Dogaja Project
Empowering Local Music Markets X Balkan
This year for the first time we are running a pilot project in cooperation with one of the leading music business and showcase festivals in central and eastern Europe, MENT in Ljubljana, Slovenia and the Balkan wide initiative New Faces.
The exchange pilot project DOGAJA (Empowering Local Music Markets X Balkan) aims to enhance music business conferences by fostering international exchange between music industry professionals (not artists) through human-centered design principles. Participants with diverse backgrounds, coming from the Balkans and Berlin through the Most Wanted: Music ecosystem, will collaborate to develop projects addressing sustainability and diversity with business development. Through workshops, mentorship, in depth interviews with music business professionals and a work exchange at Most Wanted: Music in November, the project seeks to empower individuals, bridge market gaps, and address funding dilemmas. This project should facilitate young entrepreneurs in their journeys through focused support and small funding.
The future: The project will expand with more participants and other music business conferences. The point of the project is that it is co-created so the specific objectives will be developed with time. We would like to eventually develop a network of skilled individuals across different music markets who are independent and can share resources.
Meet our participants from MENT and New Faces:
Mirna Čupić
Mirna Čupić cut her teeth stagehanding and volunteering in KSET venue and at multiple film and music festivals in Croatia. She has been running KSET’s booking team from 2021 – 2024; managing events, writing projects and organizing concerts and various programs. As her experience grew, she started working professionally for festivals: leading hospitality sectors for SHIP and Motovun Film Festival and stage managing for Tam Tam festival. In 2022 she participated in MOST Management Training Pillar which introduced her to the international music industry. Freshly graduated with a master’s degree in psychology from Zagreb’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, she is also active as a guitarist and vocalist in two Zagreb based bands: Kaleido and Panakota.
Ružica Petrova
Ružica Petrova Since 2023, Ružica has been working as a production assistant at MENT Ljubljana. She is a music journalist and a member of the music department of Radio Študent Ljubljana, one of the oldest non-commercial radio stations in Europe. As part of the radio she is the co-author and co-host of Hiljadu Decibela, a semi-monthly radio show that covers new music releases, artists and alternative scenes from the former Yugoslav countries. She is also an active host of DJ Seansa, a weekly show that through exclusive DJ sets and interviews promotes both upcoming and well established artists from Slovenia and different parts of the world. In the past three years she was part of the organization team of TRESK, an annual music festival organized by Radio Študent, which brings together local, regional and European independent labels, distributors and artists. She is one half of the turbocharged DJ duo The BPM Police and recently started DJing solo as Sahara Transport Services.