Belgrade Manifest: hot air balloons over Kalemegdan

For three days in late May, Kalemegdan stops being only a fortress and a park. The paths fill with stalls, music and families, and above the walls the sky fills with hot air balloons. I went with a camera to Belgrade Manifest and came back with a few frames I wanted to keep.

What Belgrade Manifest is

Belgrade Manifest is the largest family festival in the region: a meeting point for destinations, tourism and food. The twelfth edition ran from 29 to 31 May 2026 at Kalemegdan, around the Ribar fountain and along the promenade towards the Belgrade Fortress.

It is organised under the umbrella of Belgrade Days of Family, with the City of Belgrade, the municipality of Stari Grad, JP Belgrade Fortress and the relevant ministries behind it. The programme is free, which changes the atmosphere: people come without planning, stay longer and bring everyone.

The centre of the festival is the “Aduti Srbije” zone, where more than thirty municipalities present their cultural and gastronomic offer before the summer season. Regional tourism boards join them. For a photographer, it means one place where the whole country is compressed into a few hundred metres.

The balloons

The balloon revue is the image most people carry home. Large balloons are part of the programme and visible from the fortress; in past editions visitors could take a short tied flight in the Lower Town. The schedule depends on wind, so the balloons are never a guarantee. They are a reason to look up.

Late afternoon is the best light. The sun drops behind the walls, the balloon fabric glows from inside, and the crowd turns into silhouettes. Morning is quieter. If the wind is right, the balloons stand against a clean sky and the fortress is still empty.

What else is there

The children’s zone, “Mašta može svašta”, is the loudest and most colourful part: workshops, theatre, horses, games. The Manifest bazaar brings crafts, local products and food. There is an old-timer exhibition, a fair of model cars, LEGO, comics and action figures, and a programme about recycling and waste.

Food is everywhere: grilled meat, cheese, honey, pastries, coffee. It is not a quiet picnic. It is a festival, and the photographs should show that. The best frames are often at the edges — a child with a balloon, a stallholder arranging plates, a couple sharing something fried.

Photographing the festival

Arrive early. By midday the main paths are crowded and the light is hard. I start with the balloons and the wide views, then move into the stalls when the sun is higher and the shade becomes useful.

A 35mm or 50mm lens is enough for people and details. A longer lens helps with balloons against the sky, but it is not essential. Expose for the highlights and let the shadows sit. The fortress stone and the balloon fabric both look better with a little contrast, not with everything lifted.

Ask before photographing children, and respect a no. Shoot sequences rather than single frames: the expression after the pose is usually the one worth keeping. Look for colour in repetition — the same red on a balloon, a T-shirt, a stall awning — and let the fortress be the background that tells you where you are.

Gear used

These frames were made with a Canon 5D Mark III, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art and a Canon 24-70mm f/2.8. The 35mm suits the crowd: it keeps people in the frame without turning the camera into a barrier. The zoom is there for the balloons when they drift away from the fortress.

One body and two lenses are enough. At a festival, the light and the crowd change faster than any equipment list.

If you want portraits in this light, I run portrait walks in Belgrade; dates and details are on the booking page.

The photographs

A few frames from the three days are below.