17. 10. 2010.

DESPITE THE RECESSION, THE CITY GRANTS BAM 80,000 TO THIS ANNIVERSARIAL 50th MESS FESTIVAL

An agreement was signed today at the City of Sarajevo Administration, by Sarajevo Mayor Alija Behmen and MESS Festival Director Dino Mustafić, in which the City of Sarajevo has pledged its support of the 50^th MESS International Theatre Festival, in the amount of BAM 80,000.

“This is a festival with a poignantly international character, which helps us defeat ourselves and our environment, that carries the remnants of hard times,” Mayor Behmen pointed out upon signing the agreement. Stressing that it had been exactly 50 years ago that the City had established the Festival of Small and Experimental Stage, called MESS, the Festival's Director Dino Mustafić thanked the City for its continued support of the Festival, which has always had cult status, an historical treasure chest bearing witness to the cultural events of the past 50 years of our capital’s history.

Pointing out that the City of Sarajevo Administration was the only institution that had increased its financial support of cultural events in comparison to last year, Mustafić took the opportunity to stress the following: “In terms of the financial help we receive from other governmental levels in BiH, we are today worse off than we were immediately after the war. The budget of this year’s celebratory 50^th edition of the MESS Festival is smaller that it was in 1997.” 
But, despite all the difficulties, Mustafić announced that this year’s MESS would host many world-renowned names in theatre, and said that it was festivals such as these that created the atmosphere and the image of this city. “I invite the Mayor to initiate with us, as well as with the organisers of the Jazz Fest and the Sarajevo Film Festival, more serious and systematic discussions, starting in January next year, in order to resolve some issues regarding Sarajevo’s international cultural scene”, Mustafić concluded.