Katy Perry, Lewis Capaldi and Martin Garrix light up Dua Lipa’s Sunny Hill Festival in Kosovo
More than 100,000 fans from some 60 countries packed Prishtina for the 2026 edition of the festival Dua Lipa carries to the world.
Kosovo’s Sunny Hill Festival roared back to Prishtina from 31 July to 2 August 2026, drawing more than 100,000 people from close to 60 countries to the Sunny Hill Festival Park in Bërnica for three nights of music that once again turned the small Balkan nation into a global stage.
Pop superstar Katy Perry headlined the opening night, bringing her arena-sized show to a Kosovar crowd for the first time and setting the tone for the weekend. The three-time Grammy nominee’s set was one of the most anticipated bookings in the festival’s history.
Scottish singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi took the top slot on the second night, while Dutch DJ and producer Martin Garrix closed a sold-out final night on 2 August — a homecoming of sorts, eight years after he played the festival’s inaugural 2018 edition.
The wider bill spanned pop, dance and the Albanian diaspora’s biggest names: Keinemusik (Adam Port and Rampa), Seth Troxler, PAWSA, Carlita and EsDeeKid shared the line-up with Dhurata Dora, Ledri Vula, MC Kresha and GJIN — the last of whom happens to be Dua Lipa’s brother.
Sunny Hill was founded in 2018 by Dukagjin Lipa and is promoted around the world by his daughter, three-time Grammy winner Dua Lipa, who was granted Kosovan citizenship at the 2025 festival. “Sunny Hill was always about more than music,” the elder Lipa said. “For a few days every summer, we bring the world to Kosovo — and the whole country feels it.”
That reach is measurable: organisers put the 2025 edition’s direct economic impact at roughly €22 million, with broader visitor spending approaching €50 million. Past headliners read like a who’s-who of the last decade — Dua Lipa herself, Miley Cyrus, Calvin Harris, Shawn Mendes, J Balvin, Stormzy, Burna Boy and Peggy Gou among them.
With Katy Perry’s opening spectacle and Martin Garrix’s sold-out finale, the 2026 edition cemented Sunny Hill’s place as one of south-east Europe’s standout summer festivals — and Prishtina’s biggest annual moment on the world’s music map.
Reporting drawn from The FADER and BroadwayWorld.