The specificity of the concept quickly garnered a wider audience and secured visits from international experimental theatre companies, such as Living Theater from New York City, that named the festival one of its four major annual show-piece platforms.

[13] During this period in time the festival produced numerous pieces by theatre directors such as Susan Sontag and Peter Schumann, who entered the besieged city to take part in the artistic resistance against the war.

With the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords the festival was taken over by a team of young theatre professionals headed by newly named manager Dino Mustafić.

The Mittel Europe MESS program is designed to showcase the most interesting theatre pieces from the Former Yugoslavia and the wider South-Eastern European region.

[14] Theatre directors that have taken part in the festival include: Peter Brook, Giorgio Strehler, Robert Wilson, Peter Schumann, Eugenio Barba, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Eimuntas Nekrošius, Alvis Hermanis, Olivier Py, Mark Tompkins, Wlodzimierz Staniewski, Simon McBurney, Christoph Marthaler, Frank Castorf, Thomas Ostermeier, Andriy Zholdak, Rimas Tuminas, Emma Dante, Rodrigo Garcia, Heiner Goebbels Romeo Castellucci, Wim Vandekeybus, Forced Entertainment, Laert Vasili.