The Budva audience welcomed the concert with enthusiasm and expressed great respect for the performers, which resulted in the performance of two encores, with standing ovations and strong emotions that rounded off an exceptional musical evening. Trpčeski said after the concert that a natural and spontaneous audience is always a gift for an artist. "This is not a classical project, it should be spontaneous. As you saw, I'm also in a role narrator and that is the point of the "MAKEDONISSIMO" project - to really embrace people through music," said Trpčeski and added that he was grateful to the Grad Teatar festival. "Thank you for inviting us, for giving us this honor to open the music program of this year's festival. We hope that our collaboration will continue."

We are accustomed to thinking of Simon Trpčeski as a superlative pianist,’ wrote The Independent when Trpčeski founded MAKEDONISSIMO in 2018. ‘On the evidence of this concert he’s also a multi-instrumentalist with a winning sound as a folk singer; he’s also a bandleader and an accomplished MC.’ Enough said, except that if you’ve heard Trpčeski’s explosive performances with the full RSNO… well, he’s even more dazzling with this hand-picked folk band, cutting loose in the untamed folk music of his native Macedonia. Hold tight!