Location: Sveti križ (Planina pri Sevnici) / Slovenia
Concert date: 06.07.2012
Attendance: 1500
Ticket price: 14,00€ / 21,00€
Let’s go klumpat in Planina – that’s how the chorus of the Klumpanje anthem goes. For the thirteenth year in a row, Klub mladih Planina invited a crowd to its corner of the world in early July for a two-day festival. In an idyllic spot between Šenjur and Sevnica, on a grassy plain, mostly young people hungry for fun and music have been gathering for thirteen years now. This time the organizers also got lucky with the weather forecast, since in the past Klumpanje visitors were often scorched by nothing but a bright blue sky.
Backpack and tent in the car, and off we go toward new adventures. Even the uphill drive is its own kind of adrenaline rush, a mix of blind corners and gravel. When the road finally firms up, we arrive in the village of Planina, where grassy parking lots await festival guests, and a bus takes you to the venue itself, about 1 km farther up. Of course, we – the deep-pocketed Friday crowd – treated our trusty steel steed to a spot right by the venue – at the top.
When we arrived, the venue was still pretty calm. Loud all the same, though, since the sound check was echoing off the stage, and we set off to find a decent spot to pitch the tent. If you expect to pitch your tent in the shade at Klumpanje, you’re a pretty big optimist. But if you show up in time, you can at least get it on flat ground.
The first visitors started trickling in, and with them the first »beer-slingers« started work. Soon after, the first sounds of Vertum rang out from the stage. If you weren’t watching the stage closely, you could easily have missed their set without realizing it, because Klumpanje had no official announcer or host to grab the crowd’s attention, and the set started right after the sound check. So by the time you figured out this was already the first official performance, half the show was gone. Listening while sprinting to the venue, I was left with pleasantly ringing harmonies of a female voice over a gentler male instrumental backing. The set wrapped up soon enough, and next up was Aperion. An interesting band with a colorful lineup of excellent musicians with many years of experience behind them, plus a powerful female voice. Stylistically they’re close to Apocalyptica, since besides the standard rock instruments they bring in a fusion of authentic classical ones (viola, cello, flute, …), and we even heard the sounds of a real Australian didgeridoo. The stage show was a real treat and rounded out the whole performance, and I would definitely recommend seeing and hearing this band to others too.
After a short hour the stage emptied out again, but not for long. At Klumpanje they really didn’t waste time on overlong breaks between sets. You hopped off for a beer, maybe a quick trip to drain the tank, and new sounds were already booming from the stage. After Aperion, the Klumpanje stage was taken over by the star of Slovenia’s Got Talent and Slovenia’s Eurovision representative, Maja Keuc. For the late-teen souls who dominated the Klumpanje crowd, it was time to enjoy softer, more danceable rhythms, while we drifted a bit toward the back – to the bar. Still, you can’t fault Maja’s vocal abilities, though I personally would have expected a bit more original material and not a whole armful of covers. Then again, the crowd in front of the stage obviously didn’t mind much.
The venue kept filling up, with new visitors arriving again and again. Even the view of the camping area, a patchwork of bright colors without a trace of grass showing, made it clear the place was full, way too full. Making your way through it, you really had to strain your eyes so you didn’t trip over all the taut guy ropes and take the whole lot down on your way to your own tent. The trek got even more interesting once you’d fortified yourself with a few mugs of beer.
The day had slid well into darkness when Zmelkoow took the stage. Despite the fairly chilly air, the crowd in front of the stage was warmed up just right and jumped along with the band members in perfect unison. The musicians were completely in sync on stage – Goga is truly a master of stage performance. With his remarks and announcements between songs, he entertained the crowd even more. The sound was flawless – there really was nothing to complain about with the sound throughout the entire event. It was inspiring to watch the whole band work together as a team. Credit also goes to the two backing vocalists, who sound just as flawless behind the mic – no, Goga, it wasn’t lousy when they sang on their own. J Old hits like Batman, Bit, Čau, sonček, Poredni gosti, Klub ljudi z resnimi težavami and the indispensable Gravitacija got the crowd singing at the top of their lungs.
So for a good hour the stage belonged to this fun rock outfit, and meanwhile the clock ticked past midnight. After a short break, Big foot mama, well known and beloved by the young crowd, took over the stage. Considering how late it was – well, you could also say early – and the leftovers of a exhausting week still weighing on my head, all that pressure fought against the urge to stick it out at the show. Given that Big foot mama are often invited to and seen at concerts and festivals all over the country, I have no doubt they did their job confidently here too and that the audience was happy. We, being a bit older, slowly made our way to the tent and tried, with a hefty dose of optimism, to get some rest, which was pretty hard given how packed the camp was and how carefree the happy crowd was. So the final change on stage reached our ears inside the tent – the Drugo dugme cover act playing Yugo classics. The audience, already well fortified with intoxicating substances, loudly sang along to assorted Balkan hits, while I finally sank into a fairly restless sleep for a measly 3 hours.
Photo gallery
