Festival Lent is the biggest international Summer Festival in Slovenia and one of the oldest and largest open-air festivals in Central Europe. It used to last for two weeks, but since 2016 it lasts eight or nine days. It is held at the end of June every year. The festival started as an international folklore festival in Maribor, the second largest city in Slovenia well known for it football club NK Maribor and 30 years later turned into a huge, vibrant, cross-cultural and multi-genre event. During those days everybody can find something to their liking from pop, rock, jazz, classical and world music concerts, open air ballet and opera performances, musicals, folklore, contemporary dance, street theatre, stand-up comedy, circus, cabaret, children’s shows, exhibitions, arts & crafts workshops, open-air meditation and yoga classes, to just strolling along the picturesque river banks. Many of the gigs, shows and performances are free, only the bigger concerts need tickets. However, you can buy a Lenta (25€) which grants you access to all the events (some needs extra pay - 5 or 10€). This makes Lent a very affordable event. I have attended Lent in the past, but mainly for a day or so. It has been three years now since I have started to plan my visit to the Lent Festival. This year however, me and my wife have done it a bit differently. Nevertheless we live just an hours drive form Maribor, we decided to go there with our motorhome, park it there for a first few days and then ww would see how it goes.
And so it was. I have carefully checked the programme, circled a few interesting performances and off we went. We have arrived there on Sunday afternoon and soon after arriving we've set off. The first venue we've hit was Večerov oder where we met some old friends. The band playing at the moment was some local band warming the audience for the legendary British ska and two-tone band Bad Manners. I have heard of them, but never really listened to them. They just proved my theory the ska or two-tone has to be experienced live as it guarantees great time, restless feet and thirsty throat. It was just phenomenal seeing young and old dancing and having fun. Bad Manners' frontman Buster was really in a great mood as was the rest of the band, they were restless as was the audience. It lasted well into the night and after another drink we headed back to our temporary home.
The next day we enjoyed a "sleep in" and it was noon when we departed our mobile home. We have strolled over the bank of the River Drava in through the streets of Maribor, enjoying the freedom. The first thing to attend was a street performance by a folk group from Kenia at the Mestni park.
The folk group from Kenia is one of the folk groups performing at the Folkart which is as I mentioned earlier the mother of Festival Lent. Kenyans danced, sang and played their native musical instruments and we have decided in an instant that we are going to attend the opening of Folkart which was scheduled for next day. I am not into folklore or anything, but this was really nice, just a little window into the world of Kenia. We still had time to kill so it was time for a tee and then the event of the day: Big Band RTV Slovenia & Marko Črnčec at Minoriti stage. Marko is one of the most talented and internationally renowned pianist and composer and I have seen him play before and that is why this was labelled as the event of the day for us. Big Band's conductor Lojze Krajnčan arranged Marko's compositions and even wrote two especially for him and even Marko attributed two arrangements to the programme. As Marko is known especially in the jazz circles this is what was expected. An event of great brass section, fantastic drumming by Lojze Krajnčan's son Kristijan who in some compositions even played chello and of course out of this world piano by Marko. Late as it was after the event, we headed back home.
On Tuesday morning we've made a little trip to Koroška region just an hours drive from Maribor, had a relaxing couple of hours there and then back to Maribor as in the evening we had to attend the opening of Folkart. This year it was the 30th Folkart which means that a lot of folk groups
have already performed at Folkart from many different countries and all the continents. This year Folkart hosted folk groups from Argentina, Kenia, Montenegro, Peru, Russia, Serbia and Slovenia. Some of the groups apply for the festival themselves some are invited, but all express that they would love to come back, and some even do. The folk groups have painted a colourful, picturesque image with dance, music, singing, performing. Argentinians served us with a compulsory tango, a dance of passion from the poor barrios of Buenos Aires. It was passion pure. From Montenegro came easy going charming people who expressed pride and aristocratic origins in every step they took. There were "lions" from Kenia with hot rhythms from the black continent who warmed the audience up despite the rain and cold wind. Mysterious culture of the Inkas was there through a great folk group from Peru with fantastic costumes and performace. Republic of Tuva is a less known south Siberian pearl from the border of Russia with Mongolia and they performed a special kind of throat singing and a traditional dance of nomadic people. It was spectacular. With a folk group from Serbia we relived the memories of our former common country. Slovenia is present at the Folkart every year, and this year it was a folk group Akademska folklorna skupina Študent and members of Akademska folklorna skupina France Marolt who have performed at the first Folkart thirty years ago. The evening was so colourful that it took quite some time to get your memories straight the next day. Definitely an event we would have been sad if missed it.
On Wednesday early morning we've packed our temporary home and headed back home as I had to go to work for the next three days. We've taken the afternoon off of Festival Lent and spent it with our children. The next visits to Lent we've carried out by driving there with our car in the afternoon and back after the performances on our list have finished.
Looking at the programme we had really high hopes for Thursday as the schedule said Marko Črnčec who we knew already and something completely unknown to us, a Korean female singer and a guitarist from Sweden. As we have had two tickets for the festival and my wife said she is going to skip Thursday I've taken my 16 year old son with me. He plays the drums and percussion instruments himself and also likes to attend gigs now and then. We've set off and the first performance was that of Marko Črnčec with a cast called Dhamana and the guests Jonathan Hoard on vocals and Mamadou Diabate on balafon. Dhamana is a group of excellent musicians from all over the world, people who Marko meets travelling and finds them interesting and capable. This is also why the music they play sounds like coming from different parts of the world and different backgrounds. There were African, Cuban, American and Balkan influences noticed throughout their performance. Jonathan was a surprise as he performed with such ease and grace and he sang with such a smooth and exquisite voice that the audience was thrilled. And then there was Mamadou with balafon which is a kind of of wooden xylophone or percussion idiophone which plays melodic tunes. It was just a pleasure to watch and listen to the sound of balafon. It would for sure be unfair, wrong, unjust and non-objective not to say a few words about the rest of the cast. There was Femi on the guitar, Pera on bass, Ryan on drums and Lazaro playing percussion instruments. They were enjoying the gig probably even more than the audience. And last but not least Marko. It could have been seen that he put in even more effort as usually as Maribor is his home town and everybody knows him and he knows everybody. We could experience that before the show when Marko was waiting for it below the stage and talking and greeting people he knows and that was almost everybody. To wrap it up, it was a performance worth seeing without a doubt. My son also enjoyed it a lot as the percussionists were amazing.
Next event was the performance of Youn Sun Nah from Korea and Ulf Wakenius from Sweden. It was staged at Minoriti, which is by the way my favourite stage at the festival. What can you expect of a duo with a female singer and a male guitarist? Well, not what we've got. What we've experienced was lightyears away from the expectations. Youn Sun Nah is described as a singer with such a talent to be able to shake the musical scene throughout. Critics say she is a "miracle", "extraordinary work of art", "magical" and " a singer of world format" and she definitely proved it that night. The range of her voice, the sounds she rendered and the passions she performed with was unprecedented. And when she said "Thank you" after the applause with her soft, shy and graceful voice the audience was speechless. Accompanying her was Ulf who belongs to the very top of jazz guitarist. Her performed with the musical giants as Herbie Hancock, Mike Brecker, Milt Jackson and Pat Metheny to name just a few. They played various songs and got the audience to excited that they were awarded with standing ovations at the end of the show. Youn Sun was also surprised by the gratitude of the audience and I think she almost cried. It was one hell of a performance. On our way back to the car park me and my son stopped at the stage Večerov oder and just caught the last song of a Slovene group called Muff. It was a pop song played on the local radio stations a lot called "Jutri je nov dan". We stayed just to hear it to the end and it was a nice ending of a fantastic evening.
Another day at the Festival Lent, another day of pure joy. It was Friday and the list said Mojca and Vieux Farka Touré. In the next sentence you will find the reason why my wife accompanied me to Festival Lent that day. Mojca is a group of musicians from my home town lead by Mojca on vocals and the guitar. She has started her musical path very early and has won an award at Kantfest for the best singer-songwriter. Mojca's compositions and lyrics are reflections of her thinking, feelings and ger insights of different life stages. In the group she gathered some excellent musicians from Domen Gnezda on guitar, Jože Zadravec on drums, Robert Ožinger on keyboards and Luka Herman Gaiser on double bass and bass. They performed in Sodni stolp which is perfect for a performance like this. It was packed with people and the atmosphere and fantastic. Mojca proved once more that she is a performer with passion and joy, that she loves music and life. It was a greta gig. When Mojca finished their act we could hear that the event nex ton our list has already started.
However, the two venues were so close that we were in no hurry. After entering the Minoriti Vieux Farka Touré has already got the audience on fire. People were standing and grooving and after a minute or so we discovered why. Vieux Farka Touré whom people call Jimmy Hendrix of the Sahara, son of Ali Farka Touré showed the tremendous virtuosity on his guitar with a unique way of playing. Equally great were Valess Assouan on the bass guitar and Mamadou Kone on the drums. It was emotion packed, action infused performance. Vieux is true to his root (Ali Farka), but has added elements of rock, reggae, Latin American music and other African influences. When he asked the audience what the last song should be like, either easy or dance like, we unanimously answered DANCE like. It wasn't easy to leave the stage with the emotions running wild. It was late already, I think past midnight. Nevertheless, we stopped at Wetrinsky where you can usually enjoy some experimental jazz musicians doing their thing, while you gather your impressions of events that have just happened. It was no different this time. There was a trio of Brdnik, Rakovec and Lasič. Brdnik and Rakovec are fantastic soloists, chamberlains (musicians playing chamber music) and studio musicians. It was a trio of the guitar, drums and accordion and we were glad we've stopped there. We have stayed for a few songs and then called it a night as we still had an hours drive back home.
Saturday was planned as the rest day, but somebody convinced me that Monophonics were worth seeing. This time my son came along with me and my wife. We sailed towards Maribor early as we knew there is always something happening around Maribor. By the way Festival Lent 2018 witnessed a couple of thousands performers from 31 different countries and almost 400 performances and a quarter million (250.000) people attended those. So we had plenty of time before the Monophonics' show and we saw a crowd at the stage Jurčkov oder. We moved closer and found out why the crowd is there. Tom & The Twister, a Croatian neo swing group was at the stage and their vocalist Maja didn't spare the energy. It was great to hear and nice to see the performance. They played some swing standards, sone neo swing classics and some of their own songs. A fantastic preface to what was coming. Monophonics performed at Minoriti, again my favourite stage and that said it looked like it cannot get wrong. And so it was. I could say that the events culminated over the week of the festival. Monophonics really are masters of the ceremony. It took three years for the organisers to get them here and it was well worth it. It was a night of retro soul, funk, and rock party to round up what was to be the best Festival Lent for me this far. They played with indescribable honestya and such brutal commitment that the audience was left standing, dancing and grooving and didn't know what hit them. The show ended way to soon, but let the photos speak.
The end of the festival was celebrated with fireworks and for us with another drive back home in the middle of the night. We just could stop talking about all the things that happened during the festival. One more thing I would like to add the end: I spoke to Mojca (the vocalist and guitar player of Mojca) just a couple of days ago and we totally agreed that Festival Lent is unique in our country especially for musically educating people for the last 30 years. That is a quality I personally admire. More or less the organisers of musical event in Slovenia first ask themselves who do we invite to play that is going to attract the most visitors. It is like they all look at it through the prism of money making. But not festival Lent that has educated the audience a great deal. Hats off to Festival Lent.
