Wajdooshna Rocks mini festival
Friday, 11 Sept 2026
Letališče, Ajdovščina, Slovenia
“Does Ajdovščina even deserve a rock festival?”
The Wajdooshna rocks festival was dogged by bad luck right from the start. The original date, 21 Aug 2026, got called off because of terrible weather. The weather on the new, ominous date, 11 Sept 2026, wasn’t much better, though it cleared up enough in the evening to make the show possible. The original spot (Šturska ploščad) was taken on the new date, so the event moved to a much more drafty location at the airfield.
I don’t know which of those is to blame for the truly pitiful turnout. Or has Ajdovščina maybe finally cut ties with its rock and rocker (not to say metal) roots? I won’t go into numbers, but if I tell you that you got a beer in five seconds and a hamburger in three and a half minutes, I’ve said enough.
What I can say, though, is that everyone who wasn’t there has every reason to be damn sorry. Three great bands, really good sound and a crowd in a good mood. What more could anyone want on a fresh late-summer/early-autumn evening?
The local band Mačji Kwt (legendary name!!!) kicked things off with a mix of original material and a genre-hopping mishmash of covers. The girls and guys are 17 years old, and stage fright quite literally nailed them to the floorboards. But even if nerves paralyzed their ability to move, they didn’t get in the way of the musical and vocal performance, which was at an enviable level for such a young band. A flub and a rhythmic slip crept in here and there, but the interesting vocals and the instrumentalists’ decent technical chops made for a lively set and respectable crowd participation. If I counted right, they played three originals, the already well-settled local hit Sosejda n balkoni (twice, encore included), Twoja nona kdi, and one more whose title I don’t know. And that last one shows the whole potential of this band, it’s the direction they should take, in my humble opinion. Good luck, Mačji kwt!
MRFY. A band I definitely don’t listen to daily. Weekly. Monthly. Yearly. It’s just not my kind of music. But you can’t dispute the guys’ stage charisma and energy. They launched into the set relaxed and confident, with an interesting stage setup (the drummer was in line with the rest of the band). I don’t know if the size of the stage had anything to do with it, but it looked good. The sound was punchy, which isn’t a given at open, windy locations. MRFY is a band that doesn’t worry about genre limits, and their indie-pop-rock is full of catchy melodies, clever lyrics and commercial gloominess. The visuals on the big screen in the background had enough humor and real-life relatability to seriously back up the messages of the songs. A little group of female fans was crammed up against the stage, bringing the gig atmosphere to life and singing every word by heart. Umru zate, the new track Ps, Prjatučki and so on. MRFY are so commercial that I knew most of the songs and could join in on the choruses. One track caught my attention, titled Palipali, with the chorus “Pali, pali, pali po materiali”. “Pali po materiali” is a phrase popularized by a member of my extended family, and it means a call for the whole gang to pounce on the food. Well …
The peak of the MRFY show was the Euro-dance tracks Noč in dan and Počitnice, which sent us back 20 or 30 years. An absolute madhouse to finish! The positive arrogance and relaxed “attitude” of the band just radiated off the stage. Musically they didn’t convert me (except for my new personal anthem Po-po-po-po-čitnice …), but I’ll go see them live again sometime. Definitely.
Šank Rock with no keyboards and two guitars. Without Bor Zuljan. Must check out. No doubt about it, it sounds great. The rawer versions of early hits Zabava and Pridite na žur truly gained a lot in the new arrangement.
But, yeah. After MRFY the little group of fans left, so Šank Rock stepped out in front of the remains of the crowd. And they roared, sawed and stomped their way through a seriously long list of songs. Of course, at this stage of their career they can put together a setlist of nothing but hits without the slightest trouble, and that’s exactly what they did. Drummer Aleš Uranjek was missing due to surgery, and he was replaced by Matjaž Skaza, the drummer of Batista Cadillac, who learned twenty (and change) songs in just four days. Bravo, Matjaž!
To my relief, the band didn’t resort to canned keyboards, and instead rearranged all the songs for two guitars (except for a few ballads, where one of the new guitarists, Marko Zorc, switched over to keys). Marko and the other guitarist, Andrej Rot, performed like old stage cats and, with guitar interplay and quality backing vocals, lifted the overall sound. They enrich Bor’s and Zvone’s solos with their own stylistic stamp, yet stay faithful to the soul of each solo composition.
The obligatory ballads warmed the hearts of the gentler sex in the crowd, but where the new lineup really shines is the heavier stuff. Tih bod’ in igraj, TV, Hočeš nočeš, Maček, Pridite na žur shone in punchier outfits and got the freezing crowd moving. Surprisingly, the weaker point of the performance was vocalist Matjaž. He started well, in the familiar manner of a mature vocalist that he’s successfully pulled off for the last 7-8 years. Somewhere in the last third of the show he got knocked down and sang a few songs an octave lower, but in the end he picked himself up again. It could be that dinner at the inn on Titov trg in Ajdovščina was more than just dinner … Bassist Cveto Polak needs no further introduction, a reliable rhythmic backbone as always.
Šank rock didn’t disappoint, a well-oiled live machine just grinds up everything in front of it. I hope they manage to turn the new band energy into energetic new music too, to upgrade the fairly standard ballad Pomisliš kdaj name.
A special mention goes to Lea Bajc, who with a breathtaking performance (dance and acrobatics on silk ropes high above the ground) spiced up the break between Šank Rock and MRFY (set, at the organizer’s request, to Nothing Else Matters) as well as the classic Metulj during the Šank Rock set). Expressive and thrilling!
To repeat, the turnout should be a disgrace to all the lovers of guitar music on the Primorska coast. I hope the two organizers will find the courage for another attempt in 2027. I’ll definitely be there!
Text and photos: Igorac
