Dragana Mirkovic to Headline Subotica City Day Tonight
Subotica welcomes Dragana Mirkovic to Gradski Trg tonight for her first solo concert before a hometown crowd, with free admission and fireworks capping a week of City Day celebrations.
The city sounded different this morning. At nine o’clock the Brass Orchestra performed, at half past nine the city flag was raised, and exactly at ten the ceremonial session of the City Assembly opened, attended, according to the announcement, by a large number of guests from Serbia and abroad. At the session, the city’s two highest honors, “Pro Urbe” and “Honorary Citizen,” were awarded. That was the lead-in to what has been billed as tonight’s high point of the celebration: Dragana Mirkovic takes the stage on Gradski Trg at 9 p.m., admission is free, and fireworks follow her final song.
Subotica marks City Day on September 1, commemorating 1779 and the charter issued by Empress Maria Theresa that granted the city status as a free royal town. The city observes that status with a full program every year, and this year’s celebration stretches across seven days, from August 27 to September 2, with concerts, a sporting event and the traditional fair.
Dragana Mirkovic, one of the most listened-to folk and pop singers in the region, began her career in 1984 as a member of the group Juzni Vetar, and more than four decades have passed since then to tonight’s performance. She has never held a solo concert of this size before a Subotica audience, so the City Day program brings her to Gradski Trg for the first time, a moment as symbolic as it is musical.
The evening before, on August 31, the same square carried an entirely different, symphonic tone. The Subotica Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Mikica Jevtic with concertmaster Milos Nikolic, performed a program dedicated to ABBA, in cooperation with the band ABBA Real Tribute. The setlist included Dancing Queen, Mamma Mia, Waterloo, The Winner Takes It All and Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (the part of the Swedish catalog that has long since entered the canon). According to Kristina Mate, the performance was staged
“in choreography with authentic costumes, with an outstanding stage show,”
a program she said has previously toured stages across Europe. The official announcement for that concert listed the venue as Trg Slobode, while tonight’s Dragana Mirkovic performance, in both the city’s announcement and media previews, has consistently been listed at Gradski Trg.
The celebration opened on August 27 with a concert of film music in the park by the Synagogue, and on August 30 Subotica held its second half marathon. Throughout the week, the traditional fair has run on the square, offering food, drink and handmade goods from vendors from Serbia and the region. Tomorrow, September 2 at 9 p.m., the Hungarian band Republic closes the celebration at the same spot.
Bozidarka Golubovic, director of the Subotica Tourist Organization, said ahead of City Day that the city expects a large number of guests from home and abroad, noting that accommodation capacity in Palic is nearly full.
“We expect an even larger number of visitors ahead of City Day,”
Golubovic said, adding that the celebration is also a chance for the Tourist Organization to showcase Subotica’s rich tourism offer. Jasmina Stevanovic, secretary of the Secretariat for Social Affairs, previewed the program by saying that
“the rich City Day program is accompanied by major entertainment and cultural content.”
Part of the celebration also plays out off stage: representatives of the City Administration are visiting the maternity ward of Subotica’s General Hospital today, presenting gifts to babies born on City Day itself, a gesture that accompanies the celebration every year.
Admission to tonight’s concert is free, and the fireworks after Dragana Mirkovic’s final song will be the last major moment before tomorrow’s closing of the celebration, when the band Republic takes over Gradski Trg.
