Aleksandar Raković

THE LEAGUE OF SOCIALIST YOUTH OF YUGOSLAVIA AND BOOM FESTIVAL (1971–1978): FROM ANTI-SOCIALIST APPEARANCES AT THE FESTIVAL TO SOCIALIST CORRECTIONS

Abstract: Based on the press of the League of Socialist Youth in Yugoslavia, also Yugoslav music and entertainment-information press, archival documentation from the Archives of Yugoslavia, the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia and the Historical Archives of Belgrade, as well as literature. This paper discusses the positions of the League of Socialist Youth towards all-Yugoslav BOOM Festival, mass gatherings of hippies, but also covers how the League of Socialist Youth corrected some anti-socialist appearances at this festival and gave to BOOM Festival a socialist shape. 

Keywords: The League of Socialist Youth, BOOM Festival, Yugoslavia, rock & roll, hippies 

Summary: At the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, the Yugoslav public followed through media mass gatherings of hippies in the West and their rock and roll festivals, where anti-war and anti-imperialist slogans were always expressed. Thus, the hippie movement was very popular in Yugoslavia. Unlike in the West, long-haired Yugoslav hippies and rock and roll bands were never a counterculture towards Yugoslav socialism. Even influential foreign hippies showed sympathies for Yugoslav self-governed socialism. Therefore, the “Yugoslav Woodstock” was expected to happen. This epithet, albeit “Little Woodstock”, was given to BOOM Festival, which was held in 1971 in Maribor, and in 1972, 1973 and 1974 in Ljubljana, organized by the private agency “Slovenijаkoncert”. BООM festival had a general Yugoslav character, but inappropriate events at BООM 73 (mass usage of drugs, alcohol and distribution of pornography) and BООM 74 (mass usage of drugs and alcohol, but also allegations of Yugoslav rockers mocking the celebration of Ljubljana’s liberation from the Nazis) cast doubt on the possibility of this festival being part of the socialist order. Therefore, the League of Socialist Youth, as new co-organizer, gave to BOOM 75 in Zagreb – in addition to all-Yugoslav appearance – a socialist character. Both, all-Yugoslav appearance and socialist character were also expressed at BOOM 76 in Belgrade, and the eligibility of the BOOM Festival was subsequently not disputed. Despite the fact that the League of Socialist Youth saved the BOOM festival from extinction, already at BOOM 76 the socialist youth organization did not want to be either a patron or co-organizer of the festival. Also, the socialist youth organization was not present at BOOM 77 and BOOM 78, held in Novi Sad. On the one hand, the League of Socialist Youth of Yugoslavia said that they did not want to have a tutoring relation towards youth creativity, and on the other hand, the socialist youth organization obviously did not trust private managers who still had the main say in organization of BOOM festival. Time began to run out for BOOM Festival because in the second half of the 1970s, a band from Sarajevo Bijelo dugme – more than anyone else in the rock and roll culture of Yugoslavia – united the all-Yugoslav appearance and socialist character in relation to young people. In 1977 Bijelo dugme gave to Yugoslav society a real ”Yugoslav Woodstock” at the Concert of Hajdučka česma in Belgrade.  At the same time, some other rock festivals in Yugoslavia began to overshadow the BOOM festival, which, from the connecting the leading Yugoslav bands, fell to the fact that at the last BOOM 78, it was just a gathering of mostly unfirmed or partially affirmed groups. However, there is no doubt that BOOM festival was the first rock event with all-Yugoslav character and that, therefore, despite its ups and downs, it was important for Yugoslav society and youth culture.