Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Mojca Briščik, general manager of the Slovenian Advertising Chamber and the Golden Drum Festival
The 23rd Golden Drum international festival of creativity is behind us. Its roots, which until yesterday reached deep into the salty coastal soil, after 22 years made the trip to the Slovenian capital and found a haven in the ambience of a castle with an extraordinary view.
Why, many wondered? Because the festival was in great need of new energy, so it could breathe with full lungs and slowly get back on its feet in all its glory, which had adorned it in the past. Once upon a time, at its beginning, the coast was the only right choice, but in recent years, for many reasons, the comfort zone has become perhaps even harmful – it’s a habit that, as an iron shirt, chokes you, but you do not dare to take it off, because this could lead to a lot of the inconvenience brought by change.
Now the first act has ended. We mustered the courage and moved the festival. It wasn’t easy. Thorough thinking and analysis have shown that this was necessary (though bad for some) in order to stop the curve and give it the ability to move upward. As George Bernard Shaw would say “Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.” Our desire, or rather our goal, is to preserve all the good that the Golden Drum has been, and together with you to move towards building a Slovenian success story about a strong international festival. Too bad that this year there were not more participants from Slovenia. There are a number of reasons for this. I believe that this is a challenge which we will talk about together, and will find solutions by the next year. It’s certain that the relocation of the festival and the energy of a new beginning, in addition to nostalgia and haunting which are inherent to all first times, have brought a lot of good. Among other things, the precious support of friends from the region and more entries from beyond the borders of Slovenia. We know that we’re still not where the festival was about seven, eight or even ten years ago – not even close – but Rome was not built in a day.
Golden Drum can again be extremely proud of the strong and respected jury and the extraordinary individuals who shared their knowledge, experience and inspiration from the stage. Their reactions and praise as they were leaving to go home mean a lot to us. I believe we will meet many of them again in Ljubljana, at our festival. I’m only sad that, despite great efforts, we could not include more women representatives in the juries of this year’s festival. It’s difficult to say whether this was just a coincidence, or if the reason lies in the fact that women are, unfortunately, a minority so they are (too)busy because all the festivals want them. I do not know, it’s hard to tell … But what I can say with certainty – and you have witnessed it for yourself (you who have been at the festival) – among the 44 speakers on stage of the Golden Drum, 12 were women, which is more than a quarter. And that’s a motivating factor for the next year.
Pablo Picasso said: “Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.” Without radical changes, we only have a piece of uncultivated land that does not give yields. It takes time, courage and iron will. And on this joint road of ours, well-intentioned criticisms and constructive friends are very much welcome. At the same time – and we are very aware of this – there’s need for a strong will to ignore the negativism, caviling and superficial generalization.
We are rarely aware that Slovenia, with a market of two million people, has a festival befitting large European countries which would love to have it, but you know what – they don’t have it. And we are justifiably proud of this.
Thanks you all who support and above all believe that the Golden Drum is first and foremost our joint Regional Festival. For 2017, it would be irresponsible to promise some tectonic shifts, but we will make decisive steps within the framework of the possible. And we will surely not leave you hungry.
24th Golden Drum next year remains in Ljubljana and invites you to be the first to join it from 18 to 20 October, 2017.