Skopje Jazz Fests’ Director Says Survival is ‘Miracle’

Founded in 1982, the Skopje Jazz Festival is one of the biggest cultural events in North Macedonia.

With performing legends like Al Di Meola, Chick Corea, Ray Charles, Maria Joao, Herbie Hancock, Youssou N'Dour and Tito Puente, to name just a few, its significance far surpasses the confines of the small Balkan country.

Its younger sister festival, OFFest, was launched in 2002. Its main idea, as an off-shoot of the established Skopje Jazz Festival, was to cover a different period of the year and be wider-ranging in terms of its music genres, catering to the growing interest in "world music".

Over the years, artists like David Byrne, Zuco 103, Cesaria Evora, Madredeus, Gotan Project and Massive Attack have cemented this festival's reputation as well.

Oliver Belopeta. Photo: BIRN

Money for OFFest running late:

There was uproar earlier this year when the Culture Ministry initially announced that it would not financially support both festivals in 2019.

"We were exposed to lots of meanness, which was no big surprise," Belopeta says, on the ministry's grant selection process.

Belopeta is convinced that influential persons in the ministry, and their private hostility to the festivals, were behind the initial decision not to grant any money.

Faced with uproar, however, the ministry revised its decision and decided to grant both festivals half of the money they received last year.

Belopeta objected to this decision as well, arguing that with such shrunken funds, he would have to downgrade the festivals to local or at best, strictly Balkan, events.

"I was absolutely not ready to consider such an option. I was considering something else though - ending both festivals," he says.