Mėnuo Juodaragis XX: #Po_Perkūnais!

Hello, internet! My vacation is over, but before I start posting pictures from this year's adventures in France, I want to tell you about the last summer weekend, that I, together with thousands other people, spent in festival Mėnuo Juodaragis. 

The Festival. If you don't know what Mėnuo Juodaragis (Engl. Blackhorned Moon) is, let me fix this mistake by informing you, that it is a quite unique festival, dedicated to contemporary Baltic culture and alternative music. Four days (from Thursday to Sunday) are filled with workshops, lectures, tasty foods, drinks, chill, and, of course, music! This MJR was my fifth festival (a blog post about last year's fest is right here!), and XXth in total, so... happy birthday!

Preparing the throne for Perkūnas 

All MJR festivals have a certain topic and this year was no exception: organizers dedicated the whole event to the Lithuanian god of thunder - Perkūnas. Everybody were encouraged to bring drums to a drumming event, also, there were lots and lots of times when I saw or heard this year's slogan "Po Perkūnais!", which is usually used by Lithuanians as a curse word, but, according to organizers, also has a positive meaning.

Muddy duo going to a concert

The Rain. What was the most upsetting during this festival, was that the forecast came true: the rain turned the whole Dūburys island into a one huge swamp. Even Saturday, filled with sunlight and warmth, could not erase the effects of intense raining. So, even in the heat we had to wear rain boots, because no other shoes could bear this quantity of mud and dirty water. And I am not sure if the organizers were ready enough for this situation, because hay, that could have lessened the damage to the island, was brought in just on Friday's evening, when every inch of ground in front of the stages was already threatening to swallow our boots and leave us barefoot.

Harsh (and dirty) reality

This is how the camping site looked on the last day of the fest

Dogs also did not enjoy the mud...

Rain also caused problems with parking, because everybody were afraid to park their cars in the surrounding meadows. Although the organizers promised their help if the need to tow the car arises, there were people who still parked their vehicles on the road, blocking the way for all the heavy transport, WC cleaners included... So, in a sense, it was a dirty festival. Quite close to the MJR of 2014 (more about it - here).

Hooray for almighty tractors!

The Music. This year's headliner was Norvegian music group Wardruna. I was beyond excited when I heard the news! It was my husband who discovered this band first, and I was attracted by their dark, ritual-like music. No need to say, that the concert was superb!

My second favorite this year was Latvian band Auli who performed together with another Latvian group Tautumeitas. It was an amazing performance! I was astonished by the powerful and well matching voices of those six girls! 

There were also other discoveries (or remembrances, like in case of Domantas Razauskas) that I basically stumbled upon while moving from one stage to the other.

Karolina Cicha & Bart Palyga (Poland)

Death in Rome 

Domantas Razauskas and Vos Vos (Lithuania)

I also enjoyed performance of Aistė Smilgevičiūtė and Skylė, even though I can't forgive the choir being so lifeless and sometimes out of tune during the concert...

Aistė Smilgevičiūtė and Skylė

Rain, mud and pesky mosquitoes aside, I really enjoyed myself at the festival. Even though there's no more this sense of novelty and thrill, that engulfed me during my first visits, and going to this event feels more like a duty, I spent good time with my friends and listened to some good music - I could not want anything more.

Photos © Vincas Razma, Asta Skujytė-Razmienė