Now, I’m a fan of Balkan Music. Or at least what we think of as Balkan: namely anything
between Beirut’s hauntingly
melancholic croonings that make the spirit both soar and break at the same time
and Balkan Beatbox’s trumpety,
jumpity deliciousness that gives one’s feet a life of their own. However one
step inside Guca’s annual trumpet festival in Serbia served to redefine
everything I thought I knew about Balkan music.
Every year, for one week only, a cacophony of brass,
percussion and raucous revelry reverberates around this small town in southern
Serbia.
On arrival it’s hard to know which sense to take in first.
The ceaseless sound of trumpets, tubas, drums and trombones competing to be
heard; the kaleidoscopic sight of polished brass blazing in the sun, the rich
colours of the national costume and the coloured lights flashing on stages,
funfair rides and gift laden stalls; the feel of the midsummer sun beating
unforgivingly on your skin in time with the drummers’ strokes; or the olfactory
overload of grilling meat. Any meat. They
grill everything from entire hog and lamb spit-roasts with teeth bared to
burgers, kebabs, indefinable meat slabs and sausages of every shape, colour and
size. It was enough to turn my recently converted omnivore friend back to being
a veggie!
Sound intense? Intense it was but don’t let this put you
off. The energy, pride and passion exuding from the entire spectacle epitomises
the Serbian spirit. Everyone we met from stall owners and trumpet players to
waiters and other revellers wanted to share their culture with us and drag us
full pelt into the party.
Apparently there was some sort of official competition going
on to find the best trumpet band of all, but word on the street was that it was
voted void due to the winners being fixed. Only in Serbia eh! As far as I could
tell the main action was happening in the streets and bars with hundreds (yes
hundreds!) of bands, each dressed in their own unique uniforms, battling it out
to make the most money, deafen the most people and generally get the most
people dancing/running away. A quiet dinner with friends doesn’t exist in Guca
during festival week – you will be surrounded and serenaded (sometimes straight
into your ear) whether you like it or not:
Luckily like it we did. If you like trumpets, mayhem and meat, get yourself to Guca for an
all you can eat (and more!) portion of legitimate Balkan Brass. The beer’s
cheap too!
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