International Choir Festival “Zlatna vila” resulted as a natural sequence of development of choral singing in Prijedor. Choral tradition since 1895 when the Serbian Church Singing Society “Vila” was founded, the work of elementary and secondary music school, city choirs in different period and children’s choirs in all elementary schools were the realistic ground for initiating such international choir manifestation.

The first choir festivities in Prijedor called “Choir Singing“, of non – competition character held in 2001, were designed with intention to near and return the beauty of choral singing and values of the Serbian spiritual and secular tradition to young people in a modern manner. Very soon after this manifestation grew into International festival of competitive character which enabled the expert and unbiased comparison and judging this kind of music, stronger motivation of young people for choral singing and creating the opportunity to transfer the best experiences in the country and internationally, gathering conductors and pedagogues and organizing seminars and round tables.

The Festival encourages composers to compose new works of choral music, and what gives the Festival a special weight are the strict propositions, precisely-designed regulations of the Jury’s work which has been composed from the very beginning of excellent authorities of choral music and choral art in general. So far at International Choir Festival “Zlatna vila“ participated over a hundred of excellent choirs from Poland, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Ukraine, Russia, Italy, Greece, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Festival has been recognized for a long time by establishing better and direct connections in the ex-Yugoslavia and abroad.

Since 2017, the Festival begins with the review of Children’s Singing “Mala vila“ which gathers choirs of elementary school, the choir of older group of the Radost Kindergarten and the Choir of the Primary Music School “Savo Balaban“ in Prijedor, aimed at affirming and popularizing the children’s choral music as a very important part of our cultural inheritance that the City of Prijedor is very proud of.

Listening to suggestions and needs of participants and audience, in 2018 the Festival has been significantly transformed which reflects in as follows:

• The Festival is held biennially and its duration is extended to three days;
• Introduction of double rewarding system: based on Jury’s assessment all choirs are given medals, and the first four choirs compete for the Grand Prix of the Festival;
• Choirs can hear each other by holding a competition for medal in front of the Jury and members of choir participants;
• It is made possible for all choirs to perform, the least, four times: before the Jury, audience and in non-competition programme and
• After performing before the Jury, individual meetings between conductors and members of Jury are organized.

These changes effected the Festival it became a true celebration of choral music and

together with the Review of Children’s Singing “Mala vila”, Prijedor is the capital of choral singing in this part of Europe.