The month of January, together with all the holidays, is now behind us, which is why it is time to see what awaits us in February this year. We have singled out the events in Belgrade for you, which we believe will encourage you to leave your homes and enjoy what our city has to offer.
Chinese Festival of Lights
The already traditional Chinese Festival of Lights will be held this year in Belgrade and Novi Sad. The fourth festival started on January 31st at 5pm Belgrade time, or at midnight Beijing time. This way, Serbia marked the Chinese New Year’s Eve with fireworks and spectacular installations that make this festival so special. Slobodan Trkulja, artist and founder of the event, invited all citizens to feel the spirit and tradition of distant China together with their closest and dearest people by February 13. Every day from 5pm, visitors can enjoy the beauty of colorful installations designed for this special occasion by a group of artists from Sichuan. This year, the festival brings more light, and thus more joy to our cities. The animal kingdom, magical deer, fish and two Chinese dragons are just some of the things you can expect if you visit this festival. In Belgrade the exhibition is located on the Sava Promenade in front of the Shopping Center “Galerija”, while in Novi Sad it can be seen in the Liman Park. In front of the 5th entrance of shopping center Galerija, there is an interactive walker that visitors will be able to activate by dancing on it, as well as the Butterfly Wings, which is another novelty that the festival has prepared for this year.
International Festival FEST
The jubilee, 50th International Film Festival FEST will be held in Belgrade in 2022 from the 25th of February to the 6th of March. This year, the slogan “New Brave World” is a homage to the first ever FEST, which was created under a similar slogan back in 1971. The audience will have the opportunity to see over 80 premiere films whose screenings will take place in 12 halls of our most famous cinemas – Kombank Hall, Belgrade Cultural Center Hall, Belgrade Youth Center, Fontana Cinema, Cineplexx Galerija and Usce. The FEST program offers viewers a large number of films, including “Titane”, which won the Golden Palm in Cannes Film Festival last year, as well as “Happening”, winner of last year’s Golden Lion for best film at The Venice Film Festival. At the very beginning of February 25th, the Serbian premiere of the film “Strahinja Banovic”, which won the award for the best film at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, will be held in the Kombank Hall. It is interesting that the Post of Serbia has prepared a collector’s set of postage stamps for each decade of the festival due to its 50th event. If you are still not used to low temperatures, grab popcorn, nachos, juices and of course your friends and head to one of the above-mentioned cinemas in Belgrade.
Art and human rights
This year, Dah Theater will organize an event called “Arts and Human Rights” in the period from 24 to 27 February. With a rich program and workshops, this festival wants to convey to its visitors the idea of respect for human rights in Serbia and beyond. Concerts, plays, film premieres and the premiere of the book “A Life Without Compromise for Art and Peace”, as well as talks, lectures and conferences “Art and Culture in Affirming Human Rights” will be waiting for you at this festival.
Besides Serbian participants, in this year’s program are also organizations from Spain, Israel, Montenegro, Ireland and Kosovo, while participants from Belgium, Brazil and Iran will present their works online. With its slogan “Art in Action”, the festival encourages its visitors to stand up for themselves and their community and take on the main role that will help society to accept all its differences. It will be held at several locations in Belgrade (UK Parobrod, N.EON Gallery, Dorćol Platz, Mestašce, Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment, KROKODIL and the National Theater in Belgrade) and like the previous two festivals, it is great for those who want to have fun and at the same time learn something new.
Until it’s time to hang out on our beautiful deck, we invite you to plan this month and we hope that we will meet you at one of these events in February.
