The culinary market with Istrian dishes and local wines and other Istrian products starts again this year in the courtyard next to the Vinakoper wine cellar. Food and drink stalls will be open on Thursday 26 May between 5 pm and midnight. Live music will also add variety to the evening. Entrance to the event is free.
Music programme:
Duo Zingelci
ZINGELCI was founded in 2005 as a young brass band performing folk dance routines from northern Istria at the Anton Ukmar Primary School in Koper. The group’s name is of dialect origin and is one of many names for folk brass bands in Slovenian Istria. Since 2018, when Andrea Alessio from Trieste joined the group, the ensemble performs as a trio. Marino Kranjac plays the sknt, diatonic accordion and sings, Andrea Alessio plays the sknt, and they are accompanied by Mark Varljen, who has been in the group since the beginning, on the small Istrian bass-bajs. Zingelci are a typical string ensemble of northern or Slovenian Istria. They perform the most typical folk dance motifs from this area, such as: spring, mafrina, shete pasi, do pasi, mazurka, cotić and others. These are mostly dances of Alpine influence, which are generally widespread in central Europe.
The group also pays attention to the old singing traditions of Koper and the surrounding area, with Marino and Andrea using guitar and mandolin as accompaniment. In order to revive folk singing, they organise evenings-meetings of spontaneous singing of folk songs.
The group has already released a CD and participates in folk singing gatherings in Slovenia and in Istria, Croatia. In 2011, the group was selected and performed at the national folk music festival in Šentjernej, and repeated this success in 2017. They have participated in several radio programmes on local and national radio. They are also featured on the CD “The Passion of a String Player”.
The Zingelci are trying to sound “the old way”, that is, to perform folk music from Istria in the most original way possible, the way they inherited it from the folk string players with whom Marino Kranjac, who is also the group’s mentor, has been stringing for many years and whose practice he has been researching. The group is an important link in the preservation of the cultural heritage of its locality, as its presence and activities keep the folk music heritage alive and ensure its continuity in the future. The Zingelci can perform as a concert band, but they prefer to play for dancing.
