Seasons & Festivals in the Balkans

About Seasons & Festivals in the Balkans

By the ULTIMATE Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Come in any season and you’ll find a different region. This is our guide to the Balkan year and its festivals, with links to each one on our city guides.

Four true seasons

The Balkans have four true seasons, and each brings a different region. Spring arrives in a rush of green across the beech and oak forests. Summer moves life outdoors, to café terraces, open-air cinemas and long evenings by the river or the sea. Autumn is the most beautiful season of all: the forests turn gold and amber, the markets overflow, and in the villages the plum harvest begins.

Winter

Winter turns the river towns into postcards and the mountains into ski country. December brings Advent and Christmas markets to the capitals, and in Serbia, Montenegro and North Macedonia, where the Orthodox Church keeps the old calendar, Christmas comes again on 7 January. Above Sarajevo, the mountains of the 1984 Winter Olympics, Jahorina and Bjelašnica, are about 40 minutes to an hour away by road.

Come in any season and you’ll find a different region.

In Zagreb, Advent fills Zrinjevac Park with its market and King Tomislav Square with an ice rink, and the lamplighters of the Upper Town join in; Podgorica gives the whole of December to DEUS, the December Art Scene, a month of theatre, music, literature and film; and in Tirana, Skanderbeg Square hosts the city’s Christmas market.

Spring

Spring brings the first coffee outdoors, and the terraces fill again almost overnight. It is the season for birdwatching on the lakes and rivers, and for the first walks in the mountains.

Summer

Summer is long evenings, open-air cinema and the sea. The Skopje Summer Festival begins on 21 June; the Ljubljana Festival fills Plečnik’s open-air theatre at Križanke; Belgrade’s summer festival, BELEF, takes music, theatre and dance onto the squares and courtyards; the Ohrid Summer Festival has filled the town’s churches and ancient theatre with music and theatre since 1961; and every August since 1995 the Sarajevo Film Festival brings red carpets and open-air screenings to the city.

In Croatia, the Dubrovnik Summer Festival fills the squares and forts of the old town with theatre and music every summer, with Fort Lovrijenac, on its rock outside the walls, as one of its stages. In Montenegro, Podgorica Cultural Summer brings concerts, theatre and film to the capital’s squares and courtyards from June to September, and UnderhillFest, its documentary festival, opens every June with screenings under the stars in Njegoš Park.

Autumn

Autumn is the most beautiful season of all. The forests turn gold and amber, the markets overflow with peppers for ajvar, and in the villages the plum harvest begins, and with it rakija season. Zlatibor in western Serbia, whose name is usually explained as “golden pine”, glows in the evening light.

It is also the season of the great city festivals: BITEF, Belgrade’s international theatre festival, every September since 1967; BEMUS, the Belgrade Music Festival, every autumn since 1969; the Tirana International Film Festival in September; MESS, Sarajevo’s international theatre festival; the Skopje Jazz Festival every October; and the Zagreb Film Festival every November.

September also brings the Džada Film Fest, debut feature films screened in the open air on Podgorica’s Njegoševa, and every November Ljubljana has LIFFe, its biggest film festival, at Cankarjev dom and cinemas across the city.

Where to go next

Each guide has its own Christmas page and its festivals, with the dates as soon as they are announced.

Our advice

Our advice: if you can choose, come in late September or October, when the heat has gone, the hills are turning and the festivals are on. Dates change every year, so check each festival’s own programme before you book.

Festival dates, opening times and seasonal services change, so please check with each place directly.