Around the Castle

Although I was perfectly happy living quietly in countryside, the world came to me. 

For the first time, my vacation coincided with International short film festival organised in the gloriously restored medieval castle that towers above all of us here on the top of the hill - Veliki Tabor is one of the most beautiful landmarks in this heavenly region, but as a historical monument it usually just stands there pretty and stately, well this time its purpose was to bring people together and it seems this is turning into a beautiful tradition. This film festival attracts young crowd that camps around the castle and spends several days in sort of Utopian commune, with camp fires, music and art, really beautiful sight to see. I was very impressed with the crowd - mostly idealistic, young, urban people stretching on their mats, playing Frisbee, meditating and soaking in the spectacular view, engaging in conversations with filmmakers, enjoying the programme and naturally there were lots of music acts to spice up the evenings long in the night. For the first time I thought that this place actually have a purpose, since everybody had such wonderful time, it wasn't just some boring old event but true get together in the best sense. Of course, castle's original owners would probably turn in their aristocratic graves if they could witness roaring crowd partying in the early hours here.

First thing first - we are in the middle of world football match and Croatia is doing extremely good. For such a small country we have surprisingly strong results and this is also a tradition - at least for few weeks, the whole nation gets so swept away in excitement that people forget to complain about politics, bad economy and negativity so ubiquitous everywhere. Under normal circumstances I would not even switch on TV, but this time I also got carried away with excitement - followed the match between David (Croatia) and Goliath (Russia) on some terrace with friends here in the neighbourhood and it was a blast, we all thought we would get heart attack from sheer nerve racking game which ultimately resulted with Croatia winning over their hosts, the victory celebrated with explosions and detonations all over this usually quiet countryside. 

The football game lasted forever so I already gave up on planned Jazz concert which really interested me - however, my friends insisted that concert will probably be postponed until end of such important sport event so we later ended up in this beautiful spot, restaurant terrace overlooking the hills and valleys, with castle in the background. The performers invited this year were wonderful Croatian music legend Gabi Novak and her pianist son Matija Dedić - I know their music very well and have been listening the whole gifted family for many years (even trough my journeys around the world) so this was pure pleasure and welcome relaxation after the unbearable stress of the football. At midnight the whole crowd sang "Happy Birthday" to this sweet lady who now turned eighty two (!) and she was touched - it was truly memorable evening.

However, evening was still going strong - later we strolled to a castle where enthusiastic crowd danced to pop and rock performers, even I wiggled my booty inspired by my friends who clearly had a blast, the audiences were very happy and the music resonated trough the sleepy hills long into the morning hours.

Next day we all gathered around family barbecue which is obligatory summer tradition - with so many spritzers I could hardly keep my eyes open until the evening when we went again on the same little terrace to listen Slovenian artist Zoran Predin and his charming brand of acoustic ballads, the guy is sixty now but still absolutely magical and as I had seat right next to stage, I had admired what he was doing - with only a guitar and voice, he spread stardust all over hypnotised audience, we were all spellbound. As much as I enjoy music and constantly playing something or other at home, nothing can ever match true live performance where artist is engaged with the public and mutual love flows between them.