Old Pop Festivals: Split '68

 

Of all the 1960s big pop festivals in Croatia, the one in Split was always the least sophisticated - less pretentious than the stages in Opatija and Zagreb, it offered summer hits for coastal audiences who welcomed music flavoured with sea, sun, fishes, old stone houses, olive trees, etc - insert every cliché here). Not surprisingly, this festival have also outlived all of its older, venerable cousins because it unrepentantly celebrated mainstream, local dialect and homegrown artists. 

However, back in the 1960s Split festival still had to follow official rules - the tentacles of politics somehow got entangled in every sphere of daily life, including entertainment and "guests" from other parts of the country were obligation forced upon the organisers. While having big variety of artists sounds attractive on paper, in reality this means inviting people who had 0 connections with the coastline, Split or this culture at all - where Elda Viler, Lado Leskovar, Radmila Karaklajić and Slavko Perović at least tried to embrace the idea, the notorious choice of Đorđe Marjanović now seems just a very bad decision - it might be one of the worst moment in festival's history.

On positive side, quite a few pop classics came from this particular year - Dubrovački Trubaduri sung "Dalmatinski Lero", Arsen Dedić, Vice Vukov and Ivica Šerfezi had huge hits, while wonderful Maruška Šinković had song tailored by Zdenko Runjić and Tomislav Zuppa (same duo that will later create "Kapetane moj"). Not included on LP were songs on two EP records also worth searching for. 

Teddy Bear Jr.

 

Dear reader, as you have probably noticed I have the whole collection of photos of my beloved Teddy Bear around the world. He was originally Canadian and was given to me as a gift many years ago, when he lived on my bookshelf. When I was packing my suitcase to start work on a cruise ships, somehow he ended up packed in and was travelling the world with me for 15 years - taking photos of him everywhere I went gave me biggest kick and I also noticed that I was not the only one - there were quite a few international nomads like me, taking pictures of their pet toys. 

For many years he was my most precious and beloved material possession and it broke my heart when my backpack was stolen on a train upon the very day I arrived in Amsterdam - I was visiting lost & found office many times but it never surfaced and the worst of all is that its contents meant absolutely nothing to a stranger - my diary with its postcards from various countries and my Teddy Bear were of absolutely no use to someone else who probably threw it away. It was so traumatising that for the longest time I declined to start a new diary and did not care for anything material anymore.

What is the use to get attached to things when everything is perishable? Still, it bugged me and I missed my Teddy Bear dearly until one day I simply contacted the Canadian firm that sells them and eventually they got back to me, they did not have exactly the one like my previous original Teddy but two Bears with the right colour and shape - this arrived at my door in the middle of Covid pandemic as a gift from Canada and I kept them both carefully in my home, for fear of losing them. Yesterday was such a beautiful, glorious sunny day that finally for the very first time I took smaller of them for a walk to "see the world". I might have him for outside and his brother as a safe bet in the house. 

The Allard Pierson Museum

 

This is a place that I discovered completely by accident, browsing trough internet and looking for other museums in town beside the obvious biggest tourist attractions. It is situated right in the centre of the city, next to glitzy Hotel l'Europe in a beautiful palatial building that used to be central bank of the Netherlands. It hosts excellent collections and stories about ancient civilisations - particularly Egypt, Greece and Rome - and I must say that this is slowly becoming my favourite museum in town (also location helps, since its easily accessible no matter from where I am arriving). I wrote earlier about this place when I visited exhibition about Art Deco and right now they have another one titled "From the Nile to the Amstel" which basically re-shuffles permanent displays into a coherent story that connect civilisations from earliest hunters to Amsterdam. 

I actually don't need any particular reason to go there - it was a cloudy Saturday and somehow I just wanted to get out of the house; to spend few hours in Allard Pierson Museum was the most natural and appealing thing to do. Obviously I was not the only one, because there were quite a few curious visitors roaming around. I took a great pleasure browsing the collection and was enchanted for two hours - as it usually happens, I started with the beginning but eventually drifted off my own way. It doesn't matter that I am familiar with history of ancient civilisations, its just a pleasure to explore and enjoy the displays.

At certain point I drifted into the attic where I have never been before. This is where they keep copy casts of world's most famous Roman and Greek statues and that was quite interesting experience, to see them all stored in the attic (which also in itself is very interesting place with a spectacular view). I have also discovered a beautiful place called "Collector's Cabinet" which is all about famous archeologists from the past who were connected to this place - it is a very elegant, quiet corner that has somehow escaped my previous explorations and I was thrilled to find it.