The world music festival family in Serbia is getting a new member this year, as the first edition of the world music festival „Pocket Globe” will be held in Novi Sad, at three locations, from November 10 to 13, 2022, as part of the Novi Sad-European Capital of Culture program.
The “Pocket Globe” has become a healthy addition to the festival life of Novi Sad, and it can be marked as one more step to strengthen the world music scene of Serbia. The festival will be an organic extension of the series of world music concerts of the same name, which have been held in the Eđšeg Cultural Station since September 2019.
The „Pocket Globe” festival is organized by the „Ring Ring” Association, in cooperation with the Music Information Center of Serbia, with the support of the Novi Sad-European Capital of Culture project.
Bojan Đorđević , artistic director of the festival, noted the varied lineup.
„We should not forget the fact that the entire series of events, which is realized from last to next January, is also decorated with a rich offer of extraordinary world music concerts, so that the Pocket Globe festival turns out to be a kind of world music crown of all those events connected by the same genre,” he said, pointing out that six concerts and three lectures make up the program.
During three concert evenings (Novi Sad Synagogue/Youth Theatre), musicians from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Morocco, France, Turkey, Iran and Cyprus will perform, bringing more traditional or more modern expressions of diverse musical landscapes. For the first time in Serbia, attendees will be able to check out the „Singer of Tales” by Damir Imamović (Nov. 10), which has brought the artist several prestigious European awards.
Also performing will be award winning French attraction Bab L’ Blues (11.11), which combines the sound heritage of Morocco with rock, psychedelia, blues, but also socially conscious themes. That same evening, for the first time in Novi Sad, Cyprus trio Monsieur Doumani will feature rock and psychedelia while promoting their latest album, Pissourin.
Iranian Kayhan Kalor, a top connoisseur of Iranian music and an extraordinary player of the Kemenche, an ancient Persian instrument, will round out the premiere concert attractions. Kalor, who is among other things the winner of the prestigious award „WOMEX Artist Award” (2019), will be joined on stage (12.11) by another exceptional artist and his longtime collaborator and friend and baglam player Erdal Erzindzhan.
In addition to these four premieres, the concert program of the festival also includes Boris Kovač’s New Ritual Ensemble from Novi Sad (10.11), as well as local band, the Belgrade band Shira utfila, which celebrates its 22nd anniversary in 2022—and which was chosen to perform at „Pocket Globe” through the „Serbian Globe” festival competition.
