JURICA BARAC (Osijek, Croatia)

Jurica Barac (Osijek, Croatia)

Panonian Festival

Jurica Barac is a co-founder of one of the most prestigious extreme sports events in Europe. Coming of age in postwar Croatia, in a depressed and small city of Osijek (a multicultural community that suffered tremendously during the war due to its proximity with Serbia), Jure and his friends managed to create the first extreme sports event in SEE, which grew from a humble beginning of a gathering for a few hundred visitors with skate boards and bmx-es to become one of the top 10 extreme sports events in Europe. A Red Bull professional BMX rider himself, Jure is a very interesting character. Thanks to original  business model (more or less independent of the governments funding, event is a huge tourism booster for the city; it attracts a number of international media every year (puts his city on the map of Europe), creates jobs for young people, in one sentence it is a driving force behind the development of local community. Festival is still run by a local CSO. Jure will tell his amazing story about how him and his friends changed the city.