The festival was founded by the members of Mladost (Youth) Society for Culture and Arts, as a competition of young popular music composers.

[5] The performers included some of the future stars of the Yugoslav pop scene, like Bisera Veletanlić, Zafir Hadžimanov and Zoran Rambosek.

[6] The jury featured composers Bojan Adamič, Vojislav Simić and Aleksandar Korać and poet Miroslav Antić.

[6] The sixth edition festival, held in Subotica National Theatre, featured 18 compositions performed by 21 artists.

[12] The jury consisted of former contestants, Kornelije Kovač, Lajoš Kurai, Jovan Adamov and Vojkan Borisavljević, and poet Petar Pajić.

[20] The fifteenth edition of the festival was the first one organised by Subotica Youth Center and Radio Television Novi Sad.

[1] 650 compositions were sent to the contest, from all parts of Yugoslavia, but also from Yugoslavs living abroad,[22] 24 of which were chosen to compete at the festival.

[1] Omladinski festival was considered something you had to graduate from in order to even appear on our [Yugoslav] [music] scene.

I was even naive enough to mail my material [to Subotica] several times, believing that they've got a commission there that carefully combs through it all before sending out invitations.

But the first time they actually invited me was after some of my, let's say, hits had already brought me some attention: first "U razdeljak te ljubim" with Žetva [...] then "Prva ljubav" with Rani Mraz.

I did some 3 or 4 songs, one of which was "Računajte na nas", which at that point in time and in that place really resonated because we all loved that country back then.

Looking back on that song now, its emotion is probably somewhat clumsily undercut by my decision as its author to mention Tito explicitly in the lyrics.

However, the times back then were such that even a douchebag off the street like me, having never been a member of any communist organizations, decided to bring him up in a song.

Considering how much that festival meant to me, I really haven't been mentioning it enough, probably due to all the subsequent weirdness that song generated.

[25] On this occasion, the band for the first time publicly performed their song "Računajte na nas" ("We Can Be Counted On"), which—in addition to expressing devotion to the Yugoslav lifetime president Josip Broz Tito—praises his guerrilla fighters' participation in World War II (known in the Yugoslav historiography as the People's Liberation War (NOB)) from the perspective of the country's youth born after World War II, embodied in the band and its 25-year-old singer Đorđe Balašević who also authored the song.

Despite not winning any of the prizes at the festival, the song left the biggest impression on its audience and would go on to wide-spread popularity in Yugoslavia.

Released as a seven-inch single later that year, "Računajte na nas" became an unofficial anthem of the Yugoslav youth, receiving extensive air play in the country's electronic media.

It would further be generally extolled in the country's public sphere as a positive example of the post-war communist youth respecting its elders and their "ultimate sacrifice in the struggle against fascism".

By 1987, its author and singer Balašević—who had by this point built a successful solo career in Yugoslavia—stopped performing the song live and semi-renounced it.

Thanks to that rescheduling, a lot of bands that had just been making their first steps in the May of that year entered the program: Električni Orgazam, Idoli, Šarlo Akrobata, Haustor, and if we add Film and Na Lepem Prijazni [...] it becomes clear that Subotica in the autumn of 1980 was one of the most interesting and most important meeting points in the history of Yugoslav rock.

Due to the death of Josip Broz Tito on 4 May, the twentieth edition of the festival was, instead in May, held in October.

[33] The festival anniversary was celebrated with performances of numerous artists who received acknowledgment after appearing on the festival: Bisera Veletanlić, Dalibor Brun, Kemal Monteno, Tomaž Domicelj, Lutajuća Srca, Miladin Šobić, Jadranka Stojaković, Leb i Sol, Boomerang and others.

[33] The organizers initially did not take Električni Orgazam into consideration, but were persuaded to include the band into the program by Riblja Čorba leader Bora Đorđević.

Električni Orgazam caused a scandal with their performance, which included damaging microphones and cymbals and destroying colored light bulbs which were part of the scenery, and were disqualified from the competition.

[36] The competitors included young new wave bands Petar i Zli Vuci, Stidljiva Ljubičica, Modeli, Lačni Franz, Buldogi, Piloti, Termiti, Čista Proza and La Strada, all of them later becoming notable acts of the Yugoslav rock scene.

As they were already working in studio on their debut album, they decided to give up on the prize in favor of the runner-up, the band Beta Centaury.

[1] The 1987 edition of the festival was marked by the jury's decision that all the bands which entered the finals – KUD Idijoti, Indust Bag, Mizar, Tužne Uši and Grad – are the winners.

The alternative rock band Center Za Dehumanizacijo, which would later also rise to prominence, also competed, but did not manage to enter the finals.

[44] The non-competitive part included notable rock acts – Električni Orgazam, Gast'r'bajtr's, Kerber, Bambinosi, Autopsia, Tutti Frutti Balkan Band – as well as acts which would rise to fame in the following years – Zijan, Dr. Steel, Let 3, Blues Trio, Vrisak Generacije, Grč, Cacadou Look.