicated to electronic music in Montenegro, Refresh, according to the organizers, had neither financial nor logistical support from the state.
"Refresh has been hosted all these years by the Maximus discotheque, which allocates about 80 percent of the total budget, while the remaining 20 percent is covered by the festival's commercial sponsors," they announced from this event, which had 7.000 visitors this summer.
According to Refresh's announcement, the budget of the festival ranged from 80 to 130 thousand, and the last edition cost 90.000 euros.
It is important to prove ourselves
"I am satisfied with the support of the state, considering that rock festivals are a cultural content that was not represented at all in Montenegro. I hope that the support will grow over time, in line with the development of SeaRock. It is also important that we prove ourselves as someone on who can be counted on as a serious organizer of quality events. It is also important to develop the habit of going to concerts. In Europe, it is part of the general culture," said Ivan Gvido Krivokapić, director of SeaRock, which has been gathering prominent names of the alternative scene in Kotor for four years. of the region and the world, and which was visited by around 3.000 people this summer.
He said that SeaRock, which cost about 16.000, received 8.500 euros from the local government and 1.000 from MKT. In addition, there is no entrance fee, and the organizers promise to continue with this practice.
In terms of logistics, SeaRock uses the Summer Stage for free, and Krivokapić emphasizes the contribution of volunteers and sponsors who, in addition to money, provide accommodation, food, drinks, printed material...
From Bedem, which grew from a small event based on the cooperation of musicians from Nikšić into a real festival, they are satisfied with the support of the state, although they think they deserve it to be bigger. From this manifestation, they did not want to reveal how much help they received, how much it cost, and how much the festival earned, explaining that it is a business secret.
"Approximately 12.000 visitors paraded through the Fortress Fest. This does not mean that all of these people bought a ticket, but they were present at various parts of the fortress," said director Petar Šundić.
How much do state companies help?
The Royal Music competition festival gathers regional stars and their successors for three years, and is realized in cooperation with the Capital of Cetinje.
"According to the possibilities, we jointly form a budget and realize it in half: 50 percent is the share of Prijestonica, and we collect the rest from sponsors and our sources," said Dragan Bulajić from the "Comfortably Numb" agency, which organizes the festival.
According to his statement, Royal, which has free entrance, cost 60.000 euros this year, and was visited by 12.000 people.
News from the festival did not receive information on how much state companies helped them, although, for example, Sea Dance was sponsored by Montenegro Airlines, and Lake Fest by Elektroprivreda.
Vijesti did not receive any information from Southern Soul with the explanation that they cannot talk about the details of the financial operations at the moment, because the festival is in the restructuring phase, so they believe that making this information public would harm the process.
Organizers: There is no development without greater support
Talking about the future, almost all the organizers expect the support of the state to increase and believe that there are good reasons for this. Many believe that Montenegro recognizes the potential of festival tourism, something that, for example, Croatia and Serbia have been exploiting for years.
"The Sea Dance festival has the potential to become one of the leading ones on the sea coast in Europe and thus directly promote the promotion of Montenegro as an attractive and modern tourist destination. Already in the first year, 'Lonely Planet', the world's most important tourist guide, presented Sea Dance as one of the world's most attractive music festivals," announced Sea Dance and added that this complex project would not have been successfully implemented without the organizational and logistical support of the state.
"If there is a project that is in agreement with the constant declaration of state institutions that they are ready to support projects in the north of Montenegro, then it is Lake Fest", pointed out Zečević, noting that this event revived the complex near Lake Krupa, that in four years it visited 100.000 people, that it has proven itself to be self-sustaining and that, in addition to mostly domestic visitors, more and more foreigners are visiting it.
He added that Lake Fest has reached its maximum when it comes to performers from the surrounding area and that the festival must expand with the arrival of foreign performers, for which the help of the state is necessary.
"We have come a long way in these four years and we have no intention of stopping," said Zečević.
This year, the neighborhood Bedem Fest received more public attention than ever, and Šundić said that in the opinion of MKT, this event should become a leader in Montenegro when it comes to off-season offers.
He pointed out that Bedem is decorated with sincere dedication and that the awareness among people from the institutions that something valuable is being done in Nikšić and that a good climate is being created will have an impact in the future when decisions are made about assistance.
"Leading people in the municipality respect what we are doing and I feel that we will continue to have support and that it will only grow", Šundić is convinced.
Dragan Bulajić from Royal Music believes that the state must create a strategy of "cultural decontamination" and create conditions for young artists to express their talent.
"Culture is not a classic business. You have to constantly invest for the mental health of the population, not to make a profit. As a small country, we have to invest more and create conditions for our children, so that they don't look into other people's yards. Or if they have to look, let them be the most beautifully decorated one," he pointed out.
The organizer of Southern Soul, Marko Pavlović, said that "the future of this independent non-commercial festival is very certain and bright, which was confirmed by program reviews from relevant music critics from all over the world", as well as that the support of institutions is welcome and necessary for development.
Quality is important, but also importance for the promotion of Montenegro
MKT and NTO explained to "Vijesta" what criteria they used to decide on the financing of the festival. The NTO states that one of the basic criteria is for the event to be of a tourist and animation character.
The next criterion is "promotion of Montenegro or certain localities", and care was also taken to ensure that the amount allocated for the festival is in line with the financial support of the municipality behind the event.
"Regarding the amount of funds, the criterion was accepted that it should not be more than 20 percent of the amount determined by the local self-government that is behind the event in question", it is written in the announcement of the NTO, which added that "music and fashion festivals are supported due to the marketing and PR contribution to the promotion of Crna Up as urban world tourist destinations".
It was also pointed out that other cultural and entertainment events were supported due to the promotion of the development of municipalities in the north.
MKT said that the following criteria were applied: artistic quality and significance for the development of Montenegrin culture, references of the organizers, contribution to the development of multinational and multicultural values, contribution to encouraging international dialogue and stimulating the development of partnerships, international affirmation of Montenegrin culture, contribution to the preservation of tradition and Montenegrin cultural heritage , affirmation of promising talents, contribution to the affirmation of creativity of persons with disabilities and the reality of the project budget and provision of conditions for its realization.
"When it comes to the additional criteria prescribed by the Law, first of all, the quality of artistic production and organization is taken into account, as well as the successful implementation of previous activities," the announcement states, among other things.
They are waiting for a refund from Cucka ejeka ministry
The National Tourism Organization and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism also financially supported numerous smaller events that were held in Montenegro in 2014.
Based on the competition, MKT distributed its resources to the Espressivo Festival (8.000), the Music Festival of the Youth of Montenegro (4.000) and the International Festival of Music Days Herceg Novi (8.000).
Based on the status of the manifestation of special importance for culture, the Klapa Festival received 12.000 euros from the Ministry of Culture.
NTO helped the International Summer Carnival in Kotor with 4.000 euros, the Skadar Lake Days, Espressivo na Cetinje and Udahni Kolašin events with 1.000 each, and Cucka echo with 2.000, but due to its non-holding, a refund is expected.
For Rijeka night (Rijeka Crnojevića), No Where Extreme festival (Plužine), International Puppet Festival (Podgorica) and Lim regatta, NTO allocated 500 euros, while it contributed 400 euros to the holding of the Adriatic Games (Herceg Novi).
The First Festival of Hedonism from Tivat (300 euros), Raspberry Days from Andrijevica (300), Jumps from the Old Bridge held in Mojkovac (300), Eco Marathon Skadar Lake (200) also received help from NTO.
The NTO allocated a total of 163, and the MKT 189.000 euros.
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