Guča Trumpet Festival to take place August 6-10

Guča Trumpet Festival to take place August 6-10

BELGRADE -- All is set for the 54th Trumpet Festival in Guča, to be held August 6-10 in the western Serbian region of Dragačevo.

The event celebrating folk music and art in Serbia, which became one of its best-known brands attracting around half a million tourists every year, "highlights the country's optimism, cheerfulness and sincere hospitality," Tanjug reported.

The trumpet festival in Guča is one of the events listed in the National Geographic's 10 Must-Dos in August, said the national Tourism Organization of Serbia.

Last year, U.S. magazine Time named the Guča brass band festival as one of "Five Festive Events You Won't Want to Miss in 2013."

This year's festival will be shorter than usual due to the difficult economic situation and the disastrous floods that swept through the region in May.

The flooding and the landslides posed a threat to the roads leading to Guča but owing to the assistance of the Serbian government we are ready to welcome all festival goers from the country and abroad, said the head of Lucani municipality Vladimir Sretenović, who also chairs the festival's organizing committee.

"The visitors will not lack for any cultural events they grew accustomed to in the previous years," the organizers pledged.

The best brass bands and trumpet players will be decided by the expert jury and the jury of the public, and crowned with the title of Dragačevo Winner.

An international brass band competition, first launched several years ago, will take place on August 7 with contestants from Macedonia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Germany, Poland, Italy, France, Romania, and Norway.

The event will...