Budva municipal president Dragan Krapovic’s announcement that he will give significantly less money for the Sea Dance festival, and maybe not a single cent, provoked disbelief among tourism workers. Co-owner of Montenegro Stars and the Splendid Hotel CEO Zarko Radulovic told Dnevne Novine newspaper that the Sea Dance festival brought a lot of good to the Montenegrin capital of tourism.
“It seems that municipal president Dragan Krapovic does not consult anyone in his zeal to do good things. That is his right, but I am afraid that he will destroy Budva in that way. He should have asked those who voted for him whether this festival brought some benefits to them. I argue that it did. Although the money is not poured directly into the municipal budget, it ends up in the cash registers of tourism enterprises and citizens of Budva engaged in tourism,” said Radulovic.
DN called in mind that the Sea Dance festival had been held on the Jaz beach since 2014. Previously signed agreement stipulates that the municipality allocates €300,000 from its budget for this festival, whereas the Tourism Organisation of Budva and the government should allocate €100,000 each.
However, Krapovic announced that the festival would not get so much money and that the municipality may not allocate any money for that purpose.
Maybe such Krapovic’s move is not surprising, given that during election campaign he said that EXIT brand deserved respect but that the municipality would not support it at all costs.
After media announcements that the festival might not be held this year, he said that it was known in Budva how Sea Dance was initially agreed.
“We know who had both formal and informal benefits from that agreement, we know who assigned locations and contracts for the festival and how he/she did that and who personally made profit from the Sea Dance festival… we know how the EMC Group, you are the 100% owners of, assigned tasks related to the festival to the loyal companies in Budva and beyond, etc, etc, etc. Since we all know that, you must know that as well, so in this regard I will ask a few questions: Why in the first year of the festival did not you ask all the things you are asking for now? Why didn’t you do that when you knew everything then? Are you saying that you did not know where you are coming, that you did not heard of the Stones’ and Madonna’s concerts which are still paid by the citizens of Budva and Montenegro?” said Krapovic.
