On February 27, 1994, on this very day 20 years ago, Nirvana came to the stage of the Tivoli large hall. Their music was at the peak of fame, remembers Igor Vidmar who organized the concert.

It was the penultimate successful performance of the famous Seattle grunge group. Their frontman Kurt Cobain, after many years of problems with drug addiction, committed suicide only a couple of weeks later.

At this round number anniversary Igor Vidmar, who organized this historic concert with Škuc Ropot, and in which as support act performed the today legendary group Melvins, remembers: "It was the first Ropot concert, after Laibach '87, held in the Tivoli large hall, and up to then the greatest world star we had the opportunity to organize for. At that time Nirvana group was the most popular as far as their music was concerned, practically at their peak. The concert was sold out quite quickly, the audience came from Croatia, Italy, Austria..."

Novoselich's Croatian origin helped
In his interview for HRT exactly 20 years ago, shown in the enclosed video, Vidmar said that he had to »hunt« Nirvana for two whole years. And how had he managed to lure such big stars? "We had cooperated with their world agent several times, and he trusted us. Most certainly the interest of the band, or better Krist Novoselich, helped – and at that time according to the world media Coratia was still 'in war'."

Although dealing with celebrities, Vidmar does not recall any special demands or whims from the band, "but the tour manager was quite precise at the final settlement". As Cobain had already been heavily addicted, we wondered whether Vidmar as the organizer had been worried about his actual capacity to finish the concert. As history proves, Cobain succeeded in that only one more time, in Munich on March 1 …"I was not particularly worried, as the tour had gone well until then," Vidmar says.

The exceptional popularity was Kurt's undoing
Soon, on April 5, will be the 20th anniversary of Kurt Cobain's death. He was only 27. What is Vidmar's opinion of him, and of his work, with the benefit of hindsight? "He was an exceptional musician and lyric-writer, penetrating, and extremely important mostly for the American rock. Actually, punk rock became a popular phenomenon in the form of radical music, accepted all over America, only through Nirvana – of course in a specifically American, rock manner, yet with still enough trace of 'anarcho-nichilism'. Consequently it came alive again in Europe, renovated, although mostly by American bands: Pixies, Smashing Pumpkins, later Pearl Jam... Unfortunately this exceptional popularity contributed to Cobain's premature end."

Take a look at some of the photos from the concert held exactly 20 years ago, attended by the photographer from the BoBo agency.