Ovations for Boban Markovic

The annual Sziget music festival ended on Sunday in Budapest, while the organizers estimate around 385,000 people visited the festival site. The final evening saw an uplifting performance of Boban Markovic’s orchestra, who thrilled the crowd at the World Music Stage.

Although most of the festival-goers opted to see the comeback gig of Faith No More on Sunday evening, a few thousand strong were still at the World Music Stage, eagerly anticipating Boban Markovic and his brass band.

It was US musician Frank London first to hit the stage, performing traditional Jewish music together with his Klezmer Brass Allstars band. Having already recorded the Bratstvo trube [Brotherhood of Trumpet] album with the Boban Markovic orchestra, London had Boban’s son, Marko Markovic, join him on the stage for a brass-band rendition of Michael Jackson’s Beat It.

True mayhem followed when Boban Markovic himself appeared with the rest of the orchestra – trumpets started to roar and party continued until the very end, when Boban and Marko Markovic were greeted with deafening ovations from the crowd.

- “It was great at the Sziget, and I can’t describe the ovations Marko and me got there. This was surely one of our finest performances. It was unforgettable,” says Boban Markovic for Blic, emphasising the support from trusted fans from abroad.
- “There were many foreigners in the crowd – just like when we play at Guca – and I recognized some of them out there. They always visit our concerts,” says Markovic, who is soon to begin a European tour with the orchestra.