Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(
www.kurentovanje.net
;
Feb)
Kurentovanje is a rite of spring celebrated for 10 days in
February leading up to Shrove Tuesday; it's the most popular and best-known folklore
event in Slovenia.
Days of Poetry and Wine
(
www.versoteque.com
;
Aug)
This annual festival held in August gathers international
poets, writers, storytellers and musicians for readings, concerts and good wine through the
summer evenings.
FESTIVAL
KURENT: PARTY TIME IN PTUJ
Ptuj marks Shrovetide with Kurentovanje, a rite of spring and fertility that dates to the time of the early Slavs.
The main character of the rite is Kurent, Dionysian god of unrestrained pleasure and hedonism. The Kurents
(there are many groups of them) are dressed in sheepskins with five cowbells dangling from their belts. On their
heads they wear huge furry caps decorated with feathers, sticks or horns and coloured streamers. Their leather
masks have red eyes, trunk-like noses and enormous tongues hanging down to the chest.
The Kurents process from house to house, scaring off evil spirits with their bells and
ježevke
(wooden clubs)
topped with hedgehog quills. A
hudič
(devil), covered in a net to catch souls, leads each group. Young girls
present the Kurents with handkerchiefs, which they then fasten to their belts, and people smash little clay pots at
their feet for luck and good health.
Kurentovanje is now an organised carnival and a centrepiece of Ptuj's calendar. Festivities are spread over 11
days, culminating in the Kurent parades on the Saturday and Sunday before Shrove Tuesday, when hundreds of
masked and costumed Kurents march through the town. Tens of thousands of spectators visit Ptuj for the parades
(book accommodation well in advance). For more information (including event programs for the annual festivit-
ies), check out
www.kurentovanje.net
.
Sleeping
The TIC can arrange private rooms (per person €20 to €25) but most are on the other side
of the Drava near Terme Ptuj or the nearby village of Juršinci.
HOTEL
MuziKafe €€
( 787 88 60;
www.muzikafe.si
;
Vrazov trg 1; s/d from €40/52; )
This quirky cracker
of a place is tucked away off Jadranska ulica. Everything is bright, with each room idio-
