Druga Godba is an international, alternative music festival with an 18 year history that takes place every Spring (late May-June), predominantly in Ljubljana’s picturesque Krinžanke open-air theater, but also in other venues in Ljubljana and at Maribor’s Satchmo club.

The festival, unique in Europe for offering a wide range of musical styles under the umbrella of "Druga Godba" (meaning "alternative bands") features a wide variety of musical genres to suit everyone’s taste - from new jazz, ethno-electronica, contemporary folk and rock, to obscure musical styles found in pockets of the world unknown to ordinary music listeners, such as those from Cape Verde, the Tuareg people of Algeria, sub-Sahara Africa, just to name a few.

Originally, Druga Godba was founded in the 80’s, historically a tense political time in former Yugoslavia, in order to offer live access to different bands which were not popularly known throughout the world, nor could be seen in other parts of Europe, and to make accessible alternative types of music that had an originality of style. In the past few years, artists such as Yussu N’Dour, Babba Mal, and Cheb Mami have played to enthusiastic Slovene audiences. Last year’s line-up included groups from 13 countries throughout the wold, featuring world renowned artists such as Cesaria Evora, along with less well known international and local artists who use the festival as a platform for larger public recognition.

Ljubljana Life went behind the scenes to meet Bogdan Benigar, the festival’s Program Coordinator, to chat about the history and future of a festival that should not be missed by anyone who claims to be a connoisseur of music, or simply a lover of culture and entertainment.

To bring new music to this area like reggae, African music, Slovenian folk, revival music, and new jazz… which was not part of Jazz Fest. In 1985, such kinds of concerts were simply not available in this part of the world, not even in the former capital of Yugoslavia (Belgrade). For the European musical scene in the 70's and 80's - such festivals were very rare, although there were a lot of folk and rock festivals. But mainly, festival started to grow and become very important only in the 90's. Many festivals were started up in the 80's because lots of the music from Africa and South America started to become known in Europe.

No, I wouldn't categorize it as world music, it’s alternative. Radio Student played African music, or other exotic music, even in the 70's, so there was always an audience for that, but there were no live acts. So the idea of the festival was to bring live acts, not only to listen to the radio.

No, actually they would rather come to Slovenia then to Germany or France because they have many concerts in those places every year. For many artists, it is more fun to go and play in a country that they go to rarely.

The case in Slovenia is just the opposite, usually they get a bigger audience than in London, or in Paris. At the first concert here with Cesaria Evora, there were 3000 people. There are a few countries where she could have more people in a single concert, like in Paris or in Portugal, but nowhere else. She first came to Slovenia in 1997.

I think we appreciate, more than the Americans, the way that a performer is. She never pretends, she is what she is. I don't agree that there are some standards of what a concert should be like, that it reaches some criteria of a good concert. I mean, it all depends on the music, of course. The criteria for a good jazz concert is different than the criteria for Cape Verde music. You can not compare it with a good blues concert. Each music has its own feelings - and artists, especially like Cesaria Evora, have their own style of performing it. So it can not reach one standard.

There are many criteria, I don't know if I can name all of them. But most of all, we try to bring new names, artists who have never performed here (most of them). And most of them come from cultural areas that have never been here. This past year we had music from Armenia, and we've never before had music from there. So it's not just about a musical aspect, but also a cultural aspect. By listening to the music, people can at least imagine what Armenia is like. We also look for artists that we think are the best in their genre, or their geographical areas. And of course, during the year when we're preparing the concept, which is as open as possible but still compact, we select from one kind of music to another, but still make sure it can be put in the festival.

First of all, anyone who is interested can check on the artists by our promo materials and on the radio stations where we feature their music leading up to the concerts (Radio Student, Val 202, Radio Slovenia, and others). And there are also artists who are not well known or recognized by the mass media or the larger population, but there are always some people who know about this music - so we can always count on that. But, even people who don't know the artists trust what we do, the history of the festival, they know they can count on the program and they will always get something respectable, something nice, something that they will remember for a long time.

No, first of all, the wish has to come from both sides and we expect that they want to play at the festival, so only in that case do we invite them. We have some other criteria for Slovenian groups, like the first performance of their new project should be at the festival to promote the music that they do. We want some exclusivity with them. So very rarely do we take groups that have performed in other festivals, or who are recognized in the media. We are a platform for the careers of people who create music that is interesting and good, and bring something positive to the Slovenian people.

The project Bast was one of the projects that was very good, and got recognized afterwards. They had their first live concert as a group at the festival, before that it was just a CD project.

Yes, definitely. It also depends on them, how they use the fact that they've played in Druga Godba.

This year’s line-up is currently being organized and will so far feature David Evans (blues) and Spaceways Incorporated (funky jazz trio) from the USA, and 2 bands from Slovenia - Katalena (Slovene traditional folk played with a modern twist - definitely worth checking out) and Terra folk. They are also hoping to feature Natacha Atlas (UK, Morocco), Eliades Ochoa y Carteto Patria (Cuba), Sam Mangwana (DR Congo) and The Whirling Dervishes and Ensemble Al-kindi (Syria).

See you in May!