IFTO — International Festival of Tamburica Orchestras

Eight or more of the best tamburica orchestras from Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro share the open-air stage over two main evenings, and guest stars regularly join them — the 22nd edition in July 2025 featured Divanhana and Perper, and earlier years hosted the vocal group The Frajle. The shimmering, layered sound of massed tamburicas filling a summer square is the festival's calling card.

IFTO also warms up long before the main nights: side programmes begin around 23 July, with evenings of poetry and song spreading the festival mood through the town during the preceding week.

The experience rewards simply settling in: as dusk falls the square fills, families claim their benches, and wave after wave of orchestras — each with its own ranks of instruments from delicate lead to deep bass — builds toward the guest-star finale. Even listeners who arrive knowing nothing of the tradition tend to leave humming it.

Both main concert evenings on the city square are free, as are the side events — simply turn up, find a spot on the square and let the orchestras do the rest. It is the easiest introduction to one of the Balkans' most beloved musical traditions.