PATOSOFFIRANJE is a multimedia festival for young audiences, which presents drama and music / rhythm workshops, theatre productions, performances, visual arts exhibitions, concerts of contemporary music, screenings of video works, and panels.
Main criteria of the Festival are that all the programmes - productions and presentations, need to be characterized by strong authorial approach, originality, youth inventiveness, provocativeness and freshness. Therefore, the award Branislav Čubrilović is given to the bravest and most innovative project presented in the Festival.
The aim of the Festival is to inform and familiarize young audiences with contemporary art flows, but also to animate them to participate in art-making and to thus educate them.
Although the target group of the Festival are young audiences in the first place, the Festival addresses also citizens of middle generation, with urban sensibility and inclination towards contemporary art. Both those broad target groups have warmly greeted and supported the first issue of the Festival.

Festival was held for the first time last year - from 1st to 3rd July 2005.
The idea was born from the great need for quality cultural offer for the young, which was totally neglected during the 90’s. The initiative however came from the AR.CO (Artistic Connection) international performing arts project (INTERREG III A Trans-Adriatico project line) which included young artists from Italy, Albania, Croatia, B&H and SCG.
The Festival was a part of the final phase of a 20-day workshop held within this project.
Together with the workshop results, there were presented guest performances of other theatre companies, modern ballet performances, video and film screenings and video recordings of theatre productions of PATOS and of partner companies from Italy and Western Balkans, concerts of local musicians, performances and improvised performing arts sessions which included all the artists participating in the project.
The Festival met an extremely favourable response in the local community, especially among the young who, after a gap of almost 15 years, finally had a chance to get acquainted with contemporary and innovative art tendencies, but also to actively participate in interactive Festival programs, and meet and exchange experiences with the youngsters from other countries.
Centre for Culture has established strong quality connections with guests and partners, who were, and still are, determined to bring their new work to the Festival this year.

Program of the festival PATOSOFFIRANJE 2006
This year the Festival will present:

• 2 two-day theatre workshops
• 4 one-day percussionist workshops
• 6 theatre productions in official selection
• 1 theatre production outside the selection
• 1 modern dance performance, outside the selection
• 2 art performances
• 3 video art screening sessions
• 1 contemporary music concert
• 1 popular music concert
• 3 music sessions (jazz, world music, rock)
• 4 panels with guest artists
• DJ evenings

The Festival previews to include app. 200 young people in interactive art events (6 workshops, 3 music sessions, 4 panels); to attract app. 5 000 people as audience for 28 art programs; and to reach app. 25 000 inhabitants of Smederevo and neighbouring towns/settlements with media information.

PATOS is abbreviation for Mobile Alternative Theatre of the Youth of Smederevo (Pokretni alternativni teatar omladine Smedereva) which gathers young theatre practitioners (professional actors, art students and other young adults, but also teenagers) around research and experimental theatre projects, often realized in cooperation or partnership with professional theatre and performing arts companies and groups in the country and abroad.
 

PATOS is the only performing arts group in Smederevo which functions on permanent basis. PATOS organizes workshops all through the year, and has its own productions at the end of the season. The group is rather large, gathering app. 35 young people in total, as well as app. 15 artists-collaborators from various art disciplines.
PATOS is a strong disseminating factor for contemporary and innovative art in Smederevo and its gravitation region. Members of PATOS are actively involved not only in the artistic part of the programme, but also in organization, realization and promotion of the festival PATOSOFFIRANJE. Members of PATOS form a strong core and a spine line of new urban culture in Smederevo, and a base for cultural work and criteria in the future.