D Festival

D-Fest started as a response to the lack of festivals of this scale in Macedonia. Refusing to accept a standstill in culture, Password Productions took on the challenge with something modest that grew into the country’s largest summer festival. For the second year in a row, D-Fest calls Shtip home, one of Macedonia’s oldest cities, spread across the valleys of the Bregalnica and Otinja rivers.

Fun fact: the first opera in Macedonia was performed in Shtip in 1924 — Pagliacci, conducted by Sergei Mikhailov. A century later, the city welcomes one of the Big Four of German thrash metal, Destruction. Two very different sides of the same coin, both finding their place in Shtip. This year we’re listening to Idles, DJ Premier, Boris Brejcha, Strajk, Destruction, KoiKoi, Lelee, Telemama, and 70+ more artists.

Across a three-day program of several stages for artists to shine on, a festival camp and a square space vendor village/bazaar of homegrown creatives which mirror the stages in Block-Art (Плошт-арт) all of which enjoyed by over 30,000 festivalgoers. 30,000 people return each year for the feeling of discovery: a new artist to fall in love with, a familiar face in the crowd, a moment worth remembering, and a trip back home ending with a nap on the couch with a tan and merch from their favorite artists.