For years, the Garden of Dreams team has been behind some of the most important musical events in Sarajevo, which attract audiences from all over Bosnia and Herzegovina, the region and beyond. And another exciting season full of work and new challenges is ahead of them. As before, this year they intend to raise the bar both in terms of programming and production, so we will probably witness the most significant season in over ten years of this team’s work.
The new, 11th edition of the Garden of Dreams festival starts on June 13 and will last until June 19. Although the festival has grown into a multidisciplinary event in recent years, its key determinant remains the same – top electronic music in attractive and often unexpected city locations.
“Last year, we tried a multidisciplinary format for the first time and it turned out to be a very successful move. That’s why we decided to continue in that direction. The festival lasts seven days again, and we’re opening it with two big music events,” says festival director Renad Čelik.
The festival will be opened on June 13 at a new location – in front of the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The main star of the first evening will be the Scottish DJ Denis Sulta, who left a strong impression on the Sarajevo audience two years ago with his performance on Vilson’s Promenade.
“We are bringing Denis Sulta, the man who made a dar-mar on Vilson’s Promenade two years ago. This time he will perform at a new location, with a production that will be significantly different and improved compared to everything we have done so far,” Čelik points out.
In addition to Sulta, Bonjaski, Ilija Đoković, Surrender Discipline, Doyle and More Than You will also perform. The organizers also announce a special audiovisual performance that will turn the National Museum into, as they say, a “modern stage of dreams”.
The very next day, June 14, the festival moves to the roof of the Svjetlosti building, a location that has already hosted some of the most famous Garden of Dreams events.
The program will be led by Romanian DJ Priku, one of the most famous names of the European electronic scene, with the support of performers After Affair, Feđa Knajdl, Torres, Lubnya, Not Yet and Garden of Dreams Talents.
The music weekend is followed by a series of content from other fields of art and creative industries.
“On Tuesday, we are opening Zlatko Ćosić’s exhibition at the Manifesto gallery. He is an artist who likes to experiment, and this time the audience will be able to see an interesting combination of music and moving images,” says Čelik.
A day later, at the Bosnian Cultural Center, Sarajevo actor Kerim Ćutuna will perform his stand-up show Nebitno for the first time in front of a local audience.
On Thursday, June 18, Garden of Dreams Sessions are on the program – panels and conversations with professionals from the music and creative industries, at the Austrian House.
“We want to bring together relevant people from different segments of the industry, discuss the situation on the scene and enable the exchange of experiences and knowledge,” explains Čelik.
The festival will close on June 19 at an as yet undisclosed location, which the organizers announce will offer the audience a “spectacular view of the city and a completely new experience”. Access to that location will be given to people who bought a ticket for one of the previous two music events.
One of the ideas that the organizers plan to realize during the festival is the gathering of representatives of different generations of Sarajevo’s electronic scene.
“We would like to gather people who built the scene before us, representatives of our generation, but also the youngest ones, in order to discuss experiences, exchange knowledge and try to further connect the community that has a huge legacy behind it,” points out Čelik.
Although the Garden of Dreams festival is the central event of the first part of the season, the organizers are expecting an extremely intense period after it, especially in the 8th month, which Čelik announces as “hell August”.
The biggest event of the year is certainly the concert of the iconic British band The Prodigy, scheduled for August 13 at Grbavica Stadium.
“This is a project we have been working on for a long time. Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina have been waiting for an event of this format for a long time. We are currently at about 50 percent of the planned capacity of 18,000 visitors, and current trends suggest that the concert could be sold out a few days before the event,” says Čelik.
He adds that this is the most production-demanding project that Garden of Dreams has realized so far.
“It is a completely new experience and a new level of knowledge, production, organization. There are a lot of things we didn’t know we didn’t know, and now we know. The show they are preparing will be really something special; I don’t want to sound overbearing, but what The Prodigy brings to Sarajevo is something that could never be seen here, and everyone who has ever seen them live knows what kind of energy their performances carry.”
The concert by The Prodigy is followed by the celebration of the beginning of the Sarajevo Film Festival (August 14) on the roof of the Svjetlosti building, and then a big closing party in Titova Street on the occasion of the closing of the festival (August 21). When asked who will be the star that evening, Čelik remains without a concrete answer, but says that the audience will be delighted and that it will probably be the most attended event at that location ever.
Tickets for the concert of The Prodigy are available through the service udnica.org, while tickets for the programs of the Garden of Dreams festival can be purchased through the service kupikartu.ba.
