Urban Development
Serbia is, once again, divided into two camps. Two big music festivals that Serbia hosts seem to be attracting polary opposed crowds. The Exit Festival is held in Novi Sad and features latest & greatest of popular rock and electronic music. A good chunk of people who attend this festival think of themselves as urban, sophisticated, fashionable and whatnot. Festival of brass bands (think drunk people without teeth, not your high-school marching band) in GuÄa hosts Serbian best traditional (folklore) trumpet players and is considered, by the Exit crowd, to be rural. Did I mention that calling somebody a villager (seljak) is an insult in Serbia?
Of course, this urban and rural classification is absolutely arbitrary, but there has nevertheless been a lot of animosity between the two. Exit is accused of attracting people who lack in sobriety, cash strapped tourists and generally unruly characters. On the other hand, GuÄa is accused of attracting people who lack in sobriety, cash strapped tourists and generally unruly characters.
The conflict culminated when the Serbian Prime Minister, Vojislav KoÅ¡tunica, visited GuÄa this year, but not Exit. Everybody seems to mind it because GuÄa is “rural” (people getting drunk silly, swimming in mud and ornamenting musicians with Euros), and our PM is promoting it over an “urban” thing. Like I mentioned before, that’s bullshit that I won’t even attempt to argue against (a much better argument would be that the Exit Festival is, unlike GuÄa, politically active, and promotes groovy stuff like an end to human trafficking).
Still, I was amazed at the speech KoÅ¡tunica, our master of populist muppetry and cliché, gave on GuÄa. He said that GuÄa is the heart of Serbia, which I would guess, makes Å abac its nostrils, while Subotica is an elbow. He also said that people who don’t understand GuÄa are not capable of understanding Serbia either, which does nicely explain the slight feeling of confusion I often have when I walk out of home.
Another interesting thing, Prime Minister of Republika Srpska, Dodik, attended GuÄa with KoÅ¡tunica. KoÅ¡tunica returned the visit for a soccer match in Republika Srpska. What’s that supposed to mean?
Comments
Sep 6, 12:29 PM #
Sep 6, 01:08 PM #
From my understanding, Guca was commenced by a Serb man and began a kind of duel between Serbian-style and Roma-style playings - with Serbian tending being softer and more melodious, and Roma being louder, brasher, wilder, and very energetic. The Roma came to be more popular, especially among the young. Though some people, non-Serbs even do have beefs with this, and have complained, after seeing Boban Markovic's concerts in America.
Those same people (American, non-Balkans who are into Balkan and Eastern European music - studying/playing) and other visitors wonder if Guca may have become too popular for its own good.
I get the impression, that due to the demonization of Serbs, having Roma's in the forefront (in films and music) is one way to get around the constant bashing of Serbs and accusations and dissections about about political connotations in Serbian films, art, literature, every sentence they speak, etc. unless it is anti-Serb and self-blaming.
Sep 7, 11:03 AM #
You know my answer to this rural / urban divide is pretty simple. Dont join either gang and make your own mind up. Good post.
Kostunica and Dodik - isnt that something to do with the elections in Bosnia? You got to hand it to Kostunica he sure knows how to mobilise the Bosniaks into supporting more hard line parties. Not that I'm expecting anything different amyway.
Sep 12, 08:38 PM #
Naprijed!!! U svemu smijere!
Sep 14, 06:57 PM #
Sep 14, 07:33 PM #
regards from greece
george tsinekidis
Oct 14, 12:50 AM #
its my prayer that the country will be successful and have peace in mind.