Throughout the ups and downs in Serbia’s recent history, the Student Cultural Centre (SKC) has always been a safe haven for city artists, a place to go to remove themselves from the everyday and express themselves freely.

SKC was founded in 1968 by the Belgrade University, but was taken over in 1992 by the government, working now under the Education Ministry.

Since its opening night, SKC has been a place for musicians and artists of all sorts to present their views on the world and a forum for their creativity.

The venue has a very special meaning to the alternative scene and artistic community, from the avant-garde artists of the 70s, to the great musical surge of the Serbian new wave scene in the 80s - when Belgrade was a leading cultural centre in Europe - and provided shelter during the difficult 90s in its many basements and improvised studios and workshops for musicians and artists trying to get away from the turmoil of the time.

While it may not be the most technologically advanced or modern venue in Belgrade today, it remains one of the most popular, if only for its history and tradition. SKC is one of those places where you can just go to any night without looking at the programme, and you’ll be sure to find something going on. It’s a place where musicians gather, where the newest and most established Serbian bands share stages. It can lay a fair claim to being the cultural centre of the city.

The venue functions today in two main halls - a small club at ground level and a large concert hall on the first floor. The club sees most of the action, with shows every night, featuring mostly local acts, but also one or two international acts of smaller stature and various underground music events. The club holds about 250-300 at most, and recent ventilation work means that it is slightly more bearable these days when packed. But people don’t really go to SKC to be comfortable, they enjoy the loud music, copious amounts of beer and sardine can-like conditions.

The stage is fairly small, and the equipment isn’t exactly the best in the city, but thanks to the very skilled sound guys working there, that know the club like the back of their hands, bands are able to get on and play from the stage without having to worry about mixing levels. The bar is fairly small, but service is brisk although the beer prices are probably a little higher than they should be.

This is why you’ll see large crowds of people consuming their cheaper alcoholic beverages in front of the venue on the busy street corner, as they say, “getting nice,” before going to the shows.

During the day, the club gets out its tables and chairs and turns into a cafe and most of the smaller rock shows, tickets are usually available in advance from the bar for a little less than the ‘on-the-door’ price. For the bigger shows, tickets are always on sale in the reception area in the main hall. Often you’ll be served by someone on their civilian military duty - SKC provides work for artists that do not want to do their national service in barracks with guns and uniforms.

The hall squeezes in 1,000 people on its biggest nights, but is probably a better venue with about 800 people in it. There is also a mezzanine area for VIPs and people with special needs who can watch the show from the balcony. The acoustics are challenging but when an experienced band with a sound team, that knows what they’re doing come to the venue, it can be very good.

The top floor has a fairly spacious reception area which is a great place to see off a drink or two whilst you wait for the concert to begin. This area also doubles as a cafe during the day and has a considerably bigger bar than the club downstairs.

A few years ago, the adjacent Living Room cafe, was a great place for new bands to put on a show. The small and intimate atmosphere and great sound drew in the bands who could showcase their work to a fair sized audience without a charge for renting out the space. Bought out, and turned into a bookstore, the old living room cafe is now one of the biggest and most well stocked in Belgrade.The downstairs bar has since been renamed the Living Room and there’s unfortunately less variety these days than there used to be.

When there are no concerts planned, many of the areas of the centre are used for art exhibits, ranging from the avant garde to the approachable. Elsewhere in the building are rehearsal rooms, and studios for the established and sometimes up-and-coming, so regardless of its shortcomings, SKC remains one of the cultural hubs of the city.

This article is courtesy of Balkan Insight, the online publication of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, which contains analytical reports, in-depth analyses and investigations and news items from throughout the region covering major challenges of the political, social and economic transition in the Balkans.

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