The DJ collective SEMPRE is putting on the first edition of the festival "The Smiley Calls Skopje" on September 19, in the car park in front of the Boris Trajkovski sports centre. It is the first time this crew has stepped out of the club format onto an open-air stage, and after two years of work there is an actual track record behind them, not just a promise.

SEMPRE is Delovski and Invictoz, with Flowzy and Blu in the wider circle. Delovski produced the hit remixes of "Oj devojce" and "Kraj", Invictoz the ones for "Nekogas ke pomine" and "Sevda", and the joint remix with Flowzy and Blu on "Moze moze moze" is their biggest shared hit. Their strongest credential came from outside: their version of "On The Low" was supported by Keinemusik, which is about the highest currency the global house scene deals in. Residencies at Stanica 26 and Three Kitchen kept the Skopje electronic scene alive in a stretch when it had few regular nights at all.

The collective has already played ahead of Black Coffee, Armin van Buuren, Argy and HUGEL, so the big-stage format is not new to them. This time the headline guest is JUNO, a young German DJ whose music is backed by names from the afro-house scene. Local support comes from the female DJ duo The Aft3r, made up of Elena Ivanoska and Marija Jancevska, and from DJ Ivan Dimitrijev. The festival starts at 7pm and runs under open sky, which for a September night in Skopje means a spare layer is worth carrying.

Tickets start at 600 denars and are available at kupikarta.com, while VIP A and VIP B zones are booked through the organiser. For a scene that spent years complaining it had no big summer event of its own, this is the first attempt to build one at home instead of importing it.