March 20, 2019 - After the confirmation of the high artistic quality of the Kotor Festival of Theater for Children, the prestigious European label of excellence in the field of art festivals EFFE Label was received by another manifestation in the ancient Kotor - KotorArt Don Branko’s Music Days.
After the award of the most prestigious in the field of tourism in Montenegro, the "Wild Beauty Award" for the event of the year, KotorArt Don Branko's Music Days received the recognition of the European Association of Festivals with a quality label within a network that adorns art festivals from 45 European countries.
EFFE Label is a European seal of quality for outstanding art festivals that show their engagement in the field of art, community involvement and international openness.
EFFE (Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe) is an initiative launched by the European Association of Festivals (EFAs) with the support of the European Commission and Parliament. EFFE attracts public attention through a database that serves all kinds of interactions and initiatives that recognize the work of various European art festivals.
Festival of KotorArt Don Branko's music days can now be found on the site www.festivalfinder.eu which represents the online festival search site where the audience reveals all the art festivals, from music to theater, street art, dance and literature across Europe.
The European Association of Festivals manages the site with the support of the European Union. All European festivals can be found on the website, while only some of them carry a quality seal, the EFFE Label.
For the festival to bear this mark, it must meet many conditions such as the introduction of a coherent and organized art program and the promotion of permanent artistic development. It has to provide opportunities for future or innovative artists to create or to be presented in the program; local community engagement that fosters local links between the program and the performers, involving local artists and audiences in projects; helping to increase access to culture to a diverse audience; investment in innovation and capacity building and so on.
KotorArt Don Branko’s music days at www.festivalfinder.eu :
KotorArt, the festival of national importance for the culture of Montenegro, is one of the most significant and most important festivals in the country and region. Every summer KotorArt gathers an impressive number of international artists and with over 200 programs at numerous venues in Kotor and throughout the Bay, attracts tens of thousands of visitors, which makes it one of the most visited festivals of this type in the region.
For the past eighteen years, KotorArt has been developing the brand of the city of Kotor, making it recognized in the country and the region for its exclusivity and high artistic level of its programs. KotorArt Don Branko´s music days are a part of the Kotor and Montenegrin cultural identity; it enjoys an international reputation and creates immense benefits for the economic and cultural development of the Bay of Kotor and the promotion of Kotor abroad. It also provides a significant contribution to the international image of Kotor as an inevitable destination with a rich cultural offer.
KotorArt was founded in 2002 as a music festival, by pianist Ratimir Martinović and priest Don Branko Sbutega. By merging major Kotor festivals into one in 2009, the present KotorArt relied on the name and reputation of the music festival, which has been named Don Branko’s Music Days and served as the music segment of the new KotorArt.
In addition to quality classical music programs, KotorArt Don Branko's Music Days also includes Coca-Cola Stage, a series of concerts featuring important regional names of pop, rock and jazz music. Part of the festival is also the Ports of Arts, a series of programs with numerous events featuring young musicians from Montenegro and the region on the Kotor piazzas and surrounding cities, as well as the program series Jazz Square. Every year in July and August, Kotor town piazzas are filled with music programs, performed by renowned artists of our time, such as Krzysztof Penderecki, Nikolai Lugansky, Mischa Maisky, Leonidas Kavakos, Boris Berezovsky, Yuja Wang, Denis Matsuev, Nemanja Radulović, Ivo Pogorelić, Valentina Lisitsa, and many others.
