Kosovo Stunned as Dua Lipa Festival Shifts to Albania

Music fans who have booked accommodation in Kosovo's capital Pristina to attend the Sunny Hill festival will have to change their plans, as Albania's capital, Tirana, has surprisingly become the last-minute location for the event.

The Sunny Hill company announced on Tuesday that it had cancelled plans to organise the festival in Pristina after Kosovo's government did not approve yet a May 10 decision of Pristina municipality to lease the company 17 hectares of land for festival in the village of Bernice e Poshtme/Donja Brnica.

In a letter to President Vjosa Osmani, Prime Minister Albin Kurti, government ministers and Pristina mayor Perparim Rama, Dukagjin Lipa, father of world-famous Kosovo-origin singer Dua Lipa, informed them "with great regret and despair" that the festival will not be held in Pristina.

Lipa blamed "numerous delays caused by the lack of response and a final decision on the use of space" for the decision.

"Instead of support, the festival's request has been politicized, legal deadlines have been exceeded … and today we don't have a final decision which would allow us to hold the festival in Pristina," Lipa said.

Lipa urged Kosovo institutions to finalise the lease process of the land so that the festival can return in 2023 to Pristina, "the city it belongs to".

"We remain hopeful that our response receives your attention so that the credibility of the festival and my personal and my family's credibility do not remain in the hands of municipal assembly members who use such situations beyond any sound logic for their political battles," Lipa said.

The festival, the largest music festival in Kosovo, was founded in 2018 by Dua Lipa and her father, Dukagjin.

In 2018 and 2019, it was held in...