Gusinje Summer (Gusinjsko ljeto)

Gusinjsko ljeto — Gusinje Summer — is the month-long festival that carries this Prokletije valley town through high summer, running roughly from 10 July to 10 August (the 2025 edition spanned 13 July to 5 August). More than a festival, it is the annual homecoming of Gusinje's large diaspora, whose return doubles the valley's population and energy.

The programme is famously eclectic. Big open-air concerts anchor the evenings, while the days fill with exhibitions, ethno-room visits, book promotions and a bicycle race through the valley. One fixture captures the diaspora spirit perfectly: a basketball match pitting Gusinje's emigrants in the USA against those in Europe.

Everything peaks on 1 and 2 August. Traditional village games take over Vusanje on the 1st, and on the 2nd the whole valley converges on Ali-pašini izvori — the crystal springs of Ali Pasha — for the great Aliđun gathering, the emotional summit of the homecoming.

All events are free. The festival spreads across Gusinje town, the springs and the village of Vusanje, beneath some of the most dramatic peaks in the Prokletije — come for the concerts, stay for the sense of a scattered community reassembling at home.