Location: Sveti križ (Planina pri Sevnici) / Slovenia
Concert date: 07.07.2012
Attendance: 1500
Ticket price: €14.00 / €21.00
The next morning the sun woke us up early – at eight the people in charge of feeding our poor stomachs started showing up at the venue and cooked us breakfast – every biker at the venue gets a free breakfast on Saturday morning. The spread was solid: yogurt, fried eggs, salami, cheese, bread, pâté, jam, an apple – and it was all gone in a blink. After breakfast some of the campers headed down to the village, where a small-sided football tournament was going on at the playground, while a minority of us stayed at the venue, where we got our first less-than-pleasant surprise – our cooks packed up and left, and we were stuck all day with no food, no drinks, no drinking water, nothing. Klumpanje’s rules say you can’t bring drinks onto the grounds, yet that very same rulebook promises campers all-day food and drink at the venue. (You can read the rules HERE)
Well, none of that materialized, which wasn’t exactly fair or decent of the organizers. Luckily our VIP passes meant nobody searched our cars, so we weren’t thirsty, but everyone else was miserably asking the security guys where on the grounds they could get a glass of drinking water. Generally, those of us who stayed at the venue during the day were poorly looked after – we missed some music, some entertainment, and in general we figured it would have been better to hold Saturday’s side program right at the venue, in front of the stage. Anyway, the organizers apparently sensed our silent cravings for music around three in the afternoon and »treated« us to two up-and-coming DJs on stage, whose excessive volume finally killed off any chance of conversation between the thirsty and hungry crowd. That went on until five, when, fortunately, the musical guests started taking the stage one after another for their soundchecks.
When the »porcini« beer stands finally fired up again around half past six in the evening, we thirstily made our way to the bar. Once the soundchecks were done, the first Saturday act, Radiostorm, quickly took the stage. This time it was the punk-leaning listeners’ turn. Sadly, at such an early hour the area in front of the stage at Klumpanje is even emptier; those who are already at the venue prefer to hang around the bar or sit on the grass in the back. It was a decent enough set, though fans of the genre would be better judges of it. It ended soon, and then the guys from Requiem were already up. We’ve seen the band on various stages quite a few times, and you could say this wasn’t exactly a night to be proud of. Obvious mistakes in the rhythms and melodies, impossible to miss, are something a band of this caliber really shouldn’t allow itself, even if the crowd in front of the stage maybe didn’t quite notice. It was also proven once again that eastern Slovenia doesn’t take well to hard rock bands, because the area in front of the stage was more empty than not. When Requiem wrapped up a performance that deserves to be forgotten, The drinkers replaced them on stage. At the first notes the crowd started creeping a bit more boldly toward the stage, especially after Kolly urged them on from the stage with a generous helping of Zasavje swearing. Once again, Kolly’s indispensable backing vocalist – the motorbike – was there. The audience joined in on the drinking songs and raised their beers. After The drinkers said their goodbyes, the stage was taken by Klumpanje’s indispensable guests, who have been following the event every year since the very beginning of the festival – Mi2. An utterly captivating set that can’t disappoint even those who don’t know their music that well. The harmony of the lead vocalists carries over to the whole band. I find it hard to believe that Mi2 could leave anyone in the audience indifferent – and they certainly didn’t leave the Klumpanje crowd that way. The singer-songwriter-style banter between the two frontmen only made the set better, and it’ll be a pleasure to watch them at Klumpanje in the years to come, too.
With Mi2’s set the night hit its peak, which doesn’t mean it was over. After Mi2, Dan D from Novo mesto took the stage. Again we waited through the first few songs, and then fatigue won out and we headed home. After Dan D, newcomers CoverLover came on, a band working under the baton of former Šank Rock member Aleš Uranjek, but unfortunately the toll of the sleepless night was too heavy for us to catch them on stage. Or maybe it was our sky-high EMŠO numbers (read: age) that wore us down.
And that’s how Klumpanje 2012 wrapped up successfully. A likable festival with a varied musical lineup that could get even better with a little organizational know-how – especially when it comes to what happens during the day. Maybe small improvements are waiting for us next year.
And one last bit of public-service nagging: we Slovenians really are pigs when it comes to cleaning up our trash. Apparently it’s too much for today’s youth to clear their plastic leftovers off the table after breakfast and into the garbage bags standing barely 2 meters away. I was genuinely ashamed of our growing generations.
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