Years active 1989–present | Location Leskovac | |
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The Leskovac Grill Festival (Serbian: Роштиљијада, Roštiljijada, also translated as "barbecue week") is a yearly grilled-meat festival organised in Leskovac, Serbia at the beginning of September. During the event, the main boulevard is closed for traffic, night and day for five days, and all its way there are grill-stands constructed, to create many temporary restaurants. Many visitors from all over Serbia and many tourists from abroad come to Leskovac to enjoy a grill and entertainment. The organisers hold competitions, such as in making the World Biggest Burger - the Pljeskavica. The festival is the highlight of the season in Leskovac.
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To attract tourists from Serbia and abroad, the tourist organization organizes every year attractive concerts, Fashion shows, Carnivals, Miss Election in the period of Roštiljijada Festival. So far a lot has been done by raising quality, organizing a festival modeled on the Oktoberfest in Munich, such as a media presentations and good marketing which resulted in a very successful festival. According to the City Tourist Board, the number of visitors is one of the top touristic events in Serbia. In 2013, a record number of 600,000 people visited the festival. More than 200 barbecues were operational.
In addition to guests from Serbia, a large number of visitors from abroad visiting festival as well mostly from Slovenia, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Greece, Hungary, Romania and France.
World records
In September 2016, Leskovac celebrated a world record in making the world's biggest burger – the pljeskavica. The giant burger weighs 63 kilograms (138,8 lb), was 169 centimeters in diameter and 8 centimeters thick and made by the great grill master Predrag Lazarević and his team Ljubiša Đorđević and Bojan Živković. Ljubiša Đorđević who previously held the world record for his hamburger which weighted 49 kilograms (108 lb).
International Carnival
In 2009, Leskovac officially became an International Carnival city, admitted by The Association of European Carnival cities, which has over 50 members from Europe and America. The Leskovac Carnival is held in a time of the Roštiljijada festival. Around 1,200 people take part in the carnival, of which one third come from abroad. The city government considered having a separation of this event in 2010, as a special tourist event which is going to be introduced as a special offer of the city.