For the past 16 years end of summer in Novi Sad exists in the sign of the Street Musicians Festival which presents the most diverse artists from the international and domestic scene.
Until this year the performances of „street performers“ from around the world the citizens of Novi Sad and their guests were able to enjoy in the city center. This year, for the first time, the Street Musicians Festival was held in the suburbs of the Petrovaradin Fortress, popularly called Gradić.
During the three-day festival, according to estimates of the organizers, more than 40,000 visitors enjoyed the program. This information certainly proves that Novi Sad, in addition to the „main square“ and the central city streets, also has other attractive spaces for urban activities and programs. Petrovaradin Fortress is due to EXIT, as one of the best European music festivals, proved to be an area which offers a huge tourist and cultural potential. This space is now joined Gradić, and a similar role in the future will have „Youth Creativ Polis“ which will be organized in the so-called Chinatown, near Limanski Park.
As stated on the site MojNoviSad.com, social activism of this year’s festival, under the slogan „Let’s all be Gradić“ was directed towards efforts to this beautiful, but somewhat neglected and dilapidated, or at least underused city district comes to life, revitalize and convert into an attractive space for living, work, and touristic potential.
Street Musicians Festival, relocated to a new location, provided an opportunity for artists, visitors, local people and the city in general, to take active part in the creation of new artistic and urban environment, wanted by everyone, and most of all – being necessary.
All this indicates that the initiative launched by „Novi Sad 2021“ Team, in charge of the coordination of the candidacy of Novi Sad for European Capital of Culture in 2021, that the decentralization of culture and creativity in the use of public spaces for culture of exceptional importance for the development of the city. This idea was included in the recently adopted Cultural Development Strategy of the City of Novi Sad, the first such strategy in Serbia, which also represents one of the important segments in Novi Sad candidacy for European Capital of Culture.
