Trumpet Frenzy

Why Brass Musicians Can't Resist Serbia's Wildest Festival

Every August, Serbians celebrate the trumpet - or, more accurately, the flugelhorn - at the Guča Trumpet Festival, which brings more than half a million people to a tiny Serbian village for a riotous weekend of music and drinking.

In 2010, New York’s Zlatne Uste became the first American group to compete at Guča, where Serbian orchestras have long battled for the title of best band in the country. The band's journey caught the attention of Adam Pogoff, who produced 'Brasslands,' a documentary film about the 2010 Guča festival, 11 years after NATO waged the Kosovo War against Serbia.