Pivo in cvetje – Day 3 (2015)

Arhiv Arhiv Last updated 11 June 2026

Location: Laško / Slovenia
Concert date: July 18, 2015
Ticket price: €0.00 (free entry!)

Saturday was the last festival night at Pivo in cvetje. There was still an official closing on Sunday, with a parade and a brass band festival, but that no longer drew in the music crowd.

Saturday’s program was varied and packed, just like the previous two days. When we got to the already familiar Zlatorog stage, a young band from Celje called Jackson was warming up the sparse crowd in front of it. Maybe not the luckiest name, considering that Jackson in one form or another shows up in music pretty often. The trio got together for the occasional jam back in their high school years and have officially been a band since 2013. They already have some original material, which they played on the festival stage, and they’re planning to release their studio debut toward the end of this year. Jackson is definitely a band we’ll be running into on stages around Slovenia in the future.

Shortly after eight in the evening Jackson said their goodbyes and the stage crew started setting up for Croatia’s Hladno Pivo. Quite a chilly name for a festival like this. Well, the beer in Laško was pretty cold, but it warmed up just as fast if you didn’t down it quickly, because the whole festival was boiling over with heat. The Croatian punk band didn’t mind one bit, though. They’ve been on stages across the former Yugoslavia since the late eighties and they’re still relevant to both the young and the young at heart. Despite the heat, their show was energetic and a growing crowd of fans kept streaming toward the stage. Punk like this has never really been the thing for the rockline.si crew, so we watched the action mostly from the back with a cold beer in hand. The ever-growing crowd in front of the stage, though, was clearly having a blast, singing along to the choruses and jumping around to the fast rhythms.

A few minutes before ten in the evening Hladno Pivo finished their set too, and preparations for the fireworks began along the banks of the Savinja. For those of us who weren’t all that into fireworks, it was time to find a good spot before the Šank Rock show. At half past ten, when the fireworks died down, last year’s returnees Šank Rock walked out on stage. This time they were in top form. Happy, playful, and hungry to entertain the crowd. And the crowd took it in and gave the playfulness right back with plenty of enthusiasm. At the start of the show we suffered again in the front rows because the rhythm section was way too loud, and standing right under the speakers it literally rattled our internal organs. We all agree rock shows have to be loud, but it would be nice if all the instruments and the vocals on stage were evenly loud. By the middle of the song Rockerji they got the sound sorted out a bit, so even up front we could finally just enjoy the show. The packed grounds sang the old hits at the top of their lungs, which of course didn’t leave the guys on stage cold. A walk through Maček, Tih’ bod’ in igraj, TV, Hvala za vse,… thrilled young and old, and the guys on stage showed they feel right at home in Laško too. An acoustic interlude followed with Želim, da si tu and Jaz in ti, and then the Šank Rock guys plugged back in and charged on with their biggest hits. Of course there were solo spots for every instrumentalist, and during the solo by Cvet and Roman on the rhythm section the PA once again scrambled our insides a bit. But the sound calmed down again later in the show, so we enjoyed it without problems all the way to the end. Of course we managed to call Šank Rock back for an encore, where both the crowd and the band squeezed out the last atoms of energy and left the last traces of their tired vocal cords behind, as the guys on stage finally said goodbye to the Zlatorog grounds for this year a few minutes after midnight.

During the short break, what we all secretly feared happened – the area in front of the stage emptied out drastically fast. Only a few of us enthusiasts stayed at the barrier, unfazed by the late hour and whatever came next, while a few shy ones waited at a safe distance from the stage, watching with interest to see what would follow. A few minutes past half past midnight Stevie Salas strode onto the stage. The American guitarist and vocalist touches on blues, funk, rock, and soul in his style, and in his playing he of course never hides his Native American roots. Over his career he has played and worked with numerous well-known musicians, from George Clinton to TM Stevens, Jeff Healey, and Glenn Hughes. On top of that, he has released 11 solo albums.

When Stevie Salas arrived, accompanied by bassist Jara Harris and drummer Matt Sherrod, the area in front of the stage was pretty empty, but the fear was unnecessary. As soon as Stevie fell into his groove of playing and singing, the space under the Zlatorog stage started filling up fast. The chemistry and communication on stage were wonderful, though I dare say Stevie was expecting a bit more of a response from the generally pretty reserved Slovenian crowd. Still, Stevie didn’t let it throw him off. His guitar playing and stage charisma won over everyone in front of the stage, and the ever-growing crowd rewarded Stevie with cheers and applause. To finish, he invited the girls from backstage up to dance to his lively rhythms. He couldn’t hide his delight.

When Stevie Salas wrapped up his set at two in the morning, the music program at the Pivo in cvetje festival came to a close too. The organizers can probably be pretty happy with the turnout, and the crowd can be happy with the lineup. It’s definitely one of those Slovenian festivals that delivers musical pleasures for a wide range of listeners, but still, the organizers should think again in the coming years about charging admission for the main stage. It’s only right that the musicians on stage have mostly true music lovers in front of them, and not true beer lovers. Even if the festival has the word »beer« in its name.