LAIBACH AT KOUPAFEST
Review by Mitja Stefancic
On Sunday, 4th of August, Laibach appeared at KoupaFest, a cultural and art festival in Bela Krajina, a South-Eastern region of Slovenia. Laibach figured among the main attractions of the festival which was organised by the Student Union of Bela Krajina in the Podzemelj camping, near the Kolpa river.

The festival, which began on Friday, comprised cultural, dance, and musical performances from local and foreign artists, as well as a variety of sport attractions. With my friend Tilen, we came to Podzemelj on Saturday afternoon. A kind young girl, who was one of the promoters of the festival, gave us the backstage passes and showed us the camping. Afterwards, we decided to try the refreshing Kolpa river. Apart from being one of the cleanest rivers of Slovenia, it is also the river that figures as the border between Slovenia and Croatia. However, many people (among them the festival promoters) prefer to say that it unites the two countries rather than that it divides them.

After a brief meeting with a friend of mine, we got ready for the concerts at the main stage. The bands that most impressed us were The Stroj and Vlatko Stefanovski trio. Especially the former group, who recently played also in Leeds, could be interesting to many Laibach fans. On the other hand, Vlatko Stefanovski is considered -so we were told- one of the best contemporary guitarists on the international scene. His concert was interesting and the audience appeared to enjoy it.

Laibach were the only group who was on the main stage schedule for Sunday. Some of its members came to the place in the early afternoon. I think Nikola Sekulovic was the first one among them. The atmosphere in the backstage was much more cold compared to Saturday. We spent the day swimming in Kolpa, playing football and trying to get back the strenghts from the night before. After drinking a glass of 'Metliska crnina', the local wine, we went near the backstage. Bit by bit, the audience began to come in front of the stage. A photographer told me that Laibach were on the top of their career at the beginning of the Eighties and after that one of the promoters told us not to go on stage or directly in front of the singer to take pictures of the band.

A brief look at the audience: although there were certainly less people than on Saturday, the audience was quite big, considering also that in the same evening Iggy Pop, The Stranglers and Simple Minds were playing on Krk, Croatia.

Laibach began their concert with the opening song 'Final Countdown', and afterwards played mainly songs from the NATO and Jesus Christ Superstars albums. The show was quite similar to the one presented at the Krizanke theater in Ljubljana in 1997. Something I noticed is that during the song 'To The New Light', the speech delivered by the singer was in Slovene. Laibach made just one encore, and to be honest the concert seemed to me a bit short, though very intense. Especially my friend was very impressed by the music and by the way the singer sang and moved on stage. After it, the darkness of the night fell on Podzemelj. Only the white church and the crosses near it were made visible by the artificial light.


Photo by Sreco Bastac