Neither the freezing, choppy waters, nor the high altitude were enough to put off over 120 people from taking part in this year’s Bunarfest.
Bunarfest, which by now has been running for seven years, is an annual competition held in the Sharr mountains. It involves using tractor, truck or bus tyres to navigate down the Bistrica river and travel four kilometres in the shortest possible time. The race begins at a former power plant (now a museum), and passes below the monastery of the Holy Archangels - the legacy of Emperor Dušan from the XIV century - all the way down to the Stone bridge in the town centre of Prizren.
The road connecting Prizren and Brezovica runs alongside the river and is lined with hundreds of supporters during Bunarfest. Before, and especially after the end of the race, the town-centre quay is the scene of a party for thousands of young people who dance, sing and celebrate.
"Even though it was tough and cold I am happy that, together with many others, I actually took part in the race and had a chance to show courage. What makes me happy is that this is attracting more and more young people, not only from Prizren. I hope next year we may have some participants also from abroad," said Erdin Braha, this year's champion of Bunarfest in his interview for Southeast Europe: People and Culture.
This was the third time that Mentor Shala from Djakovica took part in this competition and it was also the third time he won the third place. "The organisation was impeccable and I am pleased to see that this event is attracting more locals to come and watch. It was rather cold and the waves, especially higher up the river, were rather big and there were many rocks in the riverbed, but every pleasure has its price and it gave us more adrenaline," said Shala.
Genta Thaci, a second year economics student from Pristina, was thrilled with what she saw. "This is a fantastic and a very interesting experience. I will surely be here again next year. This is one more way for Prizren to show its riches and the readiness of the young people to make life better and more interesting during these summer months. The music and spending time with friends is fantastic for all of us who came here after hearing about the competition from our friends or on television".
Dren Marseli, one of the organisers of the event, said that neither he nor his friends had dreamt that the event would become so popular and stir interest among thousands of young people. "Seven years ago, around fifteen of us, seeing as the weather was nice, decided to use track and tractor tyres to sail down the Bistrica River all the way to the place known as 40 Wells (40 Bunara). Many people enjoyed it so next year we decided to do the same thing but this time round more adventurers joined. The third year even more people turned up which made us decide to take it one step further and turn it into a competition – and we managed to pull it off," said Marseli proudly.
