When people ask what Expo 2027 Belgrade is really about, I don’t reach for statistics first, though the numbers are compelling: 137 participating countries, more than four million expected visitors, 8,000 events across 93 days, all unfolding on 25 hectares beside the Sava River. What I offer is simpler than that. I tell them it is about the oldest truth in human experience: when people from every corner of the world come together to play, they connect.
Our theme, “Play for Humanity: Sport and Music for All,” was not chosen lightly. In a world that often feels fractured—divided by geopolitics, uncertainty, and distance—we wanted a theme that belongs to everyone. Sport and music are not the property of any single culture or nation. They are universal languages. A goal celebrated in Belgrade is understood in Buenos Aires. A melody that moves a listener in Mumbai moves one equally in Manila. Play, in its deepest sense, is how human beings have always learned to cooperate, to trust, and to innovate. That is what we are inviting the world to come and do in Serbia in 2027.
Serbia has always produced people who understand, instinctively, that play is the engine of greatness. Nikola Tesla played with electricity the way a child plays outside, relentlessly, fearlessly, driven by a curiosity that could not be contained. The results changed the world. Today, Novak Djoković plays tennis with a ferocity and mental discipline that has made him the greatest the sport has ever seen. Nikola Jokić, the three-time NBA Most Valuable Player, plays basketball the way a poet writes, with creativity, vision, and a generosity of spirit that makes everyone around him better. And Marina Abramović, one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, has spent her career proving that performance itself is play in its most radical and human form with the body as instrument, endurance as expression. These are not coincidences; they are fundamentals of Serbian culture.
Serbia has always understood hospitality as something deeper than service. It is a national character. The Serbian concept of inat speaks to our powerful drive to succeed, but it is our warmth, the instinct to welcome a stranger as a guest and a guest as a friend, that visitors discover the moment they arrive. Belgrade is a city that does not merely tolerate visitors; it embraces them. Whether you find yourself in a kafana (traditional tavern) sharing roasted meats and rakija (fruit brandy) with strangers-turned-friends, or dancing until dawn in one of the world’s most celebrated nightlife scenes, or sitting quietly by the confluence of the Danube and the Sava as the old fortress watches over the water—you will feel that you are genuinely welcome here.
The Expo 2027 site itself will be a reflection of that spirit. Designed as an urban oasis, open, living, connected to the river and to the city, it will be home to three distinct zones: the International Pavilions, where over 130 nations will bring their own interpretation of the “Play for Humanity” theme; the Thematic Zone, where visitors can explore how play drives human discovery, from science and technology to the arts; and the Corporate and Best Practice Area, a hub for business dialogue and global exchange. A new national stadium, aquatic center, and Expo Village will complete a campus that will long outlast the event itself, becoming a permanent gift to the city and its people.
What visitors will find across those 93 days is genuinely unlike anything else. In a single afternoon, you could have coffee in the French pavilion, step into a recreation of the Amazon rainforest, and watch a live performance rooted in centuries of Chinese tradition, all without leaving the Expo 2027 site. That is the magic that only a World Exposition can create: the whole world, reachable on foot. Every pavilion will tell a story of how its country thrives when it embraces play as a source of inspiration.
Beyond the Expo 2027 gates, visitors will find a country that rewards curiosity. Serbia’s history runs deep and its landscapes are extraordinary, from the medieval monasteries of the countryside to the dramatic gorges of the Drina River, from the rolling vineyards of Župa to the ancient Roman ruins of Felix Romuliana. Belgrade itself sits at a crossroads that has shaped civilizations for millennia, and the city wears that history with an easy confidence. Our cuisine is rooted in Balkan generosity and enriched by Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and Mediterranean influences, is one of Europe’s most underappreciated pleasures.
On May 15, 2027, Belgrade will open its doors to the world. The pavilions will rise, the stages will fill with music, the stadiums will ring with sport, and millions of visitors will cross paths with stories from every corner of the planet. Serbia is ready to receive them, not as tourists passing through, but as guests in our home. Come and play with us.
Danilo Jerenić is the CEO of Expo 2027 Belgrade.
Expo 2027 Belgrade opens May 15, 2027 and runs through August 15, 2027. More information at expobelgrade2027.org.
