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An international music festival founded by singer-songwriter Dua Lipa to promote his hometown of Kosovo has led to accusations against the small European country after it lost the event to neighboring Albania.
The Sunny Hill Festival made its debut in the capital of Kosovo, Prishtina, in 2018 and took place again in 2019, bringing artists like Miley Cyrus, Calvin Harris, Martin Garrix and Action Bronson to one of the newest and most poor of Europe. Dua Lipa of British origin was also a well-known chairwoman.
Dukagjin Lipa, the singer’s father and manager, said the festival brought Kosovo invaluable publicity, including coverage in more than 500 international media. The event was suspended in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
It was decided to return this summer, but Lipa said late Tuesday that “after a long wait, many efforts, requests”, he had made “a difficult but necessary decision” to host the August 4-7 event in the capital. Albania. Tirana.
He said a political dispute between Kosovo’s ruling party and the ruling party in Pristina prevented organizers from obtaining permission to hold the festival.
He and other festival directors had spent three years trying to persuade the national government to allow them to manage an area of 17 acres (42 acres) of parkland and build the right infrastructure for the annual festival. They have not even received permission for the August festival.
The mayor of Pristina, Përparim Rama, accused the government of delaying the decision and trying to change the decision of the municipal council. Kosovo Culture Minister Hajrulla Ceku said the obstacle came from festival organizers seeking a 99-year lease. The government could not rush into such an agreement and “the decision-making process requires time to be complete and not abusive,” said Ceku. Lipa, however, attributed the delay to a power struggle between the ruling Vetëvendosje Movement.
In any case, the movement of the festival was not liked by the people in Kosovo. Another opposition party, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, demanded the resignation of the government that “lost a festival that would promote Kosovo,” said Besnik Tahiri, a senior party leader.
Tirana Mayor Erjon Veliaj told the Associated Press that his government immediately offered the Albanian capital “in an effort to hold the international festival in a major Albanian city.”
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