May 5, 2020 – The City of Split and the Split Tourist Board, in cooperation with Dalmatia Concert and sponsored by OTP Bank Split, are bringing Split citizens a special treat for Sv. Duje on Thursday. Petar Graso performing in an empty Peristyle.
“Unfortunately, traditional festivities in Split will be absent this year. We will celebrate Sv. Duje without the buzz, the crowds, the procession and the mass on the waterfront, the raffle and the Sudamja Fair; without a great concert and fireworks, without everything we have done with all our fellow citizens for years. This year will be different than ever, but I still believe that the feast of our patron saint will be celebrated in our hearts and with our families. To all the citizens of Split, but also all the viewers of Croatian Radio and Television, on the day of Sv. Duje, we bring you a Peter Graso concert from Peristyle. Although we are forced to be physically separated, let us be together on Thursday evening in front of small screens in this unusual, different and I believe beautiful celebration,” says Split Mayor Andro Krstulovic Opara.
Petar Graso also shared his impressions:
“I am a child of Split, Split is my home, despite the fact that I have been in it for the last twenty years. If it had not been for these specific circumstances, I, unfortunately, would have been out of Split on this Sv. Duje. But as it usually is, different circumstances dictate a different life plan, and so one of the strangest, and in some ways, the most beautiful concert of my career happened, a concert without a single person in the audience.”
Graso also says that if someone had told him last year that he would play in front of an empty Peristyle and be most honored, he would have thought it impossible, but given the events of the past months, he is delighted and honored on this occasion: “I am happy to have the privilege of having a concert in one of the most beautiful squares in the world in my city, and giving it to both my Split and all the people who will be at home on Thursday evening in front of small screens. This is a concert of optimism, a concert of light and celebration. We were looking forward to it; somehow we seem to see the light at the end of the tunnel we’ve all been in for the past two months,” Graso concludes, wishing this would be the last concert before an empty Peristyle.
The concert will be broadcast on Split’s City Day on Thursday, May 7, on the second program of Croatian Radio and Television.
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