Since 2010 the Embassy has funded the Skopje Summer Rock School, whose objective is to connect the youth from North and South Mitrovica. The summer events end with a final concert that enables the young musicians to work and perform together and to showcase their talent to a wider audience. Also this year the talented and uplifting performances faced no difficulties getting everyone dancing and singing to the tunes by the end of the night.
The closing concert was part of a larger project initiated by Community Building Mitrovica and Musicians without Borders, aiming to bring together the Serb and Albanian communities from Mitrovica. The Summer Rock School in Skopje in turn offers, as the organizers themselves put it,” an opportunity for the students to escape from Mitrovica’s, monotonous reality and broaden their horizons during an intensive week of study, practice and performance with new people from the other side of their city”.
The Embassy considers the project as a prime example of successful grass root level work in community building and the rock concert in Skopje indeed demonstrated the positive impact such initiatives can have on the youth and on peace building in the ethnically divided region.
The musicians had formed five different bands during the Summer Rock School, every band adopting their own style and type of music to perform at the concert. The event itself was a success and musicians’ friends and families from Mitrovica as well were given an opportunity to attend the concert and enjoy the show.
Updated 8/31/2011
