Katy Perry plants so-called Kosovo flag at Sunny Hill

Katy Perry headlined the opening night of the Sunny Hill festival in Pristina on Friday, July 31. She finished her set with a staged Moon landing, then drove the flag of so-called Kosovo into the floor of the stage. Within a day the clip had travelled well past the festival grounds.

The footage shows the singer in a white suit and a tie in the colours of the American flag, standing in front of a screen filled with the lunar surface. Dancers dressed as astronauts carried the flag out to her. Perry holds it by the pole, then plants it.

Why a festival stunt turns into a political story

For Belgrade, Kosovo and Metohija are part of Serbia, and Serbia does not recognise the unilateral declaration of independence made in 2008. That is why a pop star with tens of millions of followers raising that particular flag does not read here as stage design. The argument over the performance left Pristina before the festival was even over.

What people wrote under the clips

Critical comments appeared under the videos, and not only from the Serbian side. One of them collected more than 200 likes:

I am an Albanian, but Kosovo is part of Serbia.

Other comments credited the hosts instead, some as short as a simple line of praise for Dua Lipa, and a part of the audience reopened the older question of how far music and politics can be kept apart.

What Katy Perry said before she arrived

Perry announced the trip in a video message addressed to Dua Lipa, who promotes the festival internationally. In that message she said:

So excited to go to Kosovo, this is my first time there. I want to thank you so much for inviting me, because I have so many fans I can’t wait to meet, as well as all your fans.

The message was recorded before the trip, as an announcement of the booking, not from the stage in Pristina. Dua Lipa answered in public: Oh my God! You’re coming to my hometown, KP!

Who else is on the bill

The festival runs from July 31 to August 2 at the Sunny Hill Festival Park in Bernica, outside Pristina. Alongside Perry, this edition features:

• Martin Garrix
• Lewis Capaldi
• Adam Port and Rampa of the Keinemusik collective
• Seth Troxler
• PAWSA and Carlita

The organisers say the festival draws more than 100,000 visitors from close to 60 countries every year. Tickets are sold through the international partner Fever, a standard arrangement for an event of that size.

A festival built by one family

Sunny Hill was founded in 2018 by Dukagjin Lipa, the father of Dua Lipa, and his daughter opened the doors of the global industry to it. Miley Cyrus, Calvin Harris, Shawn Mendes and J Balvin have all played it, and Dua Lipa herself has been on the poster several times. This year she publicly welcomed Perry to her hometown.

The space theme did not come out of nowhere either. In April 2025 Perry flew on a short suborbital flight with the all-female crew put together by Blue Origin, a trip that earned her both applause and mockery. In Pristina the same motif came back on stage, this time with a flag in her hand.

Two more nights of the festival remain, through August 2. The flag clip will outlast them, because footage like that returns to circulation every time the status of Kosovo and Metohija is back on the table.