Here is a no nonsense diary into our first Bosnian Music Festival in Mostar, Bosnia I Herzegovina. You’ll typically find me writing in an organized manner… it’s what I do, I’m an organization fiend and it bugs me when it’s not in sequence. This is the first time I find myself unable to sequence the night, but I prefer to share the experience with you as I did first hand. Think of this as my travel diary.
When we had first heard about Mostar Summerfest, it sounded awesome. The festival itself reminded me of something similar to what we would find a home – perhaps like the Oakville Waterfront Festival or perhaps even something more like Digital Dreams or VELD (electronic festivals). I really had no idea what to expect, but I was excited.
The evening started around 6:00pm when we walked toward the bus stop for our free shuttle towards the festival. We waited about one hour on the bus before departing (we had an option to pay about 3$ for a taxi, but hey… I wanted the full experience). This is one thing you mustn’t forget about most of the Balkans… the bus leaves when it is full. Though I have to admit, you usually will only find this true in areas of Albania. I think this time it was because it was a free shuttle bus direct to the Mostar Summerfest and it only made sense to wait for a full bus before departing with only 5 people on it (it was also the first bus of the evening – we were a little too keen).
On our way to the festival the bus was rather quiet… it was full of people between the ages of 17 and 25, but everyone kept to their group of friends and just socialized quietly. No pre-drinks, no screaming girls and no ridiculously wasted people running around on the bus… this is different.
We made way to the festival, which wasn’t more than a 15-minute bus ride through the side streets of Mostar and into an industrial complex. I actually started second-guessing… ‘Perhaps we got on the wrong bus?’ It could have been a scene in a movie where the bus driver takes us all to a creepy industrial factory and imprisons us as slaves (the one hour wait on the bus had my mind going a little wild… can you tell?)
We arrived safely; there was no imprisonment and no slavery. We arrived rather early and managed to snag ourselves an awesome spot in a couple reclined Jagermeister chairs looking onward to the stage.
There were promotional models, similar to Canada as they walked around in the pretty little outfits taking photographs, handing out samples of chips and passing around discount flyers and coupons. There were brands I had never heard of like Chips Way, Cedevita and Cockta. Of course there were also brands like Jager, Red Bull, Estrella and Jack Daniel’s present at the Mostar Summer Festival as well.
The atmosphere was slowly becoming livelier but even from the start I was amazed at how hip and trendy this festival was. I felt like I had taken a plane back to Berlin where the hipsters come out to party, kick back and hang out in ruin pubs, industrial complexes and artsy side streets. The Mostar Summerfest was in between two industrial buildings, covered with upcycled pallet tables, upcycled truck wheel garbage cans and a whole load of other hip and trendy designs.
The crowds grew bigger and it turned out to be an awesome night where they featured famous artists from around the Balkans such as Elemental, Van Gogh, The Sweepers, Sove and Rambo Amadeus. The music was awesome, though I didn’t understand much of the lyrics, the beat was sweet and the crowds were great.
Though I have to admit my favourite part of the night was the Rakia stand. This is one unique thing that you’d never find in any city of North America (correct me if I’m wrong). There were about 10 to 15 different flavours of homemade Rakia in recycled water bottles. Each bottle was labelled (in Bosnian) with a different flavour. I selected my choices by the color of course as the only Bosnian word I could ever understand was NARANCA (Spelling?!) due to my new addiction of the orange (Naranca) flavored vitamin drink Cedevita. The drinks were strong, tasty and cheap! We paid no more than 1 Euro a drink and we even had a few glasses of wine and sangria for free from a local hotel/winery.
All in all it was an amazing new experience. I absolutely loved the Mostar Summerfest and I would recommend anyone visiting Mostar during the time of the festival to check it out. I think this has even inspired me to carry on with this activity through other countries. Perhaps I should start looking into planning trips when local festivals are taking place – local vibes, local music and local drinks!
