Us Rapper Terrified Of Croatia

US Rapper Terrified Of Croatia

American hip hop star Nas cancelled a gig in Croatia this week after becoming
concerned that the hugely popular European holiday destination is 'too dangerous'.

"We pulled out of the Croatia show in early April due to Nas not being totally
comfortable with his safety," Nas' tour rep, Anthony Saleah told AllHipHop.com, "We
gave them notice early enough."

Concert organisers Aquarius said they were surprised, explaining 'We told his
management that James Brown, Pink, the Rolling Stones, Public Enemy and others had
performed in Zagreb and had no problems. But he has not changed his mind. We have no
idea why Nas is so afraid of coming to Croatia'.

Croatia Garden Festival organisers Eddie O'Callaghan & Nick Colgan told Skrufff they
were equally perplexed, suggesting 'if Nas' lyrics are to be believed you would
imagine he would be entirely fearless, maybe he's been a bit misinformed.'

"Everyone we've asked has been fascinated and delighted by the prospect of a visit,
Croatia is truly beautiful. We've never encountered artists scared of visiting
Croatia," they added.

Exit festival organizer Rastko Andric said they encounter similar prejudices towards
Serbia 'all the time' with worriers visualising the entire region as a war zone
because of the conflict from the mid 90s.

"The situation is different here now, in fact both Croats and Serbs are well known
for being very hospitable people," Rastko pointed out.

"And from our experiences with Exit and other events we've staged in Slovenia,
Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia, I can honestly say that almost every artist has
changed his or her general opinion after performing here."

Snoop Dog, Lauren Hill and the Wu Tang Clan headline this year's Exit in Novi Sad,
then in August, Exit will be shifting their attention to Montenegro, Rastko said,
where they launch a brand new event called Refresh.

"The concept for this new festival is to try to create one exceptional electronic
music festival by the seaside and Montenegro is just the right place to do this," he
said.

"Last year we did a few 'smaller' parties where ATFC, Sebastian Ingrosso and
Marshall Jefferson played and this year we are upgrading our concept and trying to
establish a 4 day electronic music festival held at a new discoteque called
Maximus. The club opened last year and in my opinion is the best club in the
Balkans. Maximus is built to host more then 5000 clubbers, it has an excellent
Martin sound system and an amazing lighting set up. We often joke that the club has
a better set up than the Dance Arena at Exit," he added.

Zagreb promoter Sergej also dismissed Nas' fears ('when the war was on we had Jeff
Mills and Sven Vath playing in the same club', he laughed) and said the only trouble
he's heard of recently was when 'some drunk guy kicked one transvestite from Vienna
band Menstruation Monsters'. He also revealed he's doing his own series of parties
this summer at Croatia exquisite beach club Porat (near Vodice).

"It's probably one of the most beautiful summer clubs in Europe," he said, "We're
launching a series of events called Avant Garden every Saturday which will be day
and night events offering up to 16 hours of clubbing."

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