Days of Humor and Satire "Vuko Bezarević"

For four decades, Pljevlja has devoted five June days to laughter. The Days of Humor and Satire — the 2025 edition was the thirty-ninth — fill the town's Center for Culture with comedy, and honour the legacy of the writer Vuko Bezarević, whose work earned Pljevlja its reputation as the region's "capital of humor".

Pljevlja sits in the high country of Montenegro's far north, a town of long winters and quick wit, closer to the Tara canyon and the Serbian border than to any coast. Its satirical streak is a genuine local inheritance — humor as the highlands' weapon of choice against hardship — and the festival treats it accordingly.

The festival's backbone is its awards, which together map the whole territory of the comic arts: the "Tipar" award goes to the best book of humor and satire, the "Vuko Bezarević" award honours satirical prose, and the "Risto Pejatović" award recognizes caricature. Few festivals anywhere take the business of being funny this seriously.

On stage, comedy theatre performances carry the evenings, joined by a choir programme — five days in which the Center for Culture becomes a gathering point for the sharpest pens and best comic actors of the region, with the audience as the final judge.

Audiences need no local background to enjoy the stage programme — comic timing translates — while the award evenings offer a glimpse of a literary scene that takes its laughter with real seriousness. June is also the town's gentlest season, with the surrounding highlands green and the summer heat still at bay.

The festival runs over five days in June, and entry is free or low-cost. For travellers heading between the Tara canyon and Serbia, it is a reason to give Pljevlja — usually a transit town — an overnight stay and an evening of laughter.