EU Capital of Culture 2022: New Bridges – Novi Sad

Bridges play an important role in the history of Novi Sad – and should also do so for the Capital of Culture. The Serbian city has now taken this title one year late.

The musician Pavel from Russia stands in a lively shopping street in Novi Sad and plays on this cold December morning for the passers-by – and an apparently musically gifted dog who repeatedly unwittingly supports Pavel.

Music and cultural diversity are tradition and historical legacy in Serbia’s second largest city: Until 1918, the Danube city belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Habsburg Empire. A dozen nationalities lived here, Hungarians, Germans, Slovaks, alongside the Serb majority.

“Culture is a way of life”

To make this cultural diversity visible, audible, tangible in the next twelve months – this reflects the approach of Nemanja Milenkovic, the managing director of the foundation “Novi Sad European Capital of Culture 2022”: “It will put culture first Man, that’s what he wants to be, then this saying also applies to every city: When we said that this is important to us, we strive for it to become a city of culture, whether Novi Sad really a metropolis of European culture No. It’s a small Central European city per se. Whether it can become a city of culture, whether it lives for culture, because culture is not just theater, exhibition, concert, but a way of life. “

Music festival laid the foundation

Nemanja Milenkovic and his team were able to build on numerous cultural initiatives that have made Novi Sad popular across Serbian national borders; for example the European music festival “Exit”, which was founded in 2001 by students as a sign of reconciliation after the Yugoslav wars and which – so far only once, had to be canceled in 2020 – DJs, bands and around 200,000 visitors a year for five days in July at the city fortress Petrovaradin attracts.

“To be honest, we had a huge boom. With all the titles we got and programs that played, we recorded double-digit growth in visitor numbers every year,” says Milencovic. “This resulted in the recommendation of one of the most prestigious tourism websites ‘Lonely Planet’ in 2019, which declared Novi Sad to be one of the top 3 destinations to visit Capital of culture should have been. But Corona interrupted everything. “

Postponed for one year due to Corona

In the past year 2021, in which Novi Sad was actually supposed to become the European Capital of Culture and then all preparations had to be postponed by a year due to the pandemic, many events could nonetheless be offered; such as concerts by the students of the Novi Sad Art Academy, in the former Svilara silk factory, which take place every December.

Jelena Popov, who is studying violin in her third year of study at the Art Academy in Novi Sad, is looking forward to the coming year: “Of course. That is why there should be more cultural events and more opportunities for performances. I hope that we will also have many quality concerts Hopefully the situation will get better in the long term and not just in the year Novi Sad is the cultural capital. “

Hope for lasting effects

For Erne Svan, who is well connected in the scene as a member of the Vojvodina Symphony Orchestra and the chamber orchestra of the art academy “Camerata Academica”, the next twelve months will be about a sustainable boost for the cultural future of Novi Sad: “My first reaction was very positive and my expectations were that the culture will now be raised to a higher level, that there will be more cultural events. Which has in part also been realized. ” The “Novi Sad – European Capital of Culture” foundation tries to make many projects possible, he says. “All in all, reviews and reactions have been positive so far and I hope that we will continue this trend after 2022.”

Investments should benefit everyone

The former silk factory, which is located in the oldest part of Novi Sad, in Almas, is one of the new cultural sites that have been renovated and opened for events of all kinds as part of the preparations for the capital of culture. At the same time, this innovation boost provided the quarter with a boost, says Violeta Djerkovic, coordinator of the network of cultural stations and coordinator of the “Svilara” cultural station: “The Almas quarter was neglected for a long time. This is important when it comes to the story of” cultural stations ” : They emerged as a project of cultural decentralization. It is important to bring culture closer to people who live outside the center. “

The bridges are program

Building cultural bridges – the organizers are not only taking up the important role of bridges in the history of Novi Sad, but are also developing it further: The motto “Four new bridges” are also program bridges, which among other things for “love, Hope, rainbows, migration and the future of Europe stand.

Nemanja Milenkovic, the managing director of the foundation “Novi Sad European Capital of Culture 2022”, looks at the opening ceremony of the European Capital of Culture year: “We have practically two festive openings, which are then one-off. On December 31, according to the Gregorian calendar, and on December 13 January, also called “Serbian New Year” according to the old European or Julian calendar. This peculiarity of dualism is the celebration of the multiculturalism of Novi Sad, which the city really “lives”. January got four presents here. That’s why everyone loves it. “