Brunch in the Park: S.A.R.S. Marks 20 Years at Kalemegdan

A cake on stage in the middle of Kalemegdan’s Lower Town, handed to S.A.R.S. mid-set as the band marked twenty years together, sums up what Brunch in the Park set out to be from the moment it was announced. Not another evening concert at the fortress, but a festival that opens at noon and runs until eleven at night, where music is only one reason to show up.

The festival’s first edition ran August 29 and 30, both days from noon to 11 p.m., with an earlier 11:30 a.m. entry on Saturday. For the occasion, Kalemegdan’s Lower Town was split into six zones with three stages and three food courts, enough to keep visitors there all day even if the main stage slipped to the background.

Darko Rundek and the Novi Sad Big Band, conducted by Ivan Ilic, opened the first day at 6:30 p.m., followed by Zoster and Kanda, Kodza i Nebojsa. The rhythm shifted on day two, though sources disagree on the running order. Tanjug and Telegraf report that Mostar Sevdah Reunion opened the second festival day, while Kurir logs a different schedule: according to that version, the main stage program on Sunday started at 2 p.m. with the band Polsky, continued with Markotic and Janne, and only then reached Mostar Sevdah Reunion as the centerpiece of the afternoon. Either way, the Bosnian band played Belgrade that evening for the first time in almost four years, ahead of S.A.R.S. and ahead of the closing set, which went to Marko Louis.

Marko Louis had another reason to be there beyond his stage slot: footage for a documentary about his life and musical legacy was shot during his Lower Town performance, making Kalemegdan a filming location that night, not just a concert venue.

What set Brunch in the Park apart from a standard festival format wasn’t just the daytime schedule, but what happened away from the main stage. Three parallel programs filled the day:

• The My Family zone, open from noon to 5 p.m., with dance and creative workshops, science experiments, falconers with birds of prey and trained dogs
• The Art and Mix district, where local designers showed hand painted clothing and accessories, alongside fashion shows, body art and tattoos
• The Re-can zone, the festival’s environmental program built around the Every Can Counts campaign with Ball, where visitors who turned in five aluminum cans got a free drink, while street artists built installations from pressed recycled material. Over the two days, more than 3,000 cans were collected

Entry wasn’t priced as one flat rate. A day pass cost 1,399 dinars and covered the entire day, while children under 14 got in free, a choice that clearly aimed the festival at families rather than only at an evening crowd chasing a single headline act.

The organizers summed up the first edition themselves:

We wanted Brunch in the Park to be more than a music festival from its very first edition, to become an event Belgraders recognize as their own, a place they come to spend the whole day, socialize, enjoy themselves and find something that fits them. After the first edition, we can say we’re very pleased with the audience’s response. We’re especially glad to have seen so many families with children, different generations in the same place, and an audience that stayed all day. We believe this first edition has laid a good foundation for Brunch in the Park to become a Belgrade tradition, the organizers said.

Behind that statement is something only the next edition can confirm: whether Belgrade now has a fixed August date or whether this was a one off. What the first edition did show is that the combination of daytime entry, family programming and an evening stage, with Rundek, Mostar Sevdah Reunion and a twentieth anniversary that few domestic bands ever reach, keeps an audience around from noon until the stage goes dark, not just for the length of one concert. That’s the difference between a festival that gets through one evening and one that, as the organizers put it themselves, is measured by ritual.