Grape Picking in Karlovci

Shirley Larson is a native of Shreveport (30+ years there) and now lives in Novi Sad, Serbia. She has been there for about a year. She spends a lot of time visiting festivals in the towns and villages in the region and loves to share her travels and impressions with her home town friends.

Recently, I went to the "Grape Picking in Karlovci" festival held in Sremski Karlovci, in the region of Vojvodina (Voi-vo-deena) in Serbia. This annual event is held to celebrate the harvesting of grapes used to make wines in this region. Sremski Karlovci is about 12 killometers from Novi Sad, where I am living. It is located on the northern base of Fruška Gora (the "Holy" Mountain), home to 16 "hidden" Serbian Orthodox monasteries.

People have lived in this area since the 14th century. In the late 1600's it was the site of the peace congress between the victorious Hapsburg Empire of Austria and her allies and the Ottoman Turks that produced the Treaty of Karlowitz. Driving into the town, we passed the Orthodox Chapel of Peace where the Congress was held. Every year on the anniversary of this treaty, people walk from all over the area to this church on pilgrimage to mark the occasion.As is the normal practice at these festivals, booths were set up for wine & rakija (brandy) tasting and selling. The area is known for quality reds and white wines as well as a rosé known as Karlovci tovajn.

One variety of red that I found particularly delightful is "Bermet", more of a desert wine or aperitif. It is strong and sweet with mixture of spices and herbs in the taste. This wine was even served aboard the Titanic! The most famous wine from the area is "Karlovački rizling", a crisp white wine.

There are also booths selling food, T-shirts, souvenirs, etc. There was also an area set aside for a carnival with rides for kids. I felt quite at home, as if I were in Shreveport again at the Revel or at Mudbug Madness. I found these leather Serbian-style shoes particularly interesting with their upturned toes:

Several of the food booths were selling fresh roasted suckling pig. I just had to share this image with all of you. (PS - I wasn't the only one taking a picture of this!)


Dancers and musicians representing the many ethnic groups in the area (Serbs, Croatians, Macedonians, Hungarians and more) were present and performed on a large stage with live music which included accordion, tamburitza (a stringed instrument similar to a mandolin), guitar, violin, bass and drums. I had my picture taken with many of them. These young people are very talented, friendly and represent their country very well. Here's a couple of the pictures:

These are Serbian costumes:


These are Hungarian costumes:


Here's a group of Macedonian dancers getting ready to go onstage:


This is a group of Serbian dancers onstage:


Here in Serbia, these dancers learn their ethnic dances at dance schools. Reminded me of the wonderful dance schools in Shreveport/Bossier where our children learn ballet, tap and jazz.

This was my favorite costume and this is my favorite picture from the event. I call him "The Herder". The costume is Serbian. He holds a beautiful staff carved of very heavy wood and his cape is made of wool with rich embroidery. There are so many details on this costume that it was hard to take it all in. I had a great time at this festival and am looking forward to the next. It seems as is there is a new "manifestation" as they call these, every few weeks.