BBC Travel has posted an interesting article about the Guča festival.

Welcome to the Guca Trumpet Festival, Serbia’s premier celebration of the Balkan brass band, known here as an orkestar. It’s a place where the music is never-ending, the trumpet rules over all, and where anything that moves – from hundreds of stricken looking pigs to an entire buffalo – is liable to end up roasted on a spit. Brass band music is the Balkans’ pop, and Serbia’s national pride and joy. The top players are bigger names than Mick Jagger and Lady Gaga here, and Guca is the best place to see them.

The article nicely pictures the atmosphere of the festival and provides a nice insight into the lives of some of the best brass musicians in the region, Boban and Marko Marković.

According to the National Tourism Organization of Serbia, young travellers on a low budget are the main visitors which is not a surprise having in mind the various popular festivals and events that attract this population. Among those, the German speaking youth make a significant portion.

Due to the increase of young visitors there has also been a large increase in the number of hostels in Serbia over the last few years, and specially in Belgrade. As in all other parts of the world, hostels in Belgrade and other cities in the country range from great value for money to poor places. Photographs and the owners comments on various hostel lists can provide a general feel for a particular hostel but it’s only based on user reviews that one can actually get a decent picture of a place and decide which hostel to chose.

While the choice of online resources for finding hostels in Serbia for Serbian and English speaking people is abundant, we’ve found only one such quality resource for German speaking tourists, with all the information, including hostel amenities, services and user reviews in German.

Our German speaking visitors should be aware that the older population in Serbia does generally speak some German, while the younger generations have been more exposed to English, so for those who only speak German it might be more efficient asking older people on the street for help and instructions.

The Goethe institute is located in the Knez Mihajlova street in Belgrade and offers an information center and a vast library as well as cultural programs in the fields of science, literature, movies, music and theater. It is the number one source for the German learning population and German speaking visitors.