Festival founded by Dua Lipa’s father decamps from Kosovo

By LLAZAR SEMINI
Associated Press

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — An international music festival founded by the father of singer-songwriter Dua Lipa to promote his native Kosovo has led to recriminations for the small European country after it lost the event to neighboring Albania. The Sunny Hill Festival made its debut in Kosovo’s capital, Pristina, in 2018 and took place again in 2019. The Britain-born Dua Lipa, Miley Cyrus and Calvin Harris were among the headliners. The coronavirus pandemic kept the event on hold until this summer. Dukagjin Lipa, the singer’s father and manager, said he’d made “a difficult but necessary” decision to stage the Aug. 4-7 festival in Tirana, Albania. He blamed a political dispute in Kosovo for delaying needed permits.