The grand finale of the summer and the crown of the season, the Sea Dance Festival started last night on the beach Buljarica near Budva. A special day has been added this season to enhance the festival offer, and it was carried by the fantastic and extremely inspired performances of Meduza and Satori, as well as the great rock stars of this region – Bajaga and his Instruktori. On the first night, the headliners spoke using selected words about the location of the festival, as well as the opportunity to perform in front of a large audience, because this performance is one of the few they’ve had this year.
More than 6,000 people from about 30 countries worldwide welcomed the dawn at the main stage of Sea Dance, located half a meter away from the sea, and a real madness is expected tonight when one of the biggest electronic names of today Maceo Plex arrives in Buljarica, accompanied by regional music trendsetters – Tijana T, Vojko V, Fox and Surreal! As announced, the entrance to the festival was organised under the prescribed measures and control of the necessary Covid documents, which was rigorously implemented in order to make the festival space a completely safe zone. Despite the longer process of organising the entrance, which for some meant fast antigen testing, there were no waits or crowds at the entrances at any time.
Regional rock legend Bajaga brought the real rock and roll to Sea Dance. The timeless hits of these music masters resounded over the turquoise bay, and the most emotional was when they sang as one with the audience “Godine prolaze”, “Muzika na struju”, “Moji su drugovi”, “Tišina”, “Ti se ljubiš” i “Plavi safir”. “A time machine called Bajaga i Instruktori has been sailing for a full 36 years and this is one of the most beautiful places where it has landed,” Bajaga said during the performance.
The multi-talented artist Satori brought magic to the opening of Sea Dance through his unique live performance, woven of emotions and ethno-electronic sound. The audience had the opportunity to hear songs from his upcoming album “Vinča”, and the greatest attention was given to the arrangements of the traditional folk songs “Moj dilbere” and “Đelem đelem”. Satori expressed his delight at being a part of the Sea Dance Festival: “The moment you arrive, you think – YES, THIS IS LIFE! Only in the Balkans can such collective dancing and enjoyment of music be seen.”
The globally popular producing trio Meduza, absolutely delighted with the location of the festival, premiered their specific “Meduza sound” on the Adriatic coast. They opened the performance with their new remix of the song “Bad Habits” by Ed Sheeran, while they brought the audience to frenzy with festival anthems such as “Piece of Your Heart”, “Lose Control” and “Paradise”.
Montenegrin Deputy Prime Minister Dritan Abazović, who visited the opening of the festival, said he experienced the Sea Dance as “the crown of a successful tourist season”. “This is an event that awakens and affirms cosmopolitan consciousness, I think that more than 40 nationalities will be present in the audience. We are looking forward to such events and we hope that there will be more and more such events in Montenegro. The organisers did everything to respect the epidemiological measures,” said Abazović.
The founder and director of EXIT and Sea Dance festivals, Dušan Kovačević, pointed out that they have shown that even under pandemic conditions, festivals can take place, if epidemiological measures are implemented rigorously. “With EXIT, we have broken the stigma that big events are against public health. This year’s festival has been adapted to the pandemic year, but at the same time we are extremely satisfied with the interest of foreign citizens and tourists. The Sea Dance Festival, like EXIT in Serbia, has launched a vaccination campaign, which is a very important social activity because young people have the greatest distrust towards vaccination”, Kovacevic added.
The second night of the Sea Dance Festival promises equal entertainment, with representatives of the regional hip-hop scene and a new wave of trap performers, as well as the very top of the world electronic scene. The overture for tonight’s program on the Visa DANCE PARADISE powered by Budva Tourism Organization of Budva Municipality stage will be performed by a part of the Radio Katakomba team at 8 pm, while at 9:25 pm the stage will be taken over by the Sarajevo-French trap Princess Muha. Budva rappers Radio Katakomba will throw rhymes from 10 pm, and the well-coordinated tandem – trap guru Fox and his partner in acceleration Surreal will take the stage at 11 pm. The one and only Vojko V will start his performance at midnight, followed by Raven TK b2b Proximus at 01:20, while one of the greatest electronic artists of today, Maceo Plex, will take over the Main Stage at 03:00. The program will be rounded off with a performance from 05:00 by Tijana T, without a doubt one of the most talented DJs in this area with an impressive international career.
On the third day of the festival, on Saturday, August 28, Tale Of Us, Sajsi MC, Klinac, Ognjen and the hosts Audiostorm, P.S, O.G. featuring Distortion and Necke will perform on the Main Stage, and on the last day of the festival, Sunday, August 29, Boris Brejcha, Topic, Ann Clue, Senidah, Who See, z ++ and 84Bit will arrive at Sea Dance.
In accordance with the current epidemiological measures in Montenegro, entry to the festival will be limited to those visitors who have proof that they have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, or a negative PCR test not older than 72 hours, or a positive PCR test older than 14, but not older than 180 days (which is proof that the visitor had Covid-19 infection and has antibodies), or a negative rapid antigen test BAT, not older than 48 hours. Sea Dance has provided visitors with quick tests at discounted prices, in the amount of five euros. Testing will be performed on Buljarica beach, in front of the festival gates, until Sunday, August 29. The working hours of the checkpoints are from 18:00 to 02:00, and testing is payable on the spot. The testing is paid for by visitors who bought tickets, who have invitations, i.e., free tickets, as well as those who have VIP tickets or VIP invitations, and it will be conducted by medical staff of the Podgorica Health Centre.
Tickets available at the festival gates
The price of four-day sets of festival tickets for Sea Dance is 50 Eur, while one-day tickets visitors can buy at a price of 20 Eur. All tickets can be purchased through the Gigs Tix sales network and are also available at the festival gates. More information can be found here. Tickets purchased for the 2020 edition are valid for this year’s festival.
