Ljetni Festival

This summer, from June 22nd to June 24th, Banja Luka will host NEOFEST, a festival that in the name of peace brings together NGOs and musicians from all of former Yugoslavia.

It will take place in Banja Luka's Kastel, an old fortress from Ottoman times.

One of the participants will be Rambo Amadeus, a highly controversial but terribly funny performer, who started his carreer in the late 80s by introducing himself as Nagib Fazlić Nagon, mine shaft operator who saved up enough money to record an album.

He is also said to have coined the term Turbofolk, long before it got a bad name by being misused for Serb nationalism. In his terminology, it was just a parody on traditional Yugoslav folk music.

He received international recognition in 1992, when he entered the stage in Belgrade's Sava Center (he was not invited), grabbed a microphone and shouted towards a stunned audience: "Jebem vam mater glupo glasačko telo, zabavljate se ovdje dok bombarduju gradove!"

Though I will not translate this directly, the essence was something like this: "I've only got about two minutes to address the nation. While we're singing and enjoying ourselves here, Tuzla and Dubrovnik are being bombed. We don't want to entertain the electorate. Fuck off, all of you!" RTS, the Serb state-owned television, unceremoniously ended the transmission then.

Could be an interesting concert indeed...