August

20 days

30 places

40 creations

This summer, Vanja Puskar and New Balkan Cuisine will transfer their workshop from Belgrade to Budva, where they will stay in an exclusive location within the Dukley Gardens complex from August 5 to August 25. The innovative New Balkan Cuisine concept defines food in a new way. It gives a new meaning to traditional Balkan cuisine, seeks new tastes in those already discovered, and another local resource favors additional attention and commitment - Montenegro. The combination of seemingly incompatible flavors and odors, the contrast of rare ingredients, the awakening of all senses. It is an inseparable link between the site, the heritage, and the seasonality of foods when the goal is to create an unusual, special ... something that connects the consumer with time and space. 

Contrast of mountains and the sea 

Merging two expressions into one 

Playing with all senses

Creating emotions

Marine notes, combined with the details of continental Montenegro, and carefully selected ingredients, will create a unique experience of the taste of this region and present a new direction of modern gastronomy.

With the support of the chiefs at the restaurant Dukley Beach Lounge, the menu will be changed three times in 20 days, and each will be inspired by seafood and the specific character of this region.

Vanja and his team will bring you to a completely different gastronomic journey and, through 8 gangs, will present new forms and ways of enjoying food.

Vanja’s philosophy of preserving the original values ​​is reflected in cooperation with local producers, and the terms "bio" and "organic" will not be found in his dictionary, they are as such by default.

The concept will be followed by carefully selected, vintage wines from the Balkans, which you will not find in the markets. Wines that will complement the tastes and make these 20 days special. On this journey, New Balkan Cuisine creations will expand all your senses and awaken emotions through snacks. 

Info and reservations: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / +382 69 160 003 Number of places is limited. 

Who is Vanja Puškar? Vanja Puskar is the founder and curator of the New Balkan Cuisine concept and the chief cook at the restaurant Iris. Born in 1986 in Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina. After finishing his education, he continued his career in Belgrade.

Vanja Puskar (Photo: LCF)

He is active on the project "Modern Serbian Cuisine" and is one of the founders of "Chefs Club Beograd". His culinary approach is based on the use of local foods in combination with modern processing techniques.

He supports and promotes local manufacturers with whom he shares a vision.

"When you know the manufacturer, you are able to transfer his attention, energy, and affection from the food through the plate to the final consumer."

In 2016, he launched the project "New Balkan Cuisine".

Iris presents the studio "NewBalkanCuisine".

Iva Bogunovic (Photo: LCF)

The New Balkan Cuisine concept changes food, and through it also the culture of consuming and thinking about the same.

They adapt the food to present time, expectations, needs, and they feel that they have the knowledge and experience to understand and adequately modify it.

Milan Lekic (Photo: LCF)

They preserve their original values while shifting and aligning the shape with the time in which we live, which creates a whole new experience of consuming food. This is the main task of the New Balkan Cuisine concept.

More information at dukleylounge.com

Text by Promo, on July 25th, 2019, read more at Vijesti

The organization KOD, within the initiative 100,000 Trees is currently watering trees that they planted at the end of 2018 and early this year.

Nina Pantovic, a member of the KOD Organization, says trees are irrigated once a week.

"1.334 trees have been planted so far, and in autumn we continue with the planting campaign," said KOD.

"In addition to watering and preparing for future activities, we also use additional communication with citizens - which would serve to strengthen and further implement the initiative by 100.000 trees. We organized patrols for irrigation, mainly consisting of tenants in the street where trees are planted and members from KOD organization. We note that the maintenance of the landscape in Podgorica is the liability of the company “Zelenilo” Podgorica. We have officially contacted “Zelenilo” with the requirement to irrigate these trees as part of their regular activities, and in the letter, we have indicated the locations of those recently planted. As we haven’t received any feedback from this company, and after seeing for ourselves that these are not being watered, we started with weekly watering of the trees. The first watering was organized on June 20, and currently the fifth in a row is being carried out," says Pantovic.

Nina Pantovic (Photo: Organizacija KOD)

She points out that the water is taken mostly from the tenants, because there are no public fountains on most locations in the city, and a large number of existing ones is not in function.

"For now, most of the trees are growing. The total number of trees that are not growing properly is less than 3%, which is below the projected loss of trees after the first planting season - which is due to drought due to the poor condition of the particular seedlings," says Pantovic.

In addition to the usual summer drought and providing enough water, the biggest issue for the plants’ growth is the poor quality of the land. 

"During the construction of residential and commercial buildings, green areas are covered with construction waste. Thus, when planting the trees, we find layers of concrete, brick, Styrofoam and plastics up to one meter of thickness. This layer of waste is covered with a layer of 10 to 20 cm of fertile soil that is not enough even for grass vegetation, let alone for trees. This fertile land is brought from another site. By reducing the impact of concrete in one place, we reduce the value and fertility of the other. So little is needed for everything to be preserved and green, but some greed is swallowing what was last left to us. This is caused by the irresponsible performance of construction works, irresponsible control and approval for use of facilities," says the member of the Organization KOD.

Pantovic points out that due to such circumstances they planted species that are least demanding in terms of humidity and soil quality, for example, the European nettle tree.

"Regardless of the predisposition of the tree species, effort must be made during the first two years to make the tree become self-sufficient. Therefore, anyone who wants to contribute to the initiative of 100,000 trees can apply to the KOD Organization so that as many green trees as possible will be planted before the first autumn rain. Of course, the trees that have not grown will be restored, because we are persistent in the effort to get as many trees as possible," says Pantovic.

Until the automatic irrigation system is established in the cities where the Mediterranean climate is present, additional efforts will be required for the implementation of soft landscaping in our urban zones."Therefore, " Zelenilo "needs to justify its name, not to justify its (ir) responsibility due to the bad weather.

The situation with regard to the maintenance and arrangement of the landscape in the capital city is revealed by the following data: "Zelenilo" Podgorica in 2015 had about 115,000 euros of costs for the procurement of goods, raw materials and supplies for managing green areas, while about 966,000 euros were spent on salaries - this ration speaks for itself. Such a figure for salaries is not controversial - it is the money that belongs to employees only that the same employees should be allowed to carry out the jobs for which they are paid - therefore, investments in maintaining green areas must be much higher," Pantovic said.

Text by Vijesti online, on July 24th, 2019, read more at Vijesti

25 July 2019 - Minister of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria Boil Banov paid an official visit to Montenegro, during which he met with Minister of Culture of Montenegro Aleksandar Bogdanović.

As stated in the report of the Ministry of Culture of Montenegro, the meeting discussed the previous cooperation in the field of culture, as well as the joint activities that will be implemented in the following period.

Ministers Bogdanović and Banov agreed that relations between the cultural institutions of the two countries have already been established in many areas of cultural and artistic creation, that the cooperation in the field of cultural heritage was particularly intense, and that additional efforts will be made in order to implement joint projects.

In this sense, the Working Group of the Ministries of Culture of Montenegro and Bulgaria, which will be tasked with managing joint projects from September, will be formed during the next two years. The focus will be on projects in the field of cultural heritage, creative industries and various arts programmes.

Ministers Bogdanović and Banov emphasised that the existing Agreement on Cooperation between Montenegro and the Republic of Bulgaria in the field of culture, which dates from 2015, represents a good basis for future cooperation, but that it is necessary to sign the Bilateral Cooperation Programme as soon as possible, which will define in more detail areas of common interest.

"I am pleased that today we defined the basics of future cooperation, and above all, that the Working Group of the two ministries will work on concrete joint projects of Montenegro and Bulgaria in the field of culture from September. During the meeting, we especially discussed potential partnerships in the field of promotion of the cultural heritage of the two countries," Minister Bogadnović said.

Minister Banov thanked Minister Bogdanović and his associates for their readiness to work together, but also the Bulgarian Embassy in Montenegro, which significantly contributes to strengthening the ties of our two countries in the field of culture.

Ambassador of the Republic of Bulgaria to Montenegro Meglena Plugchieva also attended the meeting.

Read more news about lifestyle in Montenegro at TMN's dedicated page.

The Traditional Boka Night, which holds the status of intangible cultural heritage, will be held on Saturday, 24th August, starting at 9 pm.

A procession of imaginatively decorated boats, the work of Kotor artists, will make its way along the Kotor Bay.

The procession will be announced by Sailing Club Lahor, and the decorated boats will be competing for prize money totalling 4,500 euros.

An expert jury will choose the best creations, after which there will be a grand firework display.

After the display on the water, the party will continue on the various squares in the Old Town.

Locals and tourists will be able to enjoy music from Kotor groups, including the following:

Armoury Square: Tri Kvarta and The Grupa

Saint Tryphon Square: Four Blues Drivers and Jelena Kažanegra and Band

Museum Square: Mija and Sanja

Saint Nicholas Square: Acoustic Therapy

Škaljarska Square: Klapa Incanto and Škuriband Band

The Night is organised by Kotor Cultural Centre “Nikola Đurković” Kotor, in cooperation with the local tourist organisation, and is sponsored by Kotor Municipality.

"Kolasin - the encountering place of heritage" – it is the motto of this year's fifth Ethno Camp in the city, which will be held from August 1st to August 7th.

This kind of "laboratory" dedicated to national dances and songs is a pioneering undertaking in Montenegro, which year after year justifies its existence. Gathering students, pupils and their professors from the faculty from the region says Davor Sedlarevic, the founder of the camp and the manager of Kolasin KUD Mijat Maskovic, the goal is to recognize, document and learn elements of the intangible heritage threatened by disappearance,

"Also, those who are still in function or create cohesion of old and new. Revitalizing old ways of dancing and singing is one of the tasks of the camp. Over the past years, over 800 GB of audio-visual material has been recorded, mainly interviews with residents of Kolasin and surrounding villages. This rich resource is used to learn about one's own heritage, a scientific interpretation of certain matrices and motives that have been practiced in the past, but also for the empowerment of local and national identities," he explains.

Ethno camp (Photo: KUD)

Workshops of the dances and songs will be led by Dr. ethnomusicologist Zlata Marjanovic, l Pastrovici researcher Mila Medin and teachers specialists for traditional dances Igor Popov and Davor Sedlarevic. For the first time, the Montenegrin dance heritage will be enriched with several dances (kolo) from Pastrovici, which are topic of research of the Petrovac Ethno-lab The Cultural Center Kolasin, on the first day of the camp, will also open an exhibition on rich material and researchers who have visited Pastrovici through history, and some rare items of folk costumes will be shown.

The public class with participants of “Oj-ha in Kolasin" will be held on August 5th at Trg borca ​​and camp participants will play songs and dances learned at the camp. Then there will be a kind of competition in the playing of the Montenegrin dances (kolo) and the exclamation of the traditional exclamation "Oj-ha". All the workshops are completely free and open to all interested and are especially recommended for active and former folklorists who do not often have the opportunity to cooperate with dance and song experts in Montenegro, "announced the camp's organizers.

The camp will be attended by students from educational institutions from Banja Luka, Novi Sad, Belgrade, Kraljevo, Kikinda, Kotor, Budva and Kolasin.

The camp is organized by the Center for Culture and KUD, supported by the Ministry of Culture of Montenegro, Municipality, and CIRTIP Kolasin. Project collaborators are the Society for Culture Development "Bauo" from Petrovac and Budva Museums and Galleries. Organizers also invite "all those who know more about dances and songs, as well as good memories, folk instruments and singers to call them to record their stories and use them to study and transmit the heritage".

Text by Dragana Scepanovic, on July 24th, 2019, read more at Vijesti

The Alfa Center volunteers from Niksic, a club founded in April this year, introduced fellow citizens to what they have done in the past three months and invited all who want to join them in order to contribute together to a better quality of life in the city under Trebjesa.

"For Planet Day, in cooperation with the Utility Police, we organized an action to remove improperly placed advertising material in the city center. In Mostar and Sarajevo, we promoted the tourism potentials of the municipality Niksic, we had two humanitarian actions, and 20 days ago we provided assistance to the organizer of the Sun Reggae Festival on the Slovenska beach," said the coordinator of the volunteer club Marina Dosen.

The club currently has 40 members, and Dosen pointed out that young people who want to become part of their team are applying every day. "Through volunteerism, we acquire various skills and knowledge that we can use later on in employment. Every day we are richer for at least one experience," Dosen said and announced the activities that are to follow.

Today in Niksic (Photo: Alfa Center)

"In August, there will be a voluntary blood donation campaign, we will organize a large number of actions in order to preserve the environment, help the less fortuned families in the territory of the municipality in cooperation with the business entities of our city and certainly support cultural events, both at the local and central level," she said. 

The establishment of the volunteer club was supported by the Foundation for Active Citizenship (FAKT) within the De Facto Development program funded by the European Union, through the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro through the IPA 2016 Instrument for Civil Society.

Text by Svetlana Mandic, on July 24th, 2019, read more at Vijesti