Luxury of freedom

Our visit to Jurjevanje

Every year in Črnomelj takes place a traditional folklore festival called Jurjevanje and we at BIG BERRY are also taking part in it! Jurjevanje, organized by our partner RIC Bela krajina, is the oldest folklore festival in Slovenia and this year was held for the 55th time in the old town of Črnomelj. Jurjevanje has an important role in preserving the cultural heritage of Bela krajina in the form of dances, songs and music. It connects the local with global by inviting international folklore groups from across the world to present their own heritage.

BB stories jurjevanje dancers serbia compressed
Serbian folklore dancing at Jurjevanje

We got ourselves in the mood for Jurjevanje already on Wednesday 20th of June when the Peruvian folkdance group C.I.D.A.N Mi Peru came to visit us at BIG BERRY Kolpa resort before their performances at the festival. The terrace of the resort was filled with smiling faces and joyful cheers as our guests arrived and started immediately to unpack their instruments. We were all truly amazed by the energy that the group brought along them as they started singing and dancing around the terrace. Later we all had lunch together at the barbeque house, played some football together and we even got to try some of the Peruvian instruments!


BB Stories jurjevanje peru 5 compressed
Our Peruvian guests amazed us with their gorgeous costumes

BB stories jurjevanje peru 4
A football match before lunch

On Friday was our official day to visit Jurjevanje as we wanted to present this awesome festival to our guests – four travel bloggers. In the evening we headed from the resort to Črnomelj with Mariana, Teresa, Valentina and Alice all ready with their cameras. As we arrived in the festival area, we already heard the music that attracted us to stop and watch the performances. We were all very excited to see some young children performing traditional dancing and singing.

BB stories jurjevanje kids
Traditional dance from Bela krajina region

After a while we went for a walk exploring the festival area and found ourselves in a shop where we were introduced to the traditional bread from Bela krajina region, Pogača. The smell of the fresh bread was truly amazing and we all stopped to admire the bread and to take pictures. Outside along the street were many stalls selling traditional Slovenian handcrafts.

Our visit to Jurjevanje ended with a delicious dinner made by our BIG BERRY partner Gostišče Veselič. Veselič had created a great menu for the event that consisted of lamb, dumplings, pastry, fresh salad from our other partner Ekološka Kmetija Župnca, and of course, great wine. We finished the dinner with traditional Slovenian dessert povitica made from our partner Kmetija Štrucelj’s cheese.

BB stories jurjevanje dinner
The gorgeous dinner setting at Veselič

BB stories jurjevanje dancers india
Traditional Indian dance

As the evening proceeded, we enjoyed more amazing dance performances from Peru, India, Serbia and other countries. The talented folklore dances were a great ending to this awesome day!

 BB Stories jurjevanje peru dance
Peruvian dance