A crowd of thousands gathered in a small town in Serbia late Friday as they celebrated the 60th Guca Brass Band Festival with the sound of triumphant trumpets filling the air while visitors enjoyed themselves undeterred by a resurgence of coronavirus cases in the country.
Launched in 1961 when just four bands competed for the Golden Trumpet trophy and only 2,500 visitors attended, the festival is now Serbia's liveliest traditional music event, but, like many events around the world, it was canceled in 2020 amid the global pandemic.
This year, visitors must show vaccination certificates or a negative COVID-19 test if they want to enter Guca, a small town in the rolling hills of southwestern Serbia.
"The situation is like this everywhere in the world, and we have to learn to live with that, we cannot stop the music, we cannot stop living," Horseco, a visitor from Cuba, told Reuters.
Brass bands have a long tradition in Serbia, stretching back to a royal decree establishing a military ensemble in 1831, and groups of musicians are present at events spanning births to weddings to funerals.
More than 15 million visitors have come to Guca during the festival's history, and organizers and local authorities are hoping that despite the health restrictions, sales of tickets and souvenirs, and the taxes and duties paid by restaurateurs can help the local economy rebound.
"Many people are prevented from coming because not all of them can follow prescribed measures for the protection from COVID-19," said Jovan Kovacevic, director of the Culture Centre in Guca.
Serbia has seen a sharp increase in COVID-19 infections in recent weeks, driven by the spread of the highly infectious delta variant, mostly in the unvaccinated.
The country of around 7 million has recorded 730,222 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, with 7,158 deaths. Around 50% of the population is fully vaccinated.
