Hala Tivoli

Hala Tivoli (the Tivoli Hall) is a legendary multi-purpose venue, set in the Tivoli city park of Ljubljana. Opening its doors in 1965, its first event was a gig by Louis Armstrong, soon followed by a World cup in table tennis. Such mixed use has been its hallmark feature until today, when recreational ice-skating and championships like the Eurobasket happen alongside Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Motörhead and the Chippendales striptease show.

The Tivoli hall is made up of two main arenas, one with ice and the other with parquet floor. The first one can accommodate up to 7000 guests, and the other around 5000, though both can be modified to fit for smaller events as well. It also has two bars, television and radio studios, ample storage rooms and so on.

Nirvana - Hala Tivoli, Ljubljana, Slovenia 1994 (PRO #2) by Curmodgeon NIRVANA on YouTube

Background

Built between the years 1963 and 1965 on the already existing open-air basketball court, the Tivoli Hall was designed by Marjan Božič and the engineer Stanko Bloudek, of the Planica fame. At that time, it was the biggest covered sports complex in Yugoslavia and was used to host many of the biggest sport and music events of the time.

It hosted the early editions of the Ljubljana Jazz Festival, was the main venue for the Slovenska popevka Festival, the site of the first Yugoslav rock festival Boom Festival and of many other cultural happenings. During the 1970s and 1980s, the place hosted many of the biggest rock stars of their time at the height of their careers &ndadsh; Jethro Tull, Ike & Tina Turner, Frank Zappa, Queen, Iron Maiden and Dire Straits are just a few of them.

Sports-wise, the Tivoli hall was synonyms with some of the biggest Yugoslav (and later Slovene) sports achievements and most prominent clubs in hockey, volleyball, handball and gymnastics. A record in terms of straining its capacities was achieved during the 1970 Basketball World Championship, when the Yugoslavian win over the USA team was seen by over 10000 spectators b– a similar number was supposedly present only at a Boney M gig in 1978.

Other musical guests

Since the 1990s, the Hall was used to stage concerts by Siouxsie and the Banshees (1991), Faith No More (1993, 1997), The Ramones (1994), Nirvana (their second-to-last fully realised gig, 1994), The Beastie Boys(1995), David Bowie (1996), The Prodigy (1997), Bob Dylan (1999, 2010), Blondie (1999), Joe Cocker (1999, 2005), Rage Against the Machine (2000), Sting (2000), REM (2005), Lou Reed (2005, 2006), Eros Ramazzotti (2009), Simply Red (2009), Jean Michel Jarre (2008), 50 Cent (2010), Dream Theatre (2014) and Alice Copper (2016).

External links

Hala Tivoli

Background

Other musical guests

External links

Operated by

Financed by