With this in mind, a press conference has been held on the last day of this years’ Summer Festival in the press centre in the Festival palace which was led by the intendant of the Festival Ivica Prlender, the art directors Dora Ruždjak and Ivan Repušić, together with Mayor Andro Vlahušić and the prefect Nikola Dobroslavić.
The drama programme has been made to accommodate everyone’s tastes. “Kate Kapuralica” is a hereditary text in the direction of the young Dario Harjaček (for whom this is also the first big directing job) that breathed life again in a modern and fresh way, much to the delight of the audience and critics. The merger of youth and tradition has shown itself to be an ideal combination, so much in fact that an extra performing has been added to the programme, mainly due to the great interest the public has shown. “Scenes with an apple” by Ivana Sajko is a play for the theatres of tomorrow, made for those who are yet to come, the younger generation who will one day make the foundation of the Summer Festival audience. The premiere of “Oedipus the King” by Sophocles was eagerly awaited, in the interpretation of the Slovenian director Eduard Miler.
-It’s an important bond of different theatrical experiences and cultural environments that are interwoven so much they learn from each other. Miler directed for the first time at the Festival but he created a performance of extraordinary ambient with his intuitive approach- stated Dora Ruždjak. Despite the injury of Mislav Čavajda, two performances and a public rehearsal were held.
Apart from the premieres, some reruns found themselves on this years' repertoire, like “The Delivered” by Tomislav Zajec in the direction of Franka Perković, as well as Gogol’s “The Government Inspector” in the direction of Jernej Lorenci, a success of the Festival that won many awards. Both titles talk about our lives today in an actual and thought-through manner. On the verge of modern questioning of drama theatrics were two guest performances, “My name is Nobody” by the Dubrovnik composer Frano Đurović, premierly shown this year at the Music biennale, and the sensational “One and Two” by the noted choreographer and dancer Emio Greco. In the “off” programme the “Lero” theatre from Dubrovnik took part with the play “Nocturnal Butterflies” by author and director Davor Mojaš, which is, simply put, a Dubrovnik play translated into a modern theatre language. “Diva” by Edvin Liverić also performed in cooperation with the Art-workshop Lazaretto, a cooperation which might become tradition and a training ground for young artists.

As part of the musical programme, 25 concerts have been shown. Orchestras, chamber ensembles and soloists have demonstrated their skill in many styles by playing diverse musical genres – from classical to modern music. The Festival audience had the chance to listen to the greatest world opera stars, such as the contra tenor Max Emanuel Cenčić, mezzo-sopranos Dubravka Šeparović Mušović and Renata Pokupić, or to enjoy in the jazz interpretations by the Kerem Gorsev Trio. Amongst the famous stars many of the greatest violinists performed at the Festival, such as Vadim Repin and Pinchas Zukerman, the best Russian pianists Alexander Ghindin and Boris Berezovsky, accordion player Richard Galliano and the Croatian clarinet player Marija Pavlović who performed brilliantly together with the orchestra of the Milano Scala. The biggest attention of the audience and the media were definitely the performances of Ivo Pogorelić, who performed at the Summer Festival after 26 years, 2CELLOS with two concerts and the Soloists of the Munich Philharmonic with Monika Leskovar. The Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra filled the Rector’s Palace Atrium on three separate occasions, each time eliciting a fervent applause. The Zagreb Wind Ensemble received no less attention and praise, or the guitar trio Dukić-Brčić-Ceku. The Zagreb Soloists and guitarist Pepe Romero have performed for the first time the “Dubrovnik siesta” by Olja Jelaska, specially written for the Summer Festival, and a humanitarian “Concert for Japan” was held by the Croatian Baroque Ensemble. Traditionally, the Linđo ensemble from Dubrovnik and the Lado ensemble from Zagreb performed as part of the folklore program of the Festival. The many accompanying programs of the Festival have been visited by more than 20.000 visitors amongst which the exhibitions by Nikolina Šimunović and Igor Rončević stand out, displayed in the Sponza Palace. Seven movies from the Festival of film in Pula have been shown in the Jadran, Sloboda and Visia theatres. The Dubrovnik Summer Festival has published the monograph “Joško Juvančić Jupa”, whose promotion gathered a great number of Jupa’s colleagues, media, actors and devotees of his cult performances.
-The Dubrovnik Summer Festival created and delivered a rich programme, whose diversity and cultural meaning has been backed up by the Ministry of Culture, the city of Dubrovnik and the Dubrovnik-Neretva County. The recession still left some marks on us as well as on our associates. However, the quality of our programme and the trust in our partners have protected us from any difficult temptations. I firmly believe that the progressive revival of the economy will inevitably have some impact on the rate of sponsor investment in culture.- stated Prlender.

The numerous investors and donators led by the general sponsor of the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, Vipnet, has yet again enabled free information about the programme and interesting topics about the Festival through SMS messages. The service "DLJI info" was available to users of all mobile phone networks. Also, a special Vip programme has been presented, consisting of six extremely attracting music events, with tickets under this programme being available to Vip users at a discount of 20%.
The Summer Festival noted an increase of online ticket sales by 6% compared to last year. From July 1st to August 24th , with the aid of the world accepted methodology “Google Analytics” , as much as 41.500 visitors from 105 countries have been recorded. The great interest of domestic and foreign media resulted in more than 1000 press releases and 1500 news portal releases, while 208 press and electronic media representatives have accredited themselves in the press office.
Ivica Prlender used the occasion to thank Vipnet, the general sponsor, as well as many other sponsor and donators like Siemens, Mazda, Atlas, OTP bank, Dubrovnik Airport, Atlanska plovidba, the Dubrovnik museums, State Archive and many other partners, media representatives, artists and citizens of the city of Dubrovnik for their support and excellent cooperation.