| Guča Trumpet Festival | |
|---|---|
 The Guča trumpeter statue | |
| Locations | Guča,Serbia |
| Years active | 1961–present |
| Website | www |
TheGuča Trumpet Festival (Serbian:Фестивал трубача у Гучи,romanized: Festival trubača u Guči), also known as theDragačevski Sabor (Serbian:Драгачевски сабор orDragačevo Fair (Fete, Gathering or Assembly),pronounced[draɡǎːtʃeʋskiːsǎːbor]), is an annualBalkan brass band festival and competition held in the town ofGuča, in the Dragačevo region andLučani municipality ofSerbia.[1][2]
The festival takes place from Friday to Sunday in early August and includes an opening concert on Friday night, celebrations on Saturday night and a competition on Sunday.[3] The opening concert on Friday includes previous competition winners, each band getting to play three tunes while folk dancers in traditional dress dancekolos andoros.[3] The songSa Ovčara i Kablara marks the beginning of the festival each year. Apart from the regular brass orchestras, the competition also includes the children and youth orchestras. Elimination heats are held earlier in the year and only a few dozen bands qualify to compete.[3] The competitors are in the most part self-taught. They play by ear and quite spontaneously, relying on their musical memory. Notable regular performers at the festival includeBoban Marković,Goran Bregović,Fejat Sejdić,Fanfare Ciocărlia, andShantel.
Since the festival is free, there is no official count of the number of attendees; however, many publications estimate it to be hundreds of thousands of people per day. It is estimated that from 1961 to 2017, the festival had 16 million visitors.[4] Patrons provide gratuities to bands who play on the street.[5] The festival is popular with foreigners as well as locals, many of whom have never been abroad.[6] The festival is also characterized by many stalls selling beer and local foods, including manypig roasts.[3][5] Free camping as well as paid showers are provided for attendees.[3] The festival has also been the subject of several documentaries and films.
The idea for the festival came from Blagoje Radivojević (1925–2016), a reporter working forPolitika. He was correspondent fromČačak, where in 1961 he noticed a band of trumpeters, playing the farewell to the brigade of theyouth work actions at Čačak's railway station. He suggested to the local administration in theLučani municipality, to add the trumpeters, as the "special musical heritage of this part of Serbia", to the already existing festival "Dragačevo through sing and dance". The suggestion evolved into the separate trumpet festival. Radivojević, with the help of authorBranko V. Radičević [sr] was able to urge politician and former intelligence officerSlobodan Penezić Krcun to allow the festival, but warned: "all right, but I don't want to hear about any Serbian nationalism there" (dobro, ali nemoj da čujem da je bilo nekakvog srbovanja).[7]
The inaugural festival was held on 16 October 1961 in thechurchyard of the Church of St. Michael and St. Gabriel in Guča, with 4 orchestras from the neighboring villages competing. The winner was Desimir Perišić (1919–1983), who is, still the only local musician who won the competition. He was nicknamed "Dragačevo'sHarry James". On 10 August 2010, a monument to Perišić was dedicated on the new roundabout at the entrance into Guča from Lučani direction.[8][9] At the first festival, each band had to play five songs. Two obligatory wereSa Ovčara i Kablara andBledi mesec zagrlio zvezdu danicu, plus twokolos and a march by choice.[10]
By 2017, it grew into the largest trumpet festival, third ethno-festival and one of the 15 largest festivals in the world. In Serbia, it gained a reputation of an unofficial state celebration.[11]
In time, four awards distinguished themselves as the most important. In the descending order of importance, they are: best orchestra, first trumpet, folk playing (all awarded by the jury) and Golden trumpet (voted by the audience). Every performer with three wins in any of the categories is being declared a "master of trumpet". The rules were amended in 2017, so now two of those three wins have to be awards given by the jury. This was done as some very young players won several audience awards due to their popularity. Milovan Babić is considered the most successful performer at the festival, with 11 wins in all four categories from 1972 to 2003. Based on points (awarding 4, 3, 2 and 1 point according to the importance of the award), the list of the most successful trumpeters for the 1961-2018 period is:[11][20]
| International | |
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| National | |
43°46′35″N20°13′55″E / 43.77639°N 20.23194°E /43.77639; 20.23194
