Festival Lent

Friday was the start of the Lent Festival. Lent is the name of the old city area down by the river, nothing to do with Easter or anything. For 2 and a half weeks Maribor is FULL of people and there are concerts and performances every night, its been a lot of fun so far. The street along the river is just full of people and little tents set up selling Slovene fair food which is basically tons of meat in any form possible. There's also cotton candy (which the British people call candy floss) and popcorn and crepes and lots of beer. The main stage is actually floating on the river and there's a huge seating area set up just on shore, its pretty amazing.
We saw a band called the Fool Cool Orchestra on Saturday night, it was a jazz orchestra playing very unique music that was a blend of new age, jazz, and rock using all sorts of different instruments. The featured soloists were an electric guitar and an accordionist.

I've never seen an accordionist jam out on a solo before.... quite interesting.

Sunday night we saw a French group called The World Upside Down...Feet on the Ground. They had a stage set up in the park that wasn't actually a stage at all but metal scaffolding on four corners that went up probably 60 feet. In between all the corners were vertical sheets of heavy duty clear plastic and the performance could be viewed from all sides. There were probably 12 people on trapeze swinging and dancing on both sides of these clear, vertical stages in various costumes and acts. It was really amazing to see a performance not limited to 2 dimensions on such an alternative stage area.

I think we'll go to see a jazz/flamenco group tonight perform in the 'judgement tower'. Its a little cafe/pub that looks like a former grain silo or something, but much wider. It looks really nice and cozy and the stage supposedly always has the best performances.