The trip started with Stephen leaving his home on the Isle of Seil at 4.30am in his motorhome to pick up Rab in Oban at 5am, then on to pick up the other carnival band members, Rob Welsh from Lochwinnoch, and Sara Ann Cull from Glasgow. A non-stop 48 hour drive through 9 countries then ensued. When we finally arrived in Ptuj, carnival was already underway. We had enough time to grab a few precious hours of sleep before we introduced ourselves to carnival for the second time.

We were invited back after their last successful trip 2 years ago by Peter Vesenjak, owner of Hotel Mitra, to bring the Scottish connection back to the town. Castle Ptuj, in the centre of town, was once owned by the Clan Leslie, and Peter wanted to bring a taste of Scotland back to the town by creating a special “Scottish Week”. Each night Pigtown Fling would introduce different aspects of Scottish music and dance to the people of Ptuj, whether it be highland dance demonstrations, pipes and drums, or a full blown ceilidh, held in the main suite of the hotel. We even played for a mothers and toddlers group, run by our event organiser Simona Gaiser, who has taken time out of work to be a mother to little Ela.

Hotel Mitra had previously undergone a massive expansion last year and had only just been re-opened, so carnival and “Scottish Week” were seen as the perfect way to mark a new era for the hotel. The band were asked to bring some Scottish beer for the weeks festivites, so the guests could get more of a “taste” for Scotland and its culture. This was kindly provided by the Islay Brewery. 180 bottles of different varieties of ale were driven halfway across Europe, and the guests of Mitra thoroughly enjoyed the experience, with the bottles going rapidly from the bar.

The week’s festivities were such a success, plans are already underway for next year, where a further expanded and refined programme will be introduced. This could include an introduction to a Burns Night or St Andrews Night, with the band introducing and demonstrating different aspects of Scottish culture and social events, from music and dance to food and drink.

Ten gigs in 6 days marked a very busy time for Pigtown Fling, who are about to embark on another busy season, with regular gigs throughout Argyll and the islands, plus a tour of Brittany in August. A previous visit last year to the Friends of Jean Langlais Festival in La Fontenelle proved such a success we have been asked to play more in the area this year with 4 gigs planned so far, plus a day of teaching celtic music to local people.

Every day of Scottish Week, Stephen created and updated a blog for this website, which can still be viewed here. This year the site is due for expansion, to not only be the web presence for Pigtown Fling, but for many other bands and music and dance projects that are ongoing in the area.

The band also are planning to record an album this year so our brand of music can leave a lasting impression on the different people and cultures we encounter.

On Tuesday, the final day of carnival, the good citizens of Ptuj all finish work at 12, don their costumes if they haven’t already and hit the town. All the pubs and hotels are full and there is a real party atmosphere in the town. We played around the hotel in the afternoon but spent a large part of the time struggling with our instruments. Moving between the hotel, the snow outside, the shopping centre, the wine cellar and the hotel had really taken its toll on the wood of the stringed instruments and the reeds of the pipes and we were struggling to keep them sounding good. We kept going like the true professionals we are and did our best…

That evening gig was billed as ‘The Scots get to know Slovenian wine’. I know, it’s a hard job. This involved us playing a few tunes in the hotel wine cellar, the wine expert talking for ages about wine, us playing a tune, wine expert talking and so on. The only down side, and it was a pretty big one, was that the wine cellar was very cool with a lot of moisture in the air. This played absolute havoc with the instruments, and Sara’s fiddle became unplayable. My pipe bag absorbed so much moisture it felt like we had been playing outside in the rain. We forced ourselves to taste some of the wine and eat some of the nibbles then went back upstairs to play some more where the instruments started to dry out and were impossible to tune.

After the gig we got dressed up on our Scottish Kurent costumes again and made our way to the carnival tent again where we did the polka with a couple of thousand others in equally ridiculous costumes.

That evening’s gig was titled Scotland vs. Slovenia. There was a local accordion player who would play 3 sets, then we would play 3 sets. By this time we had abandoned all notions of PA and just wandered about gypsy style. We really enjoy this style of playing and seem to be doing it more often at home to, maybe we should make a feature of it.

After our gig we took it a wee bit easier, attempting to catch our breath and keep some energy for the rest of carnival.

After the ceilidh we decided to stay in our kilts and hit the carnival tent, again! All the tickets were sold out but our picture appears in the main carnival program on the same page as tonight’s main act, Turbo Angels, a hilarious mix of europop, polka and overt sexuality so we used that as our entry pass. Fortunately we met the boss of the tent when we arrived and he ushered us straight in being the famous superstars that we are. I am aware of nothing even remotely similar in Britain to the this style of music but there is a wee bit of Benny Hill about the whole thing. Check this out!

Meeting Mile Kitic started a trend so we made it our mission to meet the Turbo Angels, which we managed with the help of our friend Mateja who was one of the tent bosses last time we were here.

Another wild night of dancing ensued and our beds were once again not used till the early hours.

After the gig it was time to get dressed up. On previous visits we have always worn our kilts but this time we brought alternate costumes. Rob is a costume expert and is often employed to make costumes. Tonight we wore Mexican mariachi costumes.

We went to the carnival tent again and had a wonderfully amusing time eating, drinking and dancing. Before going to bed we felt it was our duty to go to the main night club in Ptuj, Super Li, for a wee dance. All in all a fabulous night.

We met some folk who wear the kurent costumes and they invited us to their storage area. There were around 20 costumes and about 10 of us in a tiny room. They insisted we drink pelinkavic, the local herbal spirit, which we gladly did, probably too much and Rob was dressed in one of their costumes, a great privilege!

We did get back to the hotel as the sun was rising!