Despite the financial crisis, the organisers of this year’s KotorArt festival managed to produce a remarkable programme. The Art directors of KotorArt, Croatian theatre director Paolo Magelli and producer Janko Ljumović, director of the Montenegrin National Theatre, ensured that quality was not compromised. The festival was sponsored by UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organisation.

"The uniqueness of KotorArt is that it incorporates different events, different aesthetics and different inspirations," Ljumović told South East Europe: People and Culture.

As before, this year's KotorArt festival featured several sub-programmes: the traditional Kotor Theatre Festival for Children, Don Branko's Days of Music and the International Music Review as well as the Teuta New Ancient Theatre Festival. These were all in addition to the theatre part of the festival: KotorArt Premiers. A new feature in 2010 was the Philosopher's Piazza – edited by writers Srećko Horvat and Andrej Nikolaidis – which consisted of round tables and lectures.

The islands of Our Lady of the Rocks and Saint George's are located near the city of Perast, in the heart of Boka Kotorska Bay. The church of Our Lady of the Rocks, built in 1630, dominates this small artificial island, which provides a unique location for the Festival's New Ancient Theatre – Teuta. This one-day festival saw Ljubo Đurković's play Terisija's Lie directed by Slobo Militović, followed by Prometheus, a play written by Aeschylus and directed by Dimiter Gotscheff.

Teuta festival art director Tihana Ćulafić was pleased with the event: "The festival was held in a beautiful spot, with delightful guests from Germany, important artists, and our performance of Ljubo Đurković's Terisija's Lie."
Cassandra, a production that premiered last year in the Teuta festival segment, was well-received at other festivals throughout the year. The show was given the honour of opening four of the nine international festivals that it featured in. The play was awarded a Grand Prix in the last of these - the "Actor of Europe" international stage festival in the city of Resen in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Tihana Ćulafić pointed out that Dimiter Gotscheff's guest performances in the Teuta theatre were a vital part of the event, but refuses to reveal how the organisers managed to attract the likes of Gotscheff, a celebrated theatre director from Germany of Bulgarian ancestry: "Everything is possible when you have a good idea and some charm. They were not just guests but became dear friends."

The Kotor children's festival is the most longstanding part of the KotorArt events. In the beginning of July, stage director Petar Pejaković headed the event's symbolic 18th edition, and successfully guided the festival’s transition into ‘adulthood’: "In spite of the fact that this year is a year of crisis, we succeeded in creating a fantastic atmosphere in the city." For nine days in July, the children's festival is run by kids. Each year the Kotor authorities hand them the keys to the Renaissance style city gates, built in the 16th century.

Janko Ljumović says that KotorArt's richness lies in its diversity and ability to attract a wide range of spectators: "It is truly a pleasure to see such a diverse crowd. Don Branko's Days of Music attract a large number of foreign visitors. The stage performances have an audience and story of their own, which lies in the discovery of novel spaces, where they are held. The International Fashion Review has yet another audience, while the children's festival was spectacular for all."

The festival's Theatre Premier segment featured three new shows: Salome, written by Miroslav Krleža and produced by Slovenian director Brako Brezovec, La Dispute, a piece written by Pierre de Marivaux directed by Oliver Frljić, while Radmila Vojvodić and Paolo Magelli cooperated on the concept for Njegoš, Fires, a piece based on Montenegrin ruler Petar II Petrović Njegoš' Light of Microcosm.

"We have plenty of reason to say that KotorArt is now a cultural brand and a reference point with regional echoes, which is truly important," said producer Janko Ljumović.