Island of the Contemporary
The Echo Festival
by Rada Djurica
Not very long ago, Belgrade was a center of progressive contemporary arts and music, full of energy, more open-minded than all other Eastern European cities. Not all nine million tourists that visited Belgrade in 1988 wanted to lie in the sun by the Adriatic Sea.
But, this huge progressive power of Belgrade was stopped by the first decade of civil war in former Yugoslavia, as well as isolation and economic degradation of all kinds.
Belgrade was attractive to Western European people, just as it was to other people from Balkan Peninsula. Nowadays, when everything is better, thousands of young people gather on one beautiful small island on the Danube River to experience a truly unique experience, the first real music festival in Belgrade.
The festival
is called Echo Festival,
and it is produced in collaboration with the British club music production
company and UK’s Channel 4, bringing all the best club music stars
from the UK and the world.
Echo Festival is a music festival that draws inspiration from the anarchic spirit of Belgrade, once the capital of former Yugoslavia, now just Serbia. With the Echo Festival, Belgrade is becoming the proud center of club entertainment, surpassing all other European cities, such as Amsterdam, London or Dublin. The sophisticated character of Belgrade’s club music spirit had been polluted by the huge wave of primitive provincialism during the last 10 years of cultural decay, but that is now over, restoring Belgrade's place on the European clubbing map.
For years,
Belgrade needed the right place for young people to enjoy the latest world
music trends. But for 10 years, they suffocated themselves with the awful
influences of subculture sprung from political isolation.
Finally, Belgrade has such place: in the center of the city, on the small, unpopulated island of Lido. The island is inhabited only with trees growing from the sand, and it has a small beach and lots of space. With the help of a simple sound system, the open space can entertain thousands of people with similar music tastes.
The UK has been famous for its open-air music festival in Glastonbury for years. The USA still remembers Woodstock, and India has Goa for the non-stop party people. Why not Belgrade?
This year's festival hosted stars such as: Sonic Youth, Burning Spear, Morcheeba, a DJ set by Bristol Club Stage, London Express Stage, De – Phazz, with DJs such as Todd Terry, Orbital DJs, Ewan Pearson, DJ Suv, Dazee, Luke Slater and Brandon Walsh.