The second day: Gradić danced in spite of rain

The second day of Gradić Fest, which has probably had the richest program in the history of the Street Musicians Festival, entirely satisfied those enthusiastic art lovers who rushed to the Lower Town as soon as the afternoon heavy rain stopped. Less than ideal weather conditions did not spoil the festival’s concept, which, to the great pleasure of several thousand visitors, went on according to the timetable after the weather cleared up.

The afternoon program was entirely cancelled, but the evening program went according to the schedule, so the performers did their best to warm up the visitors, who came in big enough numbers to make the gigs at all the festival’s points successful. The music part of this year’s program includes performances of many truly great representatives of the domestic scene, which is slowly awakening, partly thanks to this festival and the opportunity given to young and unknown artists. The domination of female guitar players and female musicians in general also continued during the second day of the festival; great performances were given by rising local stars Nađa Vračarić and Dojo; a country music heroine from Zagreb, Irena Žilić; and a multi-instrumentalist from Subotica, Jasna Jovićević. One of the most promising domestic bands, Bitipatibi, and a Canadian-Belgrade combo, Ensh, brought the excitement to an even higher level of intensity. Lebanese project Love and Revenge and their extremely creative electronic versions of Oriental traditional folk tunes accompanied by projections of romantic scenes from the classic films of Arab cinema and Mehdi Haddab’s skillful performance on electric oud represented the culmination of the evening, which took place on the stage next to the Belgrade Gate. In the meantime, numerous visitors were completely blown away by Skijaš i Jeti’s “snow avalanche” of supersonic funk sounds, as well as by Patrick Walker’s temperamental Irish jigs. The midnight rain unfortunately interrupted the evening’s program, so the performance by Luke Black has been moved to Sunday at 9 p.m.

A film directed by Sanja Savić, Naši očevi, majke i njihova deca (Our Fathers, Mothers, and Their Children), marked the beginning of the cinema program at the only indoor cinema location, Beogradska Indoor Cinema, on the corner of Beogradska Street and Lisinskog Street. After this film, the audience had the opportunity to watch a film by Tamara von Steiner, Controindicazione, which speaks about a prison hospital for the mentally ill in Italy. What followed immediately after that was a long-awaited film by Luka Bursać, Afterparty, which introduces us to the world of instant hedonism and nightlife of young people in Serbia. The lovers of hip-hop music enjoyed Angelique Germain’s film Universal State of Mind, which has a great soundtrack as a background for its story about the international hip-hop music scene.

At Nazorova Open Air Cinema, located on the Lower Town’s left side compared to Beogradska Street, in Vladimira Nazora Street’s baroque ambience, the audiences had the opportunity to watch two great films: a satirical comedy by French director Ilan Klipper, Le ciel étoilé au-dessus de ma tête, and a film by Danilo Bećković, Jesen samuraja (A Samurai Autumn). At the biggest location, Kapija Open Air Cinema, behind the Belgrade Gate, the visitors to the festival had the opportunity to watch two wonderful comedies, and an emotional drama about a music legend, Nick Cave. At this location, the program started with a projection of Two Lottery Tickets, a comedy by Romanian director Paul Negoescu. After that followed a projection of a film by director Andrew Domink, One More Time with Feeling, an emotional drama about Nick Cave’s personal tragedy. After this heavy but touching film, the audience had the opportunity to watch a comedy by Israeli director Shady Srour, Holy Air.

At the location Rampin put Open Air Cinema, close to the Saint George Church, the audience had the opportunity to watch as many as 15 low-budget short films, within the category Up to 10, 000 Bucks.