Sajeta Creative Camp

Music workshop for children with Slovenian multi-instrumentalist Samo Kutin at Sajeta festival in 2015. Author: Iztok Zupan

Festival Sajeta, established in 1998, is a hidden gem offering an immersive experience for those seeking unique journeys into nature's splendor and musical creativity. As the oldest festival at Tolmin's confluence, Sajeta is distinguished by its commitment to diversity and unconventional festival outlines, harmonizing urban vibes with a rural setting.

For 25 years, Sajeta has curated a vibrant program featuring a wide range of genres, including krautrock, electronic music, jazz, rock, ethnic and traditional sounds, and classical music, all rooted in experimentation and creativity. The festival showcases both known and unknown artists, catering to the eclectic tastes of its diverse audience.

Beyond music, Sajeta includes film, multimedia, poetry, sculpture, performances, dance, and graphics, creating a broad artistic spectrum. This blend of artistic practices gives Sajeta Creative Camp a unique character, appealing to the curiosity of its visitors.

Sajeta Art&Music Festival 2021 short intro by Sajeta Festival on YouTube

Background

Created by a group of young enthusiasts from Tolmin, the creative camp was at first a weekend-long event based on artist workshops. A number of artists and performers gathered there in 1998 and 1999, but then for the next two years, Sajeta (which is otherwise a mythical creature from those parts and also means a storm) was held on standby. In 2002, the Tolmin Union of Youth Associations relaunched the festival and expanded it with a musical and multimedia program.

After that, Sajeta gradually became a renowned, about a week-long festival with a (more or less) ambitious musical program, film screenings, drama performances, and literary readings, generating a creative atmosphere unlike any other summer festival and strongly differentiating it from the other, more commercially successful and genre-profiled events that also take place on the idyllic Sotočje peninsula, which in itself has in the last decade become the prime spot for summer music festivals.

Somewhat miraculously, the festival persists in continuously bringing challenging and curious festival experiences.

Sajeta festival venue at Tolmin's confluence, 2023. Author: Srđan Đurdanović

Musical and other festival programme

The musicians and groups presented so far are innumerable. A few of the big names include the underground diva Lydia Lunch; the Vienna electronics scene's prime protagonists Fennesz, Radian, and Thilges 3; electronics pioneers such as Dieter Moebius, Richard Pinhas, and Roedelius; and folk virtuosos Alexander Balanescu and Lajko Felix. An exceptional resident of Sajeta is probably the most prolific Slovene jazz musician Zlatko Kaučič, who performed concerts with jazz legends Trevor Watts, Akosh Szeleveny, Louis Sclavis, and Peter Brötzmann. However, the program is not built on headliners; conversely, it seeks to escape such a paradigm.

Presenting many emerging and established musicians and bands from Slovenia, the somewhat neglected Eastern Europe, and elsewhere, the festival has hosted (to randomly select a few) Vasko Atanasovski Trio, Broken Heart Collector, Alzheimer Trio, Bratko Bibič, Orton, Ago Tela, Ivan Volarič - Feo, Psycho-Path, Cirkulacija 2, Random Logic, Borghesia, Vladimir Vaclavek, Uzgun Uver, Korai Orom, Zakarya and Manufacture, The Magic Carpathians Project, East Rodeo, 7 That Spells, Damir Avdić, Rambo Amadeus, Sejiro Murayama, Metalycee, Francesco Cusa, Haradhan Das Baul, and so on.

The almost never-absent rain and storms that occur during the festival are also thought by some to be part of the festival's program. Any weather goes well along with the accompanying programs: a very strong program for children, more than a dozen workshops, lectures, photography exhibitions, and video screenings.

Audience at Sajeta festival, 2022. Author: Emil Jalovec

International collaborations

At least some of the workshops are always led by foreign artists, pedagogues, and collectives; among them, two regulars are the Serbian filmmakers Kino klub Novi Sad and the Sicilian percussionist Francesco Cusa. Besides that, in 2009 Sajeta started a two-way collaboration with the famous German label Staubgold, whose musicians had numerous appearances on the Sajeta stage until then. There was also the project Fair Music, within which Sajeta works with MICA (Music Information Center Austria) and the International Music Council from UNESCO, aiming to build on the idea of fairness within musical publishing.

There is also the project Sotočja (Confluences), within which they have organized a series of concerts with musicians from different countries who collaborate especially for the festival. One such international project worth mentioning is the Luminous Synergy Project, in which the international crew of the Human Synergy Project and the mostly-Slovene Lighting Guerrilla team used different technologies to create a light and sound installation in the city center.