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Festivals and Holidays in Montenegro
Montenegro is cheerful all year round. Besides national holidays, including the usual New Year and Christmas, the country celebrates various significant events like the harvest time, the first spring blooming, the time of wine maturation, the beginning and the end of the tourist season. In winter and summer, traditional carnivals, music, and sports events are Montenegro. Festivals attract crowds of locals and tourists, as they are celebrated in a bright, noisy, and generous Balkan way.
With the crazy Budvan Carnival in early May, Montenegro opens the summer tourist season. For three days, costume shows, concerts, and discos are held on the city streets and fireworks sparkle in the sky. Guests are treated to sweets and wine. Summer is the time for music festivals. You can dance all night to modern rhythms in Budva, Ulcinj, Herceg Novi. Prodigy, Jamiroquai, Madonna, Rolling Stones, and DJ David Guetta have celebrated the Sea Dance Festival in Budva at least once. Many events are dedicated to classical music and the national creative traditions of Montenegro. The most popular of them are called “KotorART”, «Bar’s chronicle» and «Cetinje Cultural Summer». In August, «Bokeljska noć» is celebrated – at the dusk; rows of boats decorated in different manners are lined up at the pier of Kotor. The picturesque Bay of Kotor turns into a fabulous place this night.
On the last Saturday in August, the » Petrovačka noć», a farewell-to-summer holiday, is held. The quiet village of Petrovač, on the banks of the Budva Riviera, becomes the center of general fun for one evening. On the first Saturday in October, Budva celebrates “Dan širuna”, a traditional holiday of wine and fish. Fishers fry mackerel on the streets and treat everyone to it for free. Wine and beer are also offered for free. And all this goes to the fiery music of local musicians, in a series of entertainment shows and sporting events. In general, Montenegrins are famous for their hospitality and generosity. You can taste national dishes and drinks at any seasonal festival: «Kastianijada», the chestnut holiday, «Maslinijada», the holiday dedicated to the olives harvest, the «Day of Camellia», and Mimosa festival. In February, the famous Carnival of Kotor is held, which is as colorful as Venetian. And this is not surprising, because the holiday was born during the times of the Venetian Republic.
An important event for the Russian-speaking population of Montenegro is the Forum of Russian Culture in Europe «SlovoNovo». The event is held in September at the Harmony apart-hotel, in the unique architectural complex Dukley Gardens. The forum brings together writers, artists, musicians, journalists, businessmen, who permanently or periodically live abroad. The participants talk about the way Russian culture lives and develops in European countries. In different years, Andrei Makarevich, Leonid Parfenov, Dmitry Bykov, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Alfred Koch, Vladimir Sorokin, Boris Akunin, Artemy Troitsky, Boris Grebenshikov, and many other people of culture and art are seen among the guests of the event. The program of the forum includes concerts and performances, exhibitions and movie screenings, lectures, and masterclasses, as well as tours to the landmarks of Montenegro.
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