Parade and Street Musical Clash: Let 3 vs. Atheist Rap

BadaBimBumBand, Haos žongleri and Đuričić and his drummers in the parade and musical one on one on two stages awaiting all at the end

The grand opening of this year’s jubilee 15th consecutive edition of the Street Musicians Festival will be held on Thursday, 3rd September, beginning at 20:30, with participation from several musical, dance and performer ensembles, both from home and abroad. First part of the grand opening will include a merry musical and dance procession passing along the Mihajlo Pupin Boulevard, while the second part will be the great Street Musical Clash concert on the Freedom Square between the band from Rijeka Let 3 and the Novi Sad group Atheist Rap.

The Festival procession, which will be led by the Italian brass-percussion marching orchestra BadaBimBumBand, will start from the end of Mihajlo Pupin Boulevard, that is from the beginning of the Novi Sad side of the Varadin Bridge. Following them are the Haos žongleri, the crew of skilled street performers from Novi Sad. They will be joined by street dancers from several of the city’s dance schools (Professional, Magic People and Groove), but also by all our fellow citizens and their guests who wish to be a part of this ceremonial opening of the Festival.

Renowned drummer Dragoljub Đuričić, who will be accompanied his young drummers from Belgrade – perhaps making it the most attractive part of the ceremony which will later pass through Modena Street on its way to the Freedom Square. Đuričić will gift shakers to the participants of the procession, specially created rattles for this occasion, and then call everyone to dance their way together to the center of Novi Sad.

And in the city center lo and behold! On the Freedom Square, around 21:30, the procession will arrive in front of two concert stages – the first will host Rijeka’s shock rock attraction Let 3, while the second will hold the popular Novi Sad punk-rockers Atheist Rap. On Thursday evening, 3rd September, these bands will take part in the Festival’s Street Musical Clash program, a unique musical battle – unseen in Serbia until now! – meaning Let 3 will perform songs of the Atheists, while the Atheists songs of Let 3. And of course, both bands will be playing their own hits as well.

– This will be the first time we are taking part in this sort of concert form. I met Atheist Rap more during our performances together on festivals than through recordings – said Zoran Prodanović Prlja, frontman of Let 3. – During our career, we had the opportunity to perform in front of the most various of auditoriums, and certainly the fact that the Street Musicians Festival is, in the manner of speaking, a family event, won’t bother us at all. On the contrary, we love expanding our fan base, and this occasion is ideal for something like that!

Also in a good mood ahead of the Street Musical Clash on the Festival are Atheist Rap. “We expect good fun, a mighty but friendly show-down, and all that as a goal of realizing a truly grand opening of the Street Musicians Festival in Novi Sad. The first song of Let 3 which we chose to cover and play on the Street Musical Clash is a sort of their band’s ID, the second one is a local hit regional in character which in essence talks about what it means to be in music, and the third is a classic for the soul”, said the Atheists.

The 15th jubilee edition of the Street Musicians Festival will be held from 3rd to 5th September 2015, in Novi Sad. In front of the audience in Novi Sad and its guests, the Festival will host performances from: the Californian swing attraction Phat Cat Swinger, the jazzmen Belgrade Dixieland Orchestra and retro pop-rockers VIS Limunada from Belgrade, Novi Sad’s own stand-up comedy duo Daško & Mlađa, the Americana masters from Rijeka My Buddy Moose, the renowned Belgrade accordion player Miško Plavi and the singer-songwriter and poet Ilija Ludvig, the street musician and entertainer from Zagreb Davor Peršić children’s actors from Belgrade Zorana Milošaković-Tasić and Goran Balančević Balanac, young dancers from Novi Sad under the guidance of choreographer Neda Popović, the Macedonian juggler and showman Gazmend Aliu Spinus, French actor, clown, dancer and pantomime Jean Ménigault, a couple of Italian street musicians and entertainers Nando e Maila, English flamenco-jazz guitarist playing under the name The Flamenco Thief and 14 other bands, individuals and art troupes (Balkan Weirdos, Don’t Touch Anything, DrvoTruo, Duo Nomadiko, Dušana Stefanović, Haos žongleri, InSession, INTU, Kezz, Kralj Čačka, Lepi Jova, Nylon Club, Vuk Muškinja and Wooden Ambulance) who arrive to the festival program through participation on the Open Call. The friend of this year’s Open Call was Telekom Serbia. So, continue to visit our festival web page /program/ and be the first to find out what we have in store for you!

The Street Musicians Festival is organized by the Art Association Inbox from Novi Sad, with support from the City of Novi Sad and the Provincial Secretary for Culture and Information, Tourist Organization of the City of Novi Sad, the embassy of the United States of America in Belgrade, the Italian Institute for Culture in Belgrade, the Serbian Petroleum Industry, Telekom Serbia and Generali Insurance Serbia.