Jazz&Blues North City

. . .This site will enable you to find out more about past Jazz & Blues festivals in Kosovska Mitrovica and also you can find a lot of photos, music, festival clips . . .

. . . .The fact that is unknown for most people is that, among jazz fans, this city was famous for amateur Big Band, with Petar Rakic as its leader. Local musicians gathered around this excellent guitar player and educator represented characteristic style on the jazz scene of former Yugoslavia and enjoyed great sympathy and support among professional orchestras. Mitrovica´s Big Band attracted many young musicians and acquired and educated its own audience.

. . . . As a consequence of such favourable cultural wave, two international Jazz and Blues festivals were organized in 1989 and 1990. But, the tragic war and separation of Yugoslavia which culminated in 1999 roughly ended the ambitions of festival to become a traditional event. However, love to music and once fixed standards of city cultural life, reunited the group of enthusiasts to bring back jazz festival in North Mitrovica again. With a lot of efforts and without a pomp, several former members and fans of old Big Band from the North part of divided city preceded with Petar Rakic, Nebojsa Avramovic and Nenad Ilic founded the North City Jazz&Blues festival in 2003. High artistic level of programme, great audiance interest and surprisingly good organisation put North City Jazz&Blues Festival among the most important cultural events in our region. Foreign musicians, who were poisoned with bad publicity and who came to Mitrovica with a fear, did not hide their delight with festival, warmness and hospitality they found here.

. . . . Despite the political fermentation and everyday preasures in which this city is accustomed to live, the importance of this festival comes over the frames of culture and in the best way changes the picture about Serbian people in Kosovo.