Musicians at Serbian trumpet festival play on despite pandemic

Guca, Serbia: The sound of trumpets filled the air as thousands of people crowded into a small Serbian town late on Friday for the 60th Guca Brass Band Festival, with visitors undeterred by a resurgence of coronavirus cases in the country.

Launched in 1961 when just four bands competed for the Golden Trumpet trophy and only 2,500 visitors attended, the festival is now Serbia's liveliest traditional music event but, like many events around the world, it was cancelled in 2020 amid the global pandemic. This year, visitors must show vaccination certificates or a negative COVID-19 test if they want to enter Guca, a small town in the rolling hills of southwestern Serbia.