Ardin Badivuku
“Unum” is Latin for “to become one”, so we will all become one from 3-7 June.
When talking about regional club events and festivals, it is inevitable to mention the name Ardin Badivuku. Ardin is a promoter with 15 years of experience, who is the driving force behind "Next Level Agency", based in Pristina, Kosovo and with a branch office in Tirana, Albania. This company is focused on organizing events, booking artists and corporate shows of various international music artists in Kosovo, the region and Europe. From 2019, the team of this agency stands out with the engagement behind "UNUM" festival in Shengjin, Albania, which from its first edition managed to reach great popularity and inspire the editors of big magazines such as "mixmag.net", "meoko.net "and" trommelmusic.com" to write about it.
Following, an interview with Ardin Badivuku, with whom we will talk about his beginnings as a promoter, the events which he is especially proud that he organized and of course, the activities, information and program around the festival "UNUM 2021".
Roomania: Hi Ardin, welcome to "ROOMANIA". We are honored and pleased to be collaborating again and to be able to discuss topics of mutual interest.
Let us begin with what attracted you to this profession to become a PR and promoter? Can you share with us briefly about your beginnings and how the whole story developed?
First of all, thanks for inviting me.It is always a pleasure to talk about music and events. Ever since 1996, when I heard the release from “Prodigy”, “Breathe”, I fell in love with electronic music. “Prodigy” are trendsetters when we talk about dance music and I have followed them since that time. Regarding PR, I graduated in 2010 from “South East European University”, which helped me a lot to combine theory with practice and organizing events using different techniques.
Roomania: How and when did "Next Level'' come about and what was the original idea of the company? How many people are included in the "Next Level'' team?
At that time, I was a member on one forum from Germany which had a lot of discussion about electronic music, events and other electronic music related stuff. There were some levels that you needed to pass and I got inspiration from that to name my agency“Next Level”,which means a lot for me - life, work and everything, it's about “Next Level”.
Roomania: Over the years, "Next Level'' have become a "key player" in the electronics industry in the region. This is certainly based on numerous collaborations and contact with many artists and people. After so many years of hard work and dedication, how does it feel to look back and see all of your accomplishments?
It's been a long and challenging journey. I have lived for 15 years from music, events, art and bookings, and it is very difficult to survive in our region just from that. But when you put hard work, love, dedication and passion in your work, there will always be good results.
Roomania: What event are you especially proud of? What details do you pay more attention to when organizing an event and what is a successful project for you?
To be honest, I booked, organized and hosted more than 200 international artists. Let me name a few that I am proud I booked and had a lot of fun with. I remember “John Digweed” when he came for the first time in Pristina, “LTJ Bukem”, “Shonky”, “Steve Bug”, “Heidi”, “Anja Schneider”, “Guy Gerber”, “Antigone” who recently played for “Street Party”, etc. Details are very important when organizing successful events: first step is you choose a good artist, you do good PR for that, then comes sound and production and if these elements fit well with each other, then you have a successful event.
Roomania: What was the last event you managed to organize before the world madness started? Did you believe that after that event there would be a "break" in the world?
One week before the pandemic started heavily, we had “Molly” from Paris. It was the 7th of March at “Teatri ODA” (a famous theatre where a lot of parties were organized) with propped sound, lights, led screens, dancing people and high quality music.
Roomania: "UNUM Festival '' has existed since 2019. The festival has managed to gain a great rating since its first edition. How did the idea and cooperation with this festival come about?
The crew of “Unum Festival” are my friends and collaborators, and they invited me and trusted my PR work. At “Unum Festival” I am engaged with regional and international PR. There is a big local and international team behind it, where everybody has more than 10-15 years of experience in different fields.
Roomania: Who helped you the most in the realization of this project? How did the preparations for the first edition go?
Of course, the Albanian Government helped to realize this project, which is very important for them as well, to gain tourists and to promote Albania through different festivals. Albania is a good example for showing support for a lot of local and international Festivals, which I must say is a very smart move. Preparations from the first edition in general went well. We had an aggressive PR campaign with a huge line up and had more than 5000 tourists since the first edition and we can freely say that it was a success.
Roomania: Can you share some details about what happened at "UNUM 2019"? Did all the performances go as planned? What impressions and experiences were shared after the festival ended?
All performances went well and despite that “Ricardo Villalobos” played when it was raniy, people didn’t give a fuck and they partied in the rain. We had very good impressions and feedback from people and international media.
Roomania: The COVID crisis has put 2020 on hold. How did you experience the information that "UNUM 2020" will be postponed? What did you focus on most and what did you do during the forced break from events?
It was a nightmare to postpone preparations in 2020, but they were hard times for everybody and we decided to transfer the complete 2020 edition into the 2021 edition, so we were standing by the whole time and analyzing the situation.
Roomania: Due to the COVID crisis, many associations were formed for better conditions in the music industry. In Macedonia some are "Music Now", "Association of Cultural Promoters ACP'', "Association of Event Industry IVAP", etc. Have such associations been formed in your country?
Actually, we don’t have associations like that, but we really need to create one to stand together in hard times, because who knows what will happen after the pandemic. We had some “Zoom” discussions about it. We must be united.
Roomania: Preparations are underway for "UNUM 2021", which you have stated will take place in June with 100% certainty. As the first festival in the region, you managed to arrange rapid tests for the visitors and the festival to be fully approved by the Government of the Republic of Albania. How did you manage to make this possible? Does the Government of the Republic of Albania or private sponsors help you to implement the protocols smoothly? Will other events that will take place in Albania use rapid tests?
As I mentioned before, the Albanian Government is a good example for showing support and promoting music festivals in Albania. Our proposal to do rapid tests to get into the festival was approved in January from the Minister of Tourism. This helped a lot to gain a lot of international tourists, because we were the only festival that was promoting rapid testing. “Unum Festival” is a test for other events and festival activities which are going to take place in Albania.
Roomania: Does the Government of the Republic of Albania fully support the event industry or is "UNUM" festival particularly privileged?
Yes, they do a lot. We have been very happy with their cooperation since day one.
Roomania: Apart from the rapid tests, what other protocols will the festival have?
There are two things that people must know: you can bring your negative test from your own country which is valid for 72 hours, or you can do a rapid test at our location where you will have the result in 10 minutes.
Roomania: In the previous edition of the festival we can see uniquely designed stages. Who is behind these designs? How many stages will the festival have and how many visitors do you expect?
The stage designs belong to “Kuju Studio”, a guy from Kosovo who is living in Albania. We have the Main Stage, Beach Stage and the famous Pine Stage which is bigger this year.
Roomania: Who are the headliners of the festival and how many artists will the festival have in total? Do artists have any special requirements for performing in a pandemic?
We have more than 75 international and regional artists. Headliners who I would mention and looking forward to are: “Ben Klock”, “Sven Vath”, “Ricardo Villalobos”, “Mathew Johnson”, “Raresh”, “Traumer”, “Praslea”, “Sonja Moonear”, etc. It is a diversity between styles: house, techno and minimal.
Roomania: One of your musical partners is the Romanian festival "SUNWAVES", and with that, Praslea, Priku, Raresh, Ricardo Villalobos and Traumer will perform. Many of the artists on the "UNUM Festival" program nurture the Romanian minimal house sound that inspired the idea of our new project "Roomania". This epic sound not only defined its incredible sub-genre, but also established itself globally. What is the interest of the audience at the festival for this sound and these artists?
Interest for this sound and these artists is huge and trendy, they have fans all over the world who come to listen to just them. People behind the festival are huge fans of this kind of music.
Roomania: Besides the main music performances, what else does the festival offer?
Besides music, we will have an open air Cinema at the beach, organized from “Dokufest”, in which they will broadcast documentary films from the music industry. Meanwhile, they will celebrate their 20th anniversary and we are happy about that. We will also have yoga sessions, free massages for 10 mins (with tips), a huge court for food, drinks, cocktails, traditional things and artisanal, merch, fashion court, etc.
Roomania: What should our readers in Macedonia know if they want to visit the festival? How does the audience react after a long break from festivals and events? Is the interest in buying tickets increased or is there any fear?
We have received a lot of feedback from all over the world. People from Macedonia must come and they will experience “Next Level” organization this year. I suggest they follow our social media platforms Facebook , Instagram & our official websiteto be informed about everything.
Roomania: How did you come up with the name “UNUM”? What does the festival call for?
“Unum” is Latin for “to become one”, so we will all become one from 3-7 June.
Roomania: Finally, why do you recommend visiting "UNUM Festival 2021"? What makes it unique?
This year is something else; from stages, location, sound from Italy and many many things.
Ardin, thank you for your honest answers. We recommend that our readers attend all of your events, because we have personal experience of your professionalism. We wish you a successful festival and easy work in these still difficult times for the event industry. We hope that the crisis will soon come to pass and we will be able to direct the attention that the protocols take away from us in the organization, to greater creativity and interest in the events we are working on.
author:
Aleksandar Mitrik
Editor in chief
author:
Aleksandar Samardjiski
Editor in chief