Sedbergh Town Twinning
Howgills Harmony Tour Slovenia, August 2006

Two of our singers - both called Emma.

"Health warning Slovenian hospitality can severely affect your waistline!" says Emma Aylett, one of the singers and instrumentalists who came with us for our tour of Slovenia over the first week in August.

"I knew that I had eaten one too many dumplings, I had lost count at eight, but I just couldn't resist another. Looking back, I think that they created a protective layer, which usefully soaked up the copious amounts of wine we drank at the Vineyard (where we went to sing with our friends the Ljudski Pevci iz Stranice.) So now, while I should be concentrating on work, I find myself thinking wistfully of Slovenian dumplings, and the tomatoes that actually had a tomatoey flavour, the cottage cheese, that fantastic chantrelle mushroom omelette at breakfast and the wine that tasted of nectar. Really, though, I'm missing the amazing generous spirit of the people that fed us so well."

We sang in the vineyard of Joze who came with the Ljudski Pevci iz STranice to Sedbergh in May 2005 - we were overwhelmed with their hospitality

We stayed at Medved in Skomarje where Joze Kovse still talks fondly about the time the Cautley Carollers stayed and sang in his guest house. This beautiful mountain village looks down on the clouds in the valley - and sometimes the rain on the towns below - and houses the wonderful Skomarje singers who came to Joze's house for a choir practice. They afterwards joined us for a ceilidh where we all sang in both Slovene and English, and with some help from the fiddle, banjo and keyboard, joined in folk dances from both our countries.

Other highlights included:

• A concert at the Bled Ethnomusic festival after walking round the lake, rowing out to the island, and making a wish while ringing the church bell.
• Our concert in the mountain-top hotel at Rogla, where we drew on the liguistic skills of our company to provide songs and introductions for our international audience in Slovene, Croation, French, German, Georgian and English - delighting an elderly professor who came with our friend Igor Cvetko from Ljubljana who said that in 76 years he had never heard English people singing and speaking so well in Slovene.
• Another international moment when half of our singers met together in the thermal waters of the town's spa - and sang with the other people there from Germany, Croatia and Slovenia, our songs echoing round the tiles in several languages.
• A visit to the extraordinarily powerful display in a nearby museum portraying some of the horrors from World War 11 with such excellent and thoughtful contributions from our guide and friend Urska.
• Our singing in the mass (and after) in a hilltop church near Zrece after following the procession of the Virgin Mary from under the Lipa tree.
• And a party we went to afterwards where we had to dance and sing through another party to get to it.

Some of the group with Zdenka - she organised our tour and gave us so many wondeful events to take part in.

It was a wonderful tour, a programme of events kindly arranged by Zdenka, tailor-made for people who like nothing more than joining together with like-minded people over good food and drink to make music together - the truly international language.

Emma again: "There were many moments during our trip to Slovenia which were really life affirming - a reminder of what life should be about. Such as sitting around a table with Slovenians separated by language but united by songs and smiles; Joze's beautiful granddaughter singing the Wild Rover; the look of happiness on Slovenian faces when David introduced us in Slovene; the moments when the eight of us singing our hearts out created something quite beautiful; being engulfed by a party and treated as if we were old friends, and the tears in the eyes of Slovenian singers as they sang songs I didn't understand. It was a fantastic experience and a wonderful reminder about why singing together has always been, and hopefully will remain, such an important and beautiful thing for people to do."

We'll be meeting many of our friends from Zrece again when 30 of their singers visit us for the Folk Carols Festival in December. And we'll be boosting our repertoire of English folk songs with a workshop over the first weekend in September. As ever, everyone is welcome to join us - I look forward to singing with you soon.

David Burbidge