Since the "Belgrade Remains" movement is still in mid-July called for a boycott this year's festival "Beer fest", it seems that they are both musicians and visitors responded to this call.
"On the first day, there were very few people. About 50 visitors passed through our entrance. Yesterday there were a little more because there were better-known performers, such as Riblja chorba. Otherwise, there is a slightly denser crowd around the stage, but everything else is empty," one of the employees at this year's "Beer Fest", responsible for checking tickets at one of the entrances, told "Vreme".
The reduced attendance is no surprise. Some big music names, as a sign of solidarity with their colleagues whose performances are canceled all over Serbia due to their support for student and civil protests, have announced that they will not participate in this festival.
Vlatko Stefanovski, Letu pike, Bijelo dugme, Nipplepeople, Prljavo kazalište and the young band Paks canceled their participation. The last in a series of artists who announced that they will not perform at "Beer Fest" is the popular duo Butch Cassidy.
"Belgrade Remains" called on citizens and musicians to boycott "Beer Fest" because, as they say, the organizer of this event is Sky Music, the main organizer of the regime's progressive events, and that Beer Fest has changed its concept, and that compared to the original form of the festival, the emphasis is now on unlimited consumption of beer, i.e. on drinking, and not on the financing of a pop-culture event, as well as that the festival is devastating Park Ušće.
"Pumping" and supporting protests
Many performers who nevertheless decided to perform at the "Beer Fest" - and because of that they were the target of many criticisms - provided clear support for the student protests from the stage.
"This is a song for all those whose land was stolen. For those whose water was stolen. For those whose air was stolen. After all, for those whose last breath was stolen. And for all of us who are trying to steal their freedom. Pump it," said the singer of the band Orthodox Celts Aleksandar Petrović at the first night's performance, and the audience chanted "pump it".
By the way, the singer was wearing a T-shirt with the name of the band Goblini and the name of their song "Ima Nas". This band's performance at the Zaječar Guitar Festival was previously canceled due to their support for the protests.
Tijana: If it wasn't for Joker Out, the debacle
The Slovenian musical group Joker Out was also "pumping" on stage, student Tijana, a fan of this band, told Vreme.
"The attendance was low, a lot of people canceled their performances. Nipplepeople also canceled that evening and we were a little afraid that Joker Out would too, but when they came out, the lead singer Bojan said that they were thinking about what to do, whether to cancel, but that they wanted to honor the contract and 'even though contracts are not respected in this country,'" she says.
She stated that the singer of this band then provided unequivocal support to the students, put a badge on his shirt, and "when we started to shout 'pump', five of them immediately fell on the floor to do push-ups. After that, it was "whoever doesn't jump is the guy" for a whole minute and at the end Bojan said "who is the guy is the Nazi".
She adds that a lot of people left immediately after this band's performance.
"I think the attendance was small, especially when compared to 2023, where you couldn't move forward if you were standing, and the atmosphere was very dead except for this performance. My friends and I only went because of Joker Out. The last time I listened to them was in November of last year in Dom omladine, so I didn't want to miss it, but if they hadn't been there, my subjective feeling is that it would have been quite a debacle."
Not everyone was "pumping"
And an employee at "Beer Fest" confirms that mostly messages of support for the protests came from the stage.
"The performers, in turn, talked about freedom and bad times in Serbia. The audience greeted it with applause and ovations," one of the employees at the "Beer Fest" tells us.
However, he says that not everyone liked the musician's political statements.
"The security people are mostly 'cats'. One of them started cursing and whistling at the performers when messages of support for the protests came from the stage. Supervisors are not like that," she points out.
The "Vremena" interlocutor visited the Beer Fest before. She says that the attendance three years ago, when she was last at this festival, was much higher. And the atmosphere was better, he adds. However, at that time the entrance to this festival was free. This year, that's not the case - tickets are charged, and with them you get unlimited amounts of free beer.
"Belgrade remains": A successful boycott
The "Belgrade Remains" movement, which called for a boycott of this festival, assessed on Saturday (August 30) that the people of Belgrade and a large number of musicians responded to that call, thus telling the organizers not to agree to "progressive masking of reality".
The announcement states that the once large music festival, which gathered hundreds of thousands of guests, has become "Vašar's corrupt meadow".
"The most significant and bravest step was taken by the performers who canceled their participation in the festival one after the other despite the very restrictive contractual provisions and the perfidious behavior of the organizer who did not inform the public about the canceled performances of many performers, including Vlatko Stefanovski, Bijelo dugme, Prljavo kazalište, Divlje jagode, Letu stuke, NipplePeople, but also the brave young band Paks. Panceva, Butch Cassidy, with a clear message that they stand with students and citizens," the announcement states.
"Beer Fest": We are not a political or state project
On the occasion of the events of this year's "Beer Fest", the organizers of this festival also announced.
"We are aware of the current political and social situation, which has brought a lot of tension and division. Unfortunately, many performers today suffer serious pressure and threats, and we fully understand and respect the decisions of those who canceled their performance at this year's festival for these reasons. We do not blame those who believe that they are sending a political message," the statement said.
Among other things, they add that they are sorry "that the performers, the audience, and the music itself became victims of political turmoil."
"As during the previous 32 years of our existence, we from Skymusic, the organizers of Belgrade Beer Fest, will try to stay on the side of art, to professionally carry out our work in which we are leaders, and to, as always, be out of politics. Almost all festivals in the world are supported by their cities where they are held because they contribute to culture, tourism and promote the destination. We do not think that this makes them political or state projects in any way, but positions them as events of importance to the community - which also applies to Belgrade Beer Fest", they point out and add that they believe that music should remain "beyond politics, national and all other divisions".
