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World Music festivals and tourism: a case study of Serbia’s Guca trumpet festival

2012; Routledge; Volume: 20; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/10286632.2012.743531

1477-2833

Jelena Gligorijević,

Cultural Industries and Urban Development

AbstractFrom its foundation in 1961 until the present day, the Guca trumpet festival has undergone significant transformations. Setting out as a small-scale cultural revival of Serbian brass orchestra tradition held annually in the village of Guca in the Dragacevo region of western Serbia, the festival has evolved over time into a great World Music spectacle. Disputes about the interpretation and representation of the national past and musical heritage have long been induced in public by the unsettled political situation in Serbia and by the festival's gradual integration into the global music industry and cultural tourism market. In consequence, the festival's relationship to issues of authenticity, tradition preservation, globalization impact, and representation politics continues to be viewed and discussed through familiar dichotomies. Using the interrelated theoretical models from World Music and cultural tourism studies, this paper aims to explore the reasons for the festival's prominent status in national cultural policies, as well as the contradictory meanings that it has generated in a variety of discourses.Keywords: World Musicnational heritageglobalizationrepresentation politics Notes1. From 2010, an international brass orchestra competition has been included into the festival's official program as well.2. In the centuries before such a switch to Central European music styles, the development of Serbian instrumental practice was shaped under the Ottoman oriental influence and put in the service of various Ottoman panjandrums living in Serbian towns. The first orchestra hired at the Prince Milos's court featured as well the similar types of oriental instruments and repertoires.3. Which were themselves heavily influenced by the Central European tonal music system between the two World Wars.4. From its military usage in numerous war conflicts with Ottomans, Austro-Hungarians and neighboring nations through to its integration into everyday social and musical practices.5. See the well-documented chronicle of the Guca trumpet festival's development in Timotijevic Citation2005.6. The origins of this song are still being debated among the Serbian public. However, it has been widely accepted that From Ovčar and Kablar was created during the World War I as a shepherd song by Momir Pantelic, a literate man and talented singer from the Dragacevo village Ducalovici. See http://www.riznicasrpska.net/muzika/index.php?topic=987.0 [Accessed 2 September 2012].7. The Exit festival is a pro-Western popular music oriented event founded in Novi Sad, the second largest city located in the northern Serbia, in 2000. It has meanwhile developed into the greatest international four-day musical spectacle in southeastern Europe, taking place every summer, in the first half of July, within the astonishing Petrovaradin fortress' walls.8. Regarding, for instance, the unsolved conflicts between the two ideologically opposed Serbian armies during World War II, or the recent war criminal past.9. Unsurprisingly, such a debate encompasses many issues currently discussed in cultural tourism studies.10. A public concern with the World Music theory and practice, especially within the national context, has come to gain substantial institutional support in the course of the 2000s. World Music Association of Serbia, Serbian World Music magazine Etnoumlje (Ethnomind), Belgrade World Music Center, several World Music radio shows, the releases of the CD series Serbia Sounds Global by the B92 music label, and so on, are all some of the examples of World Music institutionalization in Serbia.11. Even though Golemovic does not specify the meaning of the term 'subculture' in this paper, I presume from the context of his argumentation that the term is being used colloquially as a synonym for various urban social groups whose lifestyle and cultural activities are associated with different (both mainstream and alternative) popular music genres at work in Serbia.12. This is the practice which can be traced back to the 1960s when the influence of mass media came to play a prominent role in the Serbian cultural life.13. To name a few: the national cuisine, national costumes (including opanak, a traditional footwear), the Serbian flag, traditional handmade textile products, etc.14. The Guca festival host in 2004 was Dragan Kojadinovic, a Serbian minister of culture; in 2005, 2006, and 2007 – Velimir Ilic, a Serbian minister of capital investments; in 2006 – Dr. Vojislav Kostunica, a Serbian PM; in 2007 – Milorad Dodik, a Serb Republic PM; in 2008, 2009, and 2010 – Milutin Mrkonjic, a Serbian minister of infrastructure, together with Slobodan Jolovic, the festival organizer and president of the Municipality of Lucani (in 2009); and in 2011 – Milenko Kostic, a local entrepreneur, together with the Russian Ambassador Aleksandar Konuzin.15. Namely, Ratko Mladic, Radovan Karadzic, Slobodan Milosevic, and Vojislav Seselj.16. See, for instance, the former Serbian Prime Minister Kostunica's statement in B92 3 September 2006.