The City of Sarajevo has entered the last month of 2025 without a contracted organizer for the public New Year’s Eve celebration. After three previous tenders failed, the City Administration on Friday launched a new, fourth in a row, negotiated procedure without publication of a notice, attempting to urgently find a company that will take over the complete organization of the event worth 591.452.99 BAM.
According to the published tender documentation, the job includes the entire technical, logistical, and program-stage implementation of the event, from setting up the stage and sound system to hiring performers, security services, and the live broadcast of the Sarajevo Philharmonic concert. The location planned for the concert is a wide city area that includes Trg Bosne i Hercegovine, Vrbanja, Vilsonovo, and the plaza around Sarajevo City Center (SCC).
Rozga as the main performer
The tender documentation prescribes very precise technical and program requirements: a quality stage with a roof, equipment of a minimum of 110 decibels, sufficient security capacities, mobile toilets, corresponding taxes, and the complete organization of the entertainment program lasting at least four hours, with Jelena Rozga as the main star of the evening.
The contracting authority will accept exclusively offers with the lowest price, without the possibility of alternative offers.
The deadline for obtaining the tender documentation expires on December 2nd, and the deadline for submitting requests to participate is already December 3rd at 12 p.m. – which leaves companies only a few days to prepare the documentation, and the City somewhat more than three weeks to choose a qualified bidder and complete all stages of the procedure: prequalification, negotiations, initial and final offers.
For a process that under normal circumstances lasts weeks, Sarajevo now has days.
Why did the first three tenders fail?
According to information from the City Administration, the previous procedures were annulled because: there were no acceptable offers; bidders did not obtain the documentation; basic procedural conditions were not met.
In practice, this means that Sarajevo is entering New Year’s preparations later than ever and with fewer candidates on the market, considering that it is a complex project requiring large logistics, high risk, and short deadlines.
What if the fourth tender fails?
There is no official answer, but in city circles, only two realistic options are mentioned: either the City will manage to contract an organizer in record time, or Sarajevo will, for the first time in decades, remain without a central public celebration.
If it is known that the calendar is already at the end of November, it is clear that it is entering the zone of improvisation and urgent negotiations.
