Major British media writes about the shift of Sunny Hill Festival from Pristina

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An international music festival founded by star I Love Lipa's father to promote his native Kosovo has led to charges for the small European country after losing the event to neighbouring Albania.

The Sunny Hill Festival made its debut in Kosovo's capital, Pristina, in 2018, and took place again in 2019, bringing artists like Michael Cyrus, Calvin Harris, Martin Garrix and Action Bronson to one of Europe's newest and poorest countries.

I want Lipa of British origin was also a prominent leader. Dukagjin Lipa, the singer's father and manager, said the festival brought Kosovo invaluable publicity, including coverage on more than 500 international media. The event was suspended in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronary pandemic.

It is set to return this summer, but Lipa said late Tuesday that “after a long reception, many efforts, “, he had made a difficult but necessary” decision to organise the event on August 4th-7th in Albania's capital, Tirana.

He said a political dispute between Kosovo's ruling party and the ruling Pristina prevented organisers from getting permission to hold the festival. He and other festival directors had spent three years trying to convince the national government to allow them to manage a 17-acre area (42 hectares) of the park and build the needed infrastructure for the annual festival. They have not even received permission for the August festival.

Pristina Mayor Progress Rama, of the opposition Democratic League of Kosovo, favoured holding the music festival. He accused the national government, which is headed by the Vetevendosje Movement, that it has delayed the decision and has tried to change the municipal council's decision. Kosovo Culture Minister Hajrula Ceku said the obstacle came from festival organisers demanding a 99-year rent. The government could not rush into such an agreement and “decision-making process takes time to be complete and not wrong or abusive”, Ceku said.

However, Lipa attributed the delay to a power struggle between the ruling Vetevendosje Movement and the Democratic League of Kosovo came “at the expense of the festival and the benefit it creates for the state image and the values its society represents”.

Whatever the case, the festival movement has not liked people in Kosovo. Another opposition party, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, called for the government's resignation that “lost a festival that would promote Kosovo”, said Besnik Tahiri, a senior party leader.

Tirana Mayor Erjon Veliaj told the Associated Press that his government immediately offered Albania's capital “a replacement in an effort to hold the international festival in a large Albanian city. ”

Ethnic Albanians make up the majority of Kosovo's population.

As proof that the Sunny Hill Festival is in place, the mayor noted that for this the European Union appointed Tirana as the new EU capital.

He also mentioned several Albanian-rooted VIPs, from late humorist John Belushi to the late Mother Teresa, already known as Calcutta's St. Teresa. “ )