Music and Society

The Ups! festival in Zadar might have been a pretty good event. The program included The Beat Fleet, Let 3, Damir Urban... But then all three of them cancelled their appearances after discovering that among the sponsors of the festival was the "Society for truth about the Homeland war" (Zaklada za istinu o domovinskom ratu), which was planning to use the festival to continue their marketing of Ante Gotovina t-shirts.

Saša Antić of The Beat Fleet explained the band's decision: "The Society for truth abouth the Homeland war accepts the ideology of hatred and of racial, religious and national discrimination. That is not the way to achieve world peace, which we as a band try to advance."

The question arises as to what the Society thought they were doing in the festival in the first place. Among the mystified is Davor Fadić from the Zadar youth organization ZVUK – Zadarska vizija urbane kulture: "On the one hand, if you look at the texts and messages of the bands, and on the other hand the work and vision of the Society it is clear that these are two completely different things. The bands confirmed this with their boycott." At the request of the organizers, the Society has withdrawn its sponsorship. The damage is done all the same.