Major scandal: Zoran Vanev accuses Makfest leadership; organisers sue for defamation

The Macedonian pop-folk scene erupted after veteran singer Zoran Vanev published a blistering public statement accusing the leadership of the Makfest festival of corruption and favoritism.

In his posts Vanev singled out Makfest artistic director Robert Sazdov and producer Jovan Jovanov, alleging that the long-running festival has been turned into a "private firm" and that a rigged public competition funnels funds from the Municipality of Shtip into the pockets of a music clique. Vanev, who has lived in Switzerland for decades, also called on the State Audit Office, the Financial Police and the Prosecutor's Office to investigate Shtip's management and the festival's finances.

Support for those accusations arrived from one of the festival's founders and a former director, Stojan Troicki, who claimed Makfest had long ago become "a partisan vehicle for money laundering" and added that in his era the position of "artistic director" did not even exist.

Legal counterattack

Sazdov and Jovanov reacted through their lawyer Janaki Mitrovski, flatly denying the allegations and describing them as false, unfounded and issued from "low and vindictive motives." Their statement says the attack followed the rejection of Vanev's song from this year's competition.

The two men have opened a defamation and insult case before the competent court, seeking compensation of 6,200,000 denars (about 100,000 euros) for damage to their honour and professional reputation.

Vanev refused to back down. In a new social-media post he wrote that his reputation is worth far more than 100,000 euros and warned that the other side had "opened Pandora's box." "Social networks are not a courtroom — my post served as a whistleblower, and the indelible and material evidence I possess I will mercilessly present before the Court!" he declared, promising to bring his proof to judicial authorities.

Whether Makfest will survive this public dispute and what the judicial outcome will be remains uncertain; the case now moves from online accusations into the legal arena, where the festival's future may be decided.

Photo: press material from the event