An excellent summer of music in our city! July 23 2009 will surely be kept for a long time in the musical history of our city due to the concert of famous American rock artist Lenny Kravitz which took place on the city stadium on the very same day. On the impressive 300 square meters stage and with rarely seen light effects Kravitz gave the audience about two hours of a superb performance.
Kravitz presented his new studio album to a few thousand people, who had a chance to enjoy his old hits too. “Are you gonna go my way” closed the concert. The event was covered by accredited journalists from forty media agencies.

The second successive “Nektar Demofest”, a festival of demo bands, which took place from July 23 to 26 at the Kastel fort, provided excellent opportunity for the promotion of our city outside the Republic of Srpska and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mayor of Banja Luka Dragoljub Davidović said for the “Nektar Demofest” Internet portal. The festival was highly appreciated not only by participants, but also by the audience and the accredited journalists.
The first prize – recording an album for the regional market and making an MTV production video clip was won by “Propaghanda”, a band from Zagreb (Croatia). The band “Disko pet” was second, whereas “Tanker” and “ZAA” shared third place.
Thirty three young and unaffirmed bands gathered to compete for the prize at this regional music festival, whereas the British band “Kosheen” entertained the audience as part of the show program. Within the four days the festival was visited by 30.000 and covered by accredited journalists from 59 media agencies.

Another music event worth attention was the first rock festival “Banja Luka Rock Open Air”, which took place at the Kastel fort on July 17 and 18 this year. The stars of the festival was the British band “Uriah Heep”, whereas “Atomsko sklonište”, “Divlje jagode”, “Balkan ekspres” and others performed too.    

The music festival “Ex-Yu Rocks”, in its 14th edition this year, has already become a tradition. On July 31 and August 01 Krupa na Vrbasu hosted the bands “Sasi” from Srebrenica, “Dubioza kolektiv” from Zenica, “Vuneny” from Mostar, “Noktambules” from Paris, “Kochani orkestra” from Kočani (Macedonia), “Egonay” from Banja Luka, “Killing options” from Laško, “Zion Crew” from Sombor (Serbia), “Letu štuke” from Sarajevo and “Obojeni program” from Novi Sad (Serbia).
This year festival`s special guests was the Swedish band “Kiriaka”, which consists of 23 members, primarily drummers. They have performed in EU countries, Latin America, but they also caught the eye of the audience at the Guča Trumpet Festival in Serbia. The Swedes gave a drum performance on the streets of Banja Luka on July 28 and were cheerfully applauded by many bystanders. 

It is also worth mentioning that the offer of summer music events in Banja Luka was enriched by the concerts of Željko Samardžić, a singer from Serbia, of the Croatian band „Parni valjak“, and by the performances of trumpet orchestras that performed at the „Golden Trumpet of Srpska“ music event.

All these events were attended by a numerous audience, consisting not only of our co-citizens, but also of the visitors from the region. Many visitors had come to Banja Luka with certain prejudices. However, they were soon dismissed and the visitors came back home thrilled and satisfied by the hospitality and warmth of Banja Luka`s citizens, which is yet another confirmation of Banja Luka`s openness to the world and readiness for cooperation.