Tonight, Splav Sloboda on Zemunski kej hosts what might be the most anticipated pre-summer event on the Belgrade splav circuit this June: Velika Gužva — a special edition featuring the Montenegrin hip-hop duo Who See alongside DJ Gilić, with doors opening at 22h. The concept is simple and the execution is exactly what Belgrade’s splav season deserves as a proper warm-up: two acts, one boat, and the Danube doing what it always does on a Friday night in June.

The Venue: Splav Sloboda on Zemunski Kej

Sloboda sits on one of Belgrade’s most distinctive stretches of riverside — Zemunski kej, the embankment that runs along the Danube with the historic towers of Zemun rising behind it. Unlike the Sava splavovi that cluster around Belgrade Fair or the Beton Hala area, the Zemun side has its own character: slightly removed from the main circuit, with a crowd that tends to be more local and less tourist-facing, and an atmosphere that rewards knowing where to go.

The splav holds around 400 people and has built a reputation over recent seasons for a programme that leans into disco and dance music with occasional special events that break the format entirely. Tonight is one of those occasions. A capacity of 400 with Who See on the bill means this will fill up fast — entry is set at 1,000 RSD for the Who See night, a price point that reflects the weight of the booking.

Who See: Twenty Years of the Hardest Hip-Hop from the Adriatic

Who See are Dedduh (Dejan Dedović) and Noyz (Mario Đorđević) — a duo from Kotor, Montenegro, who have been making hip-hop together since the early 2000s. They are, without qualification, the most significant hip-hop act to come out of Montenegro, and one of the most respected voices in the wider ex-Yugoslav rap scene. Their trajectory runs from the debut album Sviranje Kupcu in 2007, through to the record that broke them regionally: Krš i Drača in 2012, an album that announced a duo operating at a level their peers in the region were still catching up to.

Krš i Drača — its title roughly translating as ‘rocks and thorns’, a reference to the rugged Mediterranean landscape of their home — is a record that holds up because it never tried to sound like anything other than exactly where it came from. The production was sharp, the bars were precise, and the duo’s ability to be both funny and politically pointed in the same verse gave the album a quality that most rap records from the region have not matched since. The follow-up albums Nemam Ti Kad (2014) and Pamidore (2017) continued to build the catalogue.

Their international moment came when they represented Montenegro at Eurovision 2013 in Malmö — a booking that was characteristically Who See: they arrived at Europe’s most watched song contest with an actual rap performance, unapologetically regional, and walked away having introduced a much wider audience to what they do. It is the kind of move that only works if you are secure enough in your identity not to need the validation. They were.

DJ Gilić: The Montenegrin in Belgrade’s Clubs

Aleksandar Gilić — known as DJ Gilić or DJ GileRZ — is a DJ whose roots run deeper than his current profile might suggest. He began his career in Podgorica in the mid-1990s, coming out of a punk background with the band Kojoti before finding his way into electronic music and DJing. He has been a regular presence in Belgrade’s club circuit, performing at venues including District and on the regional festival circuit, developing a sound that sits in the underground deep house space with enough range to hold a room like Sloboda on a summer Friday.

Tonight’s billing — Gilić opening or alongside Who See — is a pairing that makes sense on a splav in June. The music will build, the temperature will rise, and by the time Who See take the stage the room will be exactly where it needs to be. That kind of programming is what separates a well-run event from a sequence of unconnected sets.

Zagrevanje Pred Leto: What a Pre-Summer Special Actually Means

The event is billed as ‘Zagrevanje pred Leto’ — a warm-up before summer — and on the Belgrade splav calendar, this framing carries real weight. June is the month when the city’s floating clubs shift from potential into full operation: the weather is reliable, the nights are long, and the crowd that has been circling all spring finally commits to being out. A Velika Gužva special with Who See is the kind of event that marks that transition. It is not the beginning of a routine Friday — it is a statement that the season has started and the standards are set.

For a city that takes its summers seriously, and for a splav scene that competes on atmosphere and programme rather than size or spectacle, tonight at Sloboda is exactly the right way to begin.

Velika Gužva — Who See & DJ Gilić — Splav Sloboda, Zemunski kej bb, Belgrade. Friday June 12, doors 22h. Entry 1,000 RSD.