The chapter of Slovenian music called "Rock Otočec" has (temporarily?) ended. The alpha and omega of the festival, Franci Kek, said today that this year Rock Otočec won't be organized.
"There's no doubt about it. That’s our final decision. Something might happen in a year or two, or even three or four years. But this year there will be no festival, because we have nowhere to organize it," is how Kek answered the question "to be, or not to be?" – with "not to be". He said today's kids listen to everything else but the music of 1997. "This Rock Otočec generation is saying goodbye." The Terme Krka company in the Dolenjska region doesn't want the festival to be held on its land anymore. According to Kek it's too late to look for other festival locations, as every region already has its own festival.
"The managers of the idyllic location by the Krka River have decided not to allow the organization of the Rock Otočec festival in the heavenly glade behind the Otočec castle. The long-year lease contract for the location expired in 2012. Last year Rock Otočec was held in Ljubljana. However lovers of the festival, which is the oldest Slovenian festival, made a clear statement that there was only one acceptable location - "Rock Otočec has to be in Otočec," is what they wrote in their statement.
For now organizers haven't put too much thought into selling or leasing the festival brand. "That's because we don't see anyone who would actually do it. We approached a few people, but we didn’t push it," was Kek's answer to MMC. In 2003 organizers did turn to a similar solution, when they did lease their brand. "The one year lease cost 15.000 euros then. I don't know how much it would be worth today," is what he added.
In its long history Rock Otočec staged many unforgettable moments and featured a number of special guests. Festival visitors sang the "V dolini tihi" ("In the Silent Valley") song along Lojze Slak who played the accordion, they sang "Silvestrski poljub" ("New Year’s Kiss") together with Alfi Nipič during the summer, and two years ago they remembered the good old times with the late Danilo Kocjančič.
The tradition, which has been alive since 1997, has thus ended. Last year the festival said farewell with performances by Papa Roach and Billy Talent. "I think the program for last year's festival was one of the best among all of last year's summer festivals. And I'm happy we didn't finish it off with Severina or the Mambo Kings," said Kek in his style. Before that apart from all the renowned Slovenian performers, the festival also saw appearances by the Fun Lovin' Criminals, Living Colour, Guano Apes, Asian Dub Foundation, Henry Rollins, Chumbawamba, Liquido, The Subways, Dog Eat Dog, Fishbone and more than 700 other bands.
The first time was in 1976
Rock Otočec was first staged in 1976 as a one - day festival. Together with the Horizont band also on stage then was Vlado Kreslin, who over the years returned to the festival stage many times. The next two - day festival edition of Rock Otočec was held in 1983. The festival then died down, until it wasn't reawaken in 1997 by Franci Kek and Marjan Pirnar. "I hope we'll be able to organize the festival at some point again. At Otočec." emphasized Kek.
At the end it had to move to Ljubljana
On the festival website it says that in 1999 Rock Otočec had to move to the Prečna sports airport near Novo Mesto. In 2004 it returned to its original "heavenly" location. After 1997 the festival was held uninterruptedly every year together with is trademark – the mud. In all those years the festival featured a number of well known music names, attracted more than 250.000 visitors thirsty for fun, and around 2.000 journalists.