National Park Sutjeska and Tjentište this weekend are the epicenter of a good time, not only in Bosnia and Herzegovina but also in the entire region thanks to the tenth anniversary edition of the Nektar OK Fest. A rich content, a phenomenal program, but also great musical stars gathered thousands of visitors in Tjentište even a few days before the start of the festival.
As the area intended for the camp began to fill up already on July 15, the organizers decided to give them an unforgettable welcome, so the evening before the official start, the visitors had the opportunity to enjoy the concerts of Bojana Vunturišević and the bands Dža on a smaller stage in the camp. or Boo and the Perfect Outlaws.
The first day of Nektar OK Fest started at the OK Summer stage at noon, where DJ Rezident and Nebs Jack were responsible for the finest selection of rhythms.
The band Pero Defformero explosively opened the program on the Jagermeister OK stage, and it was not noticed that they were in Tjentište for the first time.
"I have heard a lot of nice words about this festival, because the best form of advertising is word of mouth, and we are here for the first time in this beautiful environment. A lot of people from Novi Sad and the surrounding area were at this festival, good news spreads very quickly and we knew from the start that it was a good and very high quality festival. We were happy when they invited us." admitted Goran Biševac, frontman of the band Pero Defformero.
The heat did not prevent the audience from watching their performance, and Biške says that "climate change is something we all have to get used to".
"The visit was more than great. From what I hear, there are over seven thousand people in the camp, and the space in front of the stage was full. I'm glad that a bunch of people came from all over, because this is a real ex-Yu festival", notes Biške.
"The real way to fight for young people to be infected with good music is festivals like this," advises Biške, and he is glad that he had the opportunity to notice that the audience includes members of both older and younger generations.
The hot atmosphere on the stage in the camp was further warmed by the Montenegrin duo Who See, however, towards the end of the performance, rain, lightning and a power outage interrupted them during the second stanza of the regional hit "Đe se kupaš".
"I'm glad that it didn't happen at the beginning and that even when it started raining, people didn't disperse until the electricity went out. Everything happened at the perfect moment, I'm sorry that we didn't have time to perform at least two more songs. We predicted that it would rain, so without thinking we shortened the line up and performed the song 'Đe se kupaš'. The power went out at the last chorus, so it looked like everything was staged. The energy was beautiful, the crowd was wonderful, as always at the OK fest", Mario Đorđević Noyz from the Who See duo told the News after the performance.
Not even a heavy downpour managed to cool down the hot atmosphere, and right after it ended, Bjesov performed on the stage in the camp.
And then, according to the good old custom that has been going on for a decade, the party continued on the Main Stage, where, mostly with faster songs from his rich oeuvre of over 250 songs, which he has been creating for 40 years, the legendary Neno Belan performed with the band Fiumensi.
Two years ago, Belan and his band were at this festival for the first time, and he admits that he was wondering how everything works considering that it is held in the National Park. Already today he says that he is happy to come to OK fest.
"The first time I was totally surprised. They invited us to a festival in Tjentište and I thought 'there is nothing in the district for 300 km, how are we going to perform there'. However, when I came I was shocked at how good the production was, the stage, what kind of audience came. It was great, so now I already knew what to expect," admitted Belan.
He does not hide that he is happy when he sees members of younger generations in the audience singing songs that were written long before they were born.
"Our music is fluid, melodic, soft, it can be shaped and adapted to the place where it is played. We chose more hard-hitting songs because the festival is outdoors, so let people dance, jump, shout, relax and have fun. That's how it was," confirmed Belan, who left the stage to the band Thievery Corporation.
And then, at Tjentište, the hits of the band Zoster echoed for the umpteenth time. This year's performance was used by Mario Knezović and his team to promote the current album "The Best".
"There is a special repertoire for the OK fest. This festival is a special place for us because of the concert production itself - from the sound to the visual effects and the place where we play, that's why it is very important for us to present all the best there. It is true that we played almost all the songs from the album 'Najgori' and it is our concept to play the complete album at concerts until the end of the year", said Knezović and he does not hide that he is satisfied with how the album, which the audience has been waiting for a long time, turned out.
"We are already preparing new material and the audience will not have to wait long for the new album. I think that we will publish something from that project already next year. The album 'Najgori' is alive, it is interactive with the audience and there is no reason not to play those songs. We are satisfied with the reaction of both the critics and the audience. This is the result of many years of work. We would do it even if the audience and critics were not satisfied, because we don't know any other way. But, well, it's nice that everything came together and that people love it," says Knezović, who chose Tadija as the main character of the "Najgori" album, and is sure that the situations in which he finds himself helped the audience to find themselves in the songs.
"Everyone found their own story because it is not linear. It is in fragments. A word is a picture and people connect these pictures, which was our idea. Those codes that we gave people experienced in their own way, and that's exactly what brings the music we create to life. These reactions and new experiences always surprise me, so this interaction is the best thing that can happen. We are doing the same for the next album, with the focus being on Tadija's son", confirmed Knezović.
Left for last, the Sunshine band led by Banet Bojović brought the atmosphere to a boil with the hits "Misli mene gone", "Kokaina", "Ti pozovi me", "Priđi mi ti" which the audience sang in unison.
"Often the organizers know that they put us last or penultimate, but we don't worry about it. I'm happy whenever I perform. No matter how exhausted the audience is during the performance of previous performers, we always manage to get the energy out and jump on our songs and make the concert go great", boasted Bane, and indeed it was.
They danced until the early hours of the morning, not wanting to leave the concert space, but the members of Susnhine did not spare themselves either.
Today, Atheist Rep, Tamikrest and Bad Copy will perform on the camp stage, while Svemirko, Letu Štuke, Parni valjak and Nipplepeople will play on the main stage.
Bonus video:
