{"id":5773,"date":"2024-07-31T07:03:22","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T07:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/dua-lipas-sunny-hill-festival-aiming-to-change-kosovos-image\/"},"modified":"2024-07-31T07:03:22","modified_gmt":"2024-07-31T07:03:22","slug":"dua-lipas-sunny-hill-festival-aiming-to-change-kosovos-image","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/dua-lipas-sunny-hill-festival-aiming-to-change-kosovos-image\/","title":{"rendered":"Dua Lipa’s Sunny Hill Festival aiming to change Kosovo\u2019s image"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Dua Lipa was born in the UK to Kosovan-Albanian parents<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Across the summer in the UK there\u2019s a music festival pretty much every week somewhere in the country.<\/p>\n

Highlights include the summer kick off with Radio 1\u2019s Big Weekend in May, Glastonbury\u2019s dominance in June, Latitude in July and a Reading and Leeds Bank Holiday bonanza in August.<\/p>\n

Some could argue British music lovers are spoilt for choice.<\/p>\n

In some parts of the world there\u2019s no option to dance with your mates in a field while holding a lukewarm beer, getting to grips with dry shampoo, shoddy phone signal and chants of \u2018Oggy, oggy, oggy, oi, oi, oi\u2019.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Dua Lipa and her dad Dukagjin wanted to change things by launching Sunny Hill festival in the family\u2019s home city of Pristina, Kosovo – a part of the world few international artists toured.<\/p>\n

“I want to change the rhetoric of what people think about Kosovo and it being war-torn,” Dua explained earlier this year.<\/p>\n

“When I was living in Kosovo, none of the artists I wanted to see ever came down.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Dua Lipa and her dad Dukagjin want to project a positive image of Kosovo<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Dua was born in the UK but moved to Pristina as a child after a war in the late 1990s left more than 10,000 dead, as Kosovo fought for independence from Serbia.<\/p>\n

It declared it in 2008<\/a>, although some countries – including Serbia – refuse to recognise it.<\/p>\n

“Reinstating the country took more years than we\u2019d liked,” Dukagjin says.<\/p>\n

He says it was “always a dream” to have something like Sunny Hill in Pristina, after working in the live music events industry for years before Dua made it as an international pop star.<\/p>\n

In 2018, 10 years after Kosovo declared independence, Sunny Hill launched – headlined by Dua as tens of thousands celebrated one of their own making the big time.<\/p>\n

But it was harder then to convince other global artists to play and the following year the New Rules star turned to her friends Miley Cyrus and Calvin Harris to ask them to top the bill, who both performed in the region for the first time.<\/p>\n

That changed how the festival was seen by other acts and their management teams.<\/p>\n

“We really do punch way above our weight when it comes to the line-up,” Dukagjin tells BBC News. <\/p>\n

“When I talk to the artists about coming I say: \u2018Look you might not have the tequila you want on your rider, but trust me you\u2019ll have the best sound equipment money can buy\u2019.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Burna Boy was one of the headliners of this year\u2019s Sunny Hill Festival<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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His latest data estimates that about 40% of visitors were from outside Kosovo – noting that will be strongly influenced by the country\u2019s diaspora as those with family connections here bring friends with them.<\/p>\n

Some had travelled as far from Chicago in the US to see artists like Bebe Rexha, Burna Boy, Stormzy, and DJ Snake headline the main stage last weekend. <\/p>\n

Groove Armada, Black Coffee and Griff were all also on the bill.<\/p>\n

Kosovo is thought to have Europe\u2019s youngest population as more than half are estimated to be under the age of 30.<\/p>\n

Travel restrictions, until earlier this year<\/a>, meant local musicians didn\u2019t have the flexibility to play in other parts of the continent.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s not that easy to be a musician,” explains singer La Fazani, who\u2019s played Sunny Hill multiple times. <\/p>\n

“The only way you can actually make good income is by playing nightclubs.”<\/p>\n

He recently won a big TV show in the country but says without Sunny Hill he wouldn\u2019t get to play live to a crowd of thousands, and hopes the Lipa guest list could improve his career.<\/p>\n

“Sunny Hill is one of the greatest generators of a positive image of Kosovo,” he says.<\/p>\n

“There\u2019s many international label people here and I hope I might have caught the eye of someone who might like what I do.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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