Club Casablanca, situated within the premises of Pallati i Rinisë, Kulturës dhe Sporteve, was one of the few Albanian-owned nightclubs in Prishtina during the 1990s. Various bands performed there, playing rock, crunch, alternative, but also rap. Electronic music events also took place there. Petrit Çarkaxhiu of the band Jericho describes a concert evening in March 1997: “It was the first time bands from Prishtina played. At the same time, in the same club, in Casablanca. There were three other bands there. And we did quite a lot of rap, cooler, that kind of thing.” Arben Islami, an organizer of raves in Prishtina in the 1990s, described Casablanca as one of four clubs in the city competing with one other; it could host about a thousand people. “And then, that was our place every day. First, they began only three times a week, and then five times and then seven times a week. It was like a seven-times a week party.”
This contribution is part of the research project “Music Worlds in Kosovo’s Wartime” by Katharina Becker, Joschka Hofmann, Anastasia Tikhomirova, Felix Fischer and Philipp Zimmermann.
For further information on the project you can read the following articles on forumZFD’s Dealing with the Past website
Article “We turned to more aggressive music because that’s where we found our peace”
Article “Interesting was the will and the love to create – the passion to create music!”
Interview with DJ Njeri on Club Casablanca
Interview with Petrit Çarkaxhiu on Club Casablanca