Belgrade, Serbia

Belgrade summer season clubbing – a practical guide

Published: August 27, 2010

As someone who spends a lot of time in Belgrade’s “famous” nightlife I feel most online guides are not useful in making a decision on where to spend your night, especially if you have a limited amount of time in this city. What is available also changes quite a bit from season to season and most online guides are seriously outdated.

Disclaimer: Some of these descriptions are littered with prejudice. This is my personal opinion and experience on these places, your mileage may vary.

Blaywatch (Official Facebook):

The Crowd: crew cut mafia type money-laundering muscle men and ultra hot barbie-like plastic women, no brain on either. Lots of teenagers.
The Why: This is where you bring young, easily impressionable Serbian village girls, preferably to the VIP section and shower them with cocktails. If you do it right, this gets you laid.
The Music: Commercial house, hip-hop, RnB and shitty Serbian folk music
The Dancing: People mostly stand around looking at each other, on a crowded night there is no space for dancing
The Cost: Ultra Expensive
Arrive before: no clue, been once and some stupid bitch started yelling at me for leaning on HER table while tying my shoelace. Left and never went back, fuck those people.

H2O:

Similar to Blaywatch but there is more ear-busting folk music, often live.

Sound (Official Facebook):

The Crowd: beautiful and ultra posh pretentious 20-somethings for the most part, some local celebrities
The Why: you’re into commercial house music and want to “see and be seen”
The Music: Commercial house music, frequent famous DJ bookings usually with no cover charge.
The Dancing: The crowds are too much for any meaningful dancing, also the posh crowd just likes to stand around and stare at each other, never understood why.
The Cost: Ultra Expensive
Arrive before: I don’t frequent it too much but 2am at the latest sounds about right, expect to find a line at the door on really busy nights if you arrive late.

Freestyler (Official Website):

The Crowd: mainly teenagers and muscle-types looking for trouble; sexy girls dancing wherever there is space. I’ve never seen more fights get started in a nightclub.
The Why: I really don’t know, I make a point of not going to clubs that have a metal detector at the door and large populations of teenagers trying to prove something.
The Music: Commercial house music, sometimes famous DJ bookings
The Dancing: usually too crowded but there is the occasional dancing
The Cost: Ultra Expensive (360 for the cheapest beer and you never have change? Bitch please!)
Arrive before: 1-2am, line at the door on crowded nights if you arrive late.

20/44 (Official Facebook):

The Crowd: artists, hipsters, music lovers, relaxed open-minded folk
The Why: you want to meet cool non-pretentious people and have a conversation with them (if you can communicate over the loud music) or you want to listen to great music and prefer to not be ripped off in the process.
The Music: soul, funk, new wave, electro, experimental…
The Dancing: People dance!
The Cost: free before midnight, 200-300din cover afterwards, drinks are cheap
Arrive before: They sortof stop letting people in after 3am but its still possible to charm your way in, after 4am and definitely by 5am it becomes quite dead.

Jocker (Official Facebook):

The Crowd: varied, burnouts, people that don’t want to go home for the night
The Why: every other place is closed for the night but the party must go on, also there is a cool dog that parties with you. You can go for a swim in the river if you wish.
The Music: mix of a lot of things, Electro, Rock, Pop, more club-like before 4am and more lounge-like afterward.
The Dancing: More like stumbling around incoherently, but yes
The Cost: Cheap
Arrive before: before 4am mostly normal people, after 4am crazy party people that just wont go home, dies around 8-9am.

Povetarac (Official Facebook):

The Crowd: fairly normal people, rockers, some teenagers and usually lots of foreigners during tourist season
The Why: its an actual boat and you party on its deck! Always good fun. Try the Medovača (a honey liqueur type drink) that is absolutely delicious, then have another. By far my favorite club this season.
The Music: DJ mix of hip-hop, rock, pop, 80s, 90s, both foreign and domestic
The Dancing: Yes but limited due to the crowds
The Cost: Cheap-Medium
Arrive before: They stop letting people in at 3am and they are quite strict about this, arrive before 2am as there tends to be a large line to get in between 2-3am

Plastic Light (Official Facebook):

The Crowd: all sorts of people, this is the truly universal commercial electronica nightclub
The Why: You want to have a good time with decent people and not spend a fortune.
The Music: depends on the night, mostly commercial house/electronica music on weekends, Salsa on Wednesdays
The Dancing: Yes, for the most part
The Cost: Medium-Expensive
Arrive before: 2am but usually its no problem getting in all night as long as there are people inside, sometimes it can last till 5am and beyond

Sindikat (Official Facebook):

The Crowd: posh people but usually pleasant
The Why: You want to see something other than DJs spinning records, it looks nice outside and in.
The Music: on weekends mostly live cover bands of house music and Serbian rock/pop hits
The Dancing: Yes
The Cost: Medium-Expensive
Arrive before: 12-1am probably, after that they may want you to have reservations, could try charming your way in though (bring ladies with you for this)

Bitef Art Cafe Summer Stage (Official Facebook):

The Crowd: a variety of people, mostly 20+ and some 30+, a bit posh but not too bad
The Why: great open air location on Kalemegdan fortress
The Music: very good cover bands playing a mix of music both foreign and domestic
The Dancing: Yes
The Cost: Medium
Arrive before: 12-1am, this place tends to die out earlier in the night than most

KST (Official Facebook):

The Crowd: mostly teenagers, metal-heads, rock freaks, goths
The Why: You want to see where practically everyone in Serbia popped their nightclub cherry, this place has been around since the 1960s
The Music: depends on the night, weekends usually a mix of domestic and foreign rock, pop, 80s, 90s, also has gothic music nights
The Dancing: Jumping around and head banging
The Cost: Ultra cheap
Arrive before: 1am, expect a minimal cover charge on some nights

KC GRAD (Official Facebook):

The Crowd: hipster-ish young-ish crowd, usually cool, sometimes pretentious artsy types can be found
The Why: looks like an abandoned warehouse, very alternative and underground music and people
The Music: Many foreign and lesser known musicians and DJs, Drum n Bass, Electro, French Electro. Great music in general
The Dancing: more or less
The Cost: usually has cover which is less before 12am, more after but not expensive, drinks are very cheap
Arrive before: Closed July-August, otherwise 3am, they usually don’t allow in afterward, arrive by 1am to get a good dose of music.

Ada Ciganlija Clubbing:

There are many clubs on Belgrade’s “beach” called Ada Ciganlija, you can find all kinds of music and lots of live cover bands on weekends, I go perhaps once a year since it is far from the city and I’ve never had a good time over there… too many kids, annoying people and shitty music. For the money you’ll spend on a taxi to get there and back you’re much better off staying closer to downtown and drinking that money instead.

For the end:

No matter where you go, have a good time for yourself and the people you are with, if you are able to do this your surroundings don’t really matter. For the winter season I will compile a different guide once it is known what will be open this winter and their programme. But from this list the following are also open during the winter: KC Grad, KST, Bitef Art Cafe (different location), Povetarac (under the deck instead of above), 20/44 (inside the boat), Plastic (different location), most of the others have their winter equivalent also.

Thanks to Viktor for letting me guest post

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