Quick answer: Kino Bosna, a bar inside a former cinema at Alipasina 19 in Sarajevo, hosts free live sevdah – Bosnian urban folk song – on Monday evenings from around 20:00. Arrive early or reserve; tables fill fast.
Kino Bosna has kept its old cinema bones – film posters, worn fittings, and even occasional screenings – since it stopped showing films regularly. See our Sarajevo local guide for the rest of the city.
From cinema to bar
The building traded for decades as Kino Prvi Maj, the First of May Cinema, and kept showing films intermittently through the 1992-1995 siege before closing in 1997. It was later converted into a bar while keeping much of the original interior.
Monday nights are the draw
The bar is known chiefly for live sevdah performed on Monday evenings, informal and free to attend, with musicians playing among the tables and the room joining in singing. Drinks are inexpensive and the interior is small and heavily smoky, so tables fill early.
Getting there
Kino Bosna sits a short walk west of the city centre along Alipasina.
This city-market and old-town food tour tastes Bosnian specialities, from cevapi to burek, through the historic centre – a good way to fill the hours before Kino Bosna’s Monday sevdah.
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