Guća is a small town in middle of Serbia famous for its trumpet festival. Join this festival it’s a real travel experience that smells like rakija.
August 2014 – inner part of Serbia. Hot. I was working in Novi Sad, dreaming of a change, a small trip, anything. So, when a group of friends invited me to join them on road trip by car across the Balkans, I felt excited! Since I couldn’t be away for too long, I decided to join my friends just for few days to Guća, a small town with a big trumpet festival.
Let’s go, on a Panda of course!
Panda is not just a car for a group of five italians. It’s the symbol of perseverance. Long distance travels on a Panda are like telling yourself: “I’m strong, I can do it”. Although the road was not so bad, the Red Panda was feeling a little bit lost on the way to Guća because every curve makes you hope that it will be the right one. Finally, around 8pm, we saw the big road sign: “Dobrodošli u Gući”! Welcome to Guća!
Serbian way of life
When you plan to sleep in a tent and it’s been raining non stop for two hours, maybe it’s better to look for a roof. During the Trumpet Festival, Guća becomes a big dormitory where every local inhabitant transforms his home and garden in a temporary B&B. We arrived on Thursday night, 1st day of the festival. Few places were available, so, while the rain was still falling down, I had a good chance to use my basic knowledge of serbian language to make a useful connection. Local language makes this connection process easy, so we met Miloš, a middle age high school professor. When the rule is to drink rakija first, it’s easy to take it easy. Serbian amazing way of life. Miloš asked why we chose to visit Guća and some other stories about the Panda, of course. One bottle of slivovica after, we all went out for dinner.
Keep trumpet yourself, Guća!
Every single action early described was going with a continuous soundtrack. Trumpets in Guća Festival are everywhere and they play all the time from the morning till 4 a.m. It’s like to live inside an urban radio, where local and international musicians keep playing music at every corner. Besides that, you can join concerts and parties all night, even an “air trumpet contest”. In a musical place where you are surrounded by enthusiastic young people from all over Europe, after sharing rakija and several beers with your friends and a local host like Miloš, everything seems magic, like just a human connection can be. Keep being noisy and magic at the same time Guća, cause I’ll come back soon!
photocredits @coraranci