Festival "Mirdita, dobar dan" – Aims for dialogue, accompanied by disagreements

Organizers view it as a place for dialogue and a symbol of cooperation and communication between Pristina and Belgrade, while critics see it as a provocation, undermining the constitutional order of Serbia, and a smokescreen for promoting Kosovo's independence. The "Mirdita, dobar dan" festival has been held for ten years, and certainly, indifference is not a word associated with it.

The festival's staging in Belgrade has been marked by protests and incidents over the years, and this year, even before it began, a heated debate erupted over the planned dates, which included Vidovdan. Consequently, the organizers, the Initiative for Human Rights, decided there would be no public events on June 28th.

Today, the Minister of the Interior, Ivica Dacic, appealed for the festival to be canceled, citing it as a high-risk gathering.

In past years, besides protests outside the venue, there have been bomb threats, which turned out to be false. On another occasion, despite a police cordon deployed in front of the festival site, one protester managed to enter the venue, climb onto the stage, and grab the microphone, and it was also reported that guests and organizers were sprayed with water.

Serbia's Minister of Culture, Nikola Selakovic, assessed yesterday that organizing the "Mirdita, dobar dan" festival on Vidovdan is more than just a provocation and emphasized that he is absolutely convinced that such an event should neither be supported nor held in Belgrade, especially on the most sacred holiday. According to him, this festival is merely a link in a chain aimed at a "complete identity rewrite and revision of what Kosovo and Metohija are."

“The goal of this project, funded by the so-called Ministry of Sport of the Republic of Kosovo, is to humiliate the state of Serbia and the Serbian people and to present our centuries-old religious and cultural heritage in Kosovo and Metohija as part of some Kosovo cultural heritage," stated Milica Djurdjevic Stamenkovski, president of the Zavetnici party, while the president of the Provisional Authority of the City of Belgrade, Aleksandar Sapic, said that as long as he is in charge of the Serbian capital, the City of Belgrade will not grant any type of consent for the "Mirdita" festival and that any venues used will be strictly private.

Sofija Todorovic from the Youth Initiative for Human Rights tells Kosovo online that the criticisms received this year regarding the event are not motivated by the date it falls on, and that for the festival’s opponents, any date would have been inopportune.

"It's not chosen for Vidovdan. The festival is from the 27th to the 29th, so we can't say that one specific date was chosen. We have already moved the festival twice due to elections, so every date is unfortunate. One year, when we had the festival in May, I think the Zavetnici came out with a story about how it was some major holiday and that we had ‘again done it on purpose’. Now, there will be no public events on the 28th, and yet you still have the same amount of misunderstanding and falsehoods being spread about the festival. So, I think it’s not about Vidovdan," says Todorovic.

She adds that as someone who respects her religion, culture, and tradition, she is not sure that it is good to "exploit religious holidays to achieve political goals and agendas and to endanger a group of people."

"That's not the meaning of Vidovdan, it never was. It's important to me to confront the path I think some people have been on for a long time, and certain extreme elements of our society, which is to use every aspect of Serbian religion, culture, and tradition to proclaim the demolition of something as something that will bring us some deserved victory. I think that's not the path we should take," Todorovic points out.

On how successful the festival has been in its ten-year existence in achieving its goal of promoting cooperation between Belgrade and Pristina, our interlocutor says that it has been very successful.

"A large number of young people, thanks to the festival, have visited both Serbia and Kosovo from all communities. The amount of cultural and artistic creation that we have displayed at the festival over the last ten years is incredible, and just imagine if there had been no 'Mirdita,' nothing would have been shown. The number of festival visitors increases year by year, as does the number of people who are curious and want to learn more. And that's important to me. Is that number enough, and are we louder than those who are against the festival? No. But it was never our goal to outshout them. Many collaborations have emerged from this festival; artists and people who met at the festival itself later created together. I would like us to continue in that direction, but in happy circumstances where there will be more understanding," says Todorovic.

Discussing "Mirdita, dobar dan," cultural sociologist Zoran Avramovic tells Kosovo online that culture and art are always welcome and that they are the best communication among peoples that sometimes has the function of expanding cooperation, but sometimes also has the function of hiding something that is beneath it, and in the case of this festival, what is beneath and from which attention is diverted is the situation in Kosovo where Serbs are endangered almost every day.

"It's easy to overlook the basic intention of that festival. Namely, it is supposed to serve as a cover for what happened in Kosovo. So, a cultural event should somehow push aside the political and national issues that are happening to Serbs in Kosovo. On the surface, they would like us to have something that is culture, art, and cooperation, but in my opinion, that festival is meant to blur and suppress all the problems that Serbs have in Kosovo. That is, in my opinion, a hiding function of this festival. On the other hand, we can in principle advocate for cultural cooperation among the youth. That is not in question," says Avramovic.

In some other circumstances, as Avramovic emphasizes, cultural cooperation among the youth is welcome, but every time has its specificities and characteristics.

"A few years ago, in a different atmosphere, it could have fulfilled its artistic and cultural or cooperative function. However, these days, when we have a pogrom and a kind of terror over Serbs in the Kosovo province, in this northern part, it is somehow not desirable and does not contribute to cooperation, on the contrary, I think it harms. If you have, on one side, the prohibition of a theater performance in Kosovo, what justifies that ban? There is no justification. And you seek to hold something similar here. That kind of reciprocity is not always good, but sometimes you simply have to respond in that way," states Avramovic.

Regarding the period in which the festival will take place, which initially included events on Vidovdan, our interlocutor says he thinks that choice of date was completely wrong.

"Whether intentional or not, but if we judge the events by their consequences, then we can conclude that it really is a kind of provocation, because Vidovdan is a Serbian holiday and no one should interfere with it. Here, Serbs celebrate their sacrifices for freedom that date back to 1389, so it is absolutely wrong to associate that, especially with this Serbian-Albanian event which is still under the burden of big scars," says Avramovic.

He also says that it is a question for analysis what the results of this event, which has been held for ten years, are.

"Has anything been done or not? What I would particularly highlight is the organizational background. Who all are involved in organizing this event? Primarily, it is Western power centers or Western financiers, I don't know who all might be, but surely they are. These are some institutions, organizations that come from NATO countries which are most responsible for the current status of Kosovo and for the relations between Serbs and Albanians. I think this festival also has the support of the Kosovar authorities and it is in their interest to use culture to cover up what they are doing in politics. The third side of this organizational circle includes a sector of ill-intentioned Serbs, Serbian actors, these so-called non-governmental organizations, also not well-wishers of Serbs, lovers of Albanians. When you see this triangle, you cannot be at peace in your soul and thoughts, nor can you have a peaceful outlook on the future," believes Avramovic.

According to the assessment of Naim Leo Beshiri, the executive director of the Institute for European Affairs, the "Mirdita, dobar dan" festival is one of the most significant festivals in the region that deals with reconciliation, and as he points out, regardless of the date it is organized, it provokes controversy and reactions primarily from right-leaning individuals "who oppose the modernization of Serbia and peace in the region."

"I really don't know why the organizer decided at this moment that it should be that particular part of June, it could be for some procedural reasons, it is absolutely irrelevant that it is June 28. That day is also when Milosevic was extradited, and people have tied some symbolism to that too. Moreover, much bigger clashes on the streets occurred when it was organized in May, so the specific date does not dictate the behavior of the right-wing, but rather their personal hatred towards the festival," says Beshiri.

He adds that the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, as the organizer of the festival, does a phenomenal job of bringing together young people from Belgrade and Pristina, artists, journalists, and others from various fields in an effort to overcome the war-torn past of the 90s and to establish connections that will create long-lasting peace between the peoples, primarily Serbs and Albanians, but also others living in the area.

“It is one of the most beautiful festivals in the region, gathering young people and artists from various fields, all those good people who truly want to see their children live in a more peaceful environment that will promote prosperity and peace in the future, rather than flourishing in hatred and mutual conflicts. If we consider the amount of money and manpower used in the civil sector to bring people together, compared to the money spent by the state, political parties, and politicians to endanger peace and stoke conflicts in the region, the Youth Initiative for Human Rights and their Mirdita festival could not have done more than it has so far,” Beshiri states.

“Mirdita,” he believes, is also an opportunity for the political scene in Serbia and the civil sector to allow citizens to align themselves: whether they are for reconciliation and whether they want to continue seeing wars and people emigrating in large numbers from Serbia and Kosovo.

“It's an opportunity for everyone to clearly state their position and to say ‘no’ and to clearly name what happened in the 90s and to distance ourselves from it. This is the only way societies could move forward,” Beshiri believes.