The beginning of the second Queer Sarajevo Festival (QSF) started out peacefully in comparison to last year’s, where organizers, guests and activists faced and experienced violence in the most sever way. Ten persons were hurt during the QSF 2008, and ‘hate speeches’ were used in the media, by B&H politicians and religious leaders.
However, organizers of the second Queer Sarajevo Festival, having in mind the experiences from QSF 2008, opted for a different concept of organizing this year. QSF 2009 will be presented from September 24-28 through billboards throughout the whole State, TV video clip and paper ads in daily and weekly papers in BiH. Therefore, it excludes exhibits, performances and workshops. This decision has been guided by the intent to avoid public gatherings taking into consideration safety of all people who would participate and/or visit the Festival.
According to the public statement of the organizers of the Festival, Organization Q, their intention this year is to gather artists and activists who, through their everyday work and effort, bring attention to taboo issues and bring those issues closer to the public of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as to the Balkan region.
“Our desire is to promote the Festival as an idea of culture and arts that promote diversity in equality and to shed the stereotypes and assumptions about queer persons, offering a glimpse of truth about diversity heading in the direction toward tolerance, so that we can jointly discover and realize diversity in the most positive way”, they state from Q organization.
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