At today's press conference, the mayor of Bitola, Toni Konjanovski, complained that with the regrouping of councilors in the Council and the loss of the majority of VMRO-DPMNE, one thing that is certain is that the new majority will not allow the expansion of the funds needed to realize all the planned events for the Bitola cultural summer "Bitfest 2023".

Therefore, a decision was made to shorten certain cultural and musical events and to hold this year's "Beatfest" with the funds foreseen in the field of culture and the funds approved by the Council.

-From the very first day of my mandate, in addition to the implementation of infrastructure projects, my team and I emphasized the return of cultural life in Bitola, support of the domestic cultural scene and affirmation of real cultural values ​​in the city. The great support of the events was our motive for a new concept of the Bitola Cultural Summer, an exceptional April program, a wonderful winter story with the best concept while also enabling the support of numerous traditional manifestations, realized through cultural institutions in the Municipality of Bitola. With that, we showed that party affiliation must be separate from culture. This year, on the threshold of the opening of the 15th edition of the Bitola cultural summer, we are faced with numerous criticisms from certain advisory groups whose members, although they were mostly in the forefront of cultural events, still criticized and condemned culture the most. This means that this approach of the Council will not allow the expansion of the funds needed for the realization of all planned events for Beatfest 2023, which means that the Commission would be in an unpleasant situation of choosing between an approximately equal level of quality, the mayor said at a press conference of Bitola, Tony Konjanovski.

He pointed out that continuing with the transparency and responsibility towards the citizens and all cultural artists and performers as a local self-government, they decided to implement this year's concept of "Beatfest" within the framework of the funds approved by the Council for Culture.

-Here I would like to apologize to all the artists who showed interest in performing at the Bitola Cultural Summer, but the lack of support from the Council also limits the financial resources that the Municipality should set aside and realize for the high-quality musical stage and artistic events, as well as for an additional off program, which would mean festival support for the alternative scene and young artists from our city. With this concept, I believe that this summer again, all together, the cultural institutions from Bitola and our performers, we will manage to keep the attention of the audience, the large number of guests who visit Bitola in the summer period, and all together at the end of this edition of "Beatfest", we will speak with superlatives, about another successful edition, realized in quite difficult political conditions - said Konjanovski.

Otherwise, this year's "Beatfest" will start on June 23 in the ancient site of Heraclea with a spectacular event entitled "Viva Verdi" with more than 130 participants, a symphony orchestra, a choir and opera soloists.

At the Bitola Cultural Summer, the traditional events "Solstice", "Bitola Open City", "Shakespeare Festival", "Lokum Fest", "Unforgettable" and "Ilindenski Days" will be held.