SATURDAY NIGHT AT LENT

A slight breeze of the sunny Saturday afternoon was taking us from stage to stage, where the day slowly turned into night.

When the youngest participantsat the performances in Art Camp got tired, itsslightly older visitors went to the river Drava embankment. Before they even reached it, the romantic hoarse voice of Drago Mislej (Mef) was inviting them to join him at the Jurček stage. It was years ago when the group MEF& NOB performed at Lent for the first time.With making fun of other entertainersand of their own selves Mef was nostalgically remembering old times before he played “another love song”. The visitors smiling from ear to ear and getting lost in the rhythm were ready for a true Saturday night at Lent. Right on cue the legendary Serbian S.A.R.S. was owning Večer stage with a catchy mix of rock, pop, reggae, world music, as well as other genres. In front of the stage a colourful crowd of fans gathered, who were animated with slower but no less interesting rhythms, and later became livelier with the most striking and best-known songs, such as: Debeli lad, To rade, Rakija, Ratujemotiija, Budim se, Ana, Perspektiva and Budjavlebac.

Pera, who plays trombone and saxophone in the band, could not hide his enthusiasm: "We are now at the festival for the second time and we like it very much. Especially this year when Maribor is European Capital of Culture, which makes Lent even better. When we were playing at Lent for the first time, we performed at Mladina stage and it was really great, but this year we are playing on a bigger stage and it seems there are even more people who came to hear us play. It seems that S.A.R.S. and Maribor have a special connection. This is one love ...".

After the exciting concert a lot of people came to JazzLent, where the echoing Arabian calls of Dhafer Youssef Quartet attracted visitors to the extremely creative musical journey. Sharp voices ruthlessly plucked the tense silence, in which the audience wrapped itself with expectations. They have slowly merged with the sound of the Arabian instrument called oudand together they were almost seamlessly dancing with famous refrains of the best western songs ofthe last decades. The ethnically mixed cast got many ovations and the Tunisian virtuoso wished everyone a good evening in Slovenian. Dhafer Youssef, who has already performed at Lent, summed up his feelings as follows: "Great to be here, at a great festival, with an excellent band and a great audience!".

Text: Simon Rajbar & VanjaGligorović

Photo: Urša Lukovnjak & Boštjan Lah