Dobrofestu 98 - Travana, Slovakia
 By Kevin Garratt
It was a few years back that I first heard about an annual week-long festival, dedicated to the Dobro guitar, in the Slovakian town of Travana. But this year, thanks to the new Bluegrass Europe magazine, I discovered not only the dates of the '98 event, but also that the main USA band was to be none other than Blue Highway! “A Dobro Festival in Slovakia?”, you may well ask. If it's a history lesson you want, then Ishall not disappoint. The Dobro was invented in California in the 1920's by John Dopero and his brothers, who some years earlier had emigrated from Slovakia. At the time they were trying to develop a guitar with higher volume such that it could be heardwhen being played along with other instruments. Of course this was before the invention of the electric amplifier and PA systems as we know them today. Incidentally, when the amplifier did come along Dobro sales slumped - it's mainly thanks to Country Music and especially Bluegrass that the instrument is once again being played in such numbers. I suggested to my wife Joan that she needed a holiday, so we agreed to visit parts of Eastern Europe and finish off in Austria for some mountain walking. It was only when I was loading the camper van with my guitar and Dobro that she discovered the ulterior motive for our trip. Ferry from Dover, drive through Belgium and Germany, cross the border into the Czech Republic and on to Prague. We stayed there for a few days with Jakub Racek (guitar player with Monogram) and his girl friend Innis and where treated to some great hospitality. We were shown Prague by our two personal guides. An added bonus was having a pick with Monogram one night - they are all fine musicians and very friendly.
Blue Highway as Rob Hickes receives the 1998 Dobro
Award After three days in Prague we travelled on to Travana, which took some sorting out at first. We drove around the town twice looking for festival signs, with no luck. Finally we stopped at a restaurant and were lucky to bump into the sound man for Druha Trava (they were at Ironbridge a few years back) who told us the format. The bad news for us was that there was no campsite, but we were told we could stay on the car park in front of the restaurant without problem. The festival features not only Bluegrass but all types of music that uses a Resophonic Guitar (the name used for all makes of Dobro-type instruments). The concerts took place in various locations within the old walled town area. While we were there the main concertswere in the town square during the day. They were all free and had mainly Bluegrass bands from Slovakia, Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Finland. There was a nice outside bar, just to the side of the main seating area, where I could sit, watch the bands and have glasses of the local nectar brought at around 60 pence (about US 95c) a pint. For some reason unknown to me the acts kept getting better as time woreon! The evening main events took place in the DKO Tirnavi, a big auditorium just off the main square. On Thursday evening we got a 3 hour concert that included Blue Highway for 120Sk (about £2 or $3. 20). Friday night was even better, both in value and entertainment. For 150Sk, we got a 5 hour show with 9 acts that included Blue Highway, Druha Trava, and Michael Messer & Ed Genis (UK). It was a superb show with some very good music. A highlight of this show was the presentation to Rob Ickes, (dobroist for Blue Highway) of an award for Best Dobro Player of the 1998 festival. But for me the highlight of the show was the number Song for Jennifer which Rob did solo straight after the presentation. Each day a full programme of events was laid on - you just pick out what you want to see and enjoy it. But some of the workshops turned out to be more of a ‘talk-to-the-artist’ event. These tended to be long, drawn out affairs - every question and answer had to be translated. I had a very enjoyable time at Dobrofestu. The organisation was good and it was well worth a visit, though to travel over 1,000 miles to a festival is probably a bit much. You do, however, see a lot of good bands and musicians that you may not see elsewhere. The down side was the lack of a campsite, though it worked out well for Joan - we moved into the Apollo Hotel on the second night! This happened to be the hotel where most of the main acts were staying, as was one John Dopera, a descendant of the Dopera Brothers! Its a small world. I've just heard that there's a summer-long didgeridoo-fest in the Australian outback next year, and I'm thinking of organising a whip-round to send Derek Editor - any offers?
Kevin Garratt, Leeds
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