Trebevic Summer Music Camp 2015
From 8th to 15th of July this past summer Svitac held a Music Camp on a mountain called Trebevic near Sarajevo. Participating were 24 staff, volunteers and children who spent seven days in the fresh mountain air participating in music, creative arts and sports workshops, all while sharing a living space and dining together.
The goal of the camp was to encourage group activity and team work — in relaxed and safe environment irrespective of a participant’s social or ethnic background — creating various musical rhythms with boomwhackers.
That also included a series of workshops focusing on improvisation, music and other related techniques.
Music Workshops
The music workshops began with warm ups, rhythmical games with and rhythmical games without instruments. They were led by EVS volunteer Isambard Reyner with help from local volunteers Adin Midžić, Igor Lukić and Goran Vučić. This part of a workshop lasted an hour. After a pause Svitac’s Music Coordinator Sanjin Vošanović worked with the group on a James Bond theme song using boomwhackers and other percussion instruments.
Everybody participated in this activity and by the end of the camp the group successfully managed to play through the arrangement, with the choreography prepared by EVS volunteer Catriona O’Sullivan. In the last music workshop the group performed shortly for kids from the Bjelave Home for Orphans from Sarajevo.
Arts and Sports Workshops
In the afternoons during the camps there were two workshops: in arts and crafts and in sports.
Arts and crafts workshops were coordinated by UK EVS volunteers Katherine Roberts and Catriona O’ Sullivan with help from Svitac’s Volunteer Coordinator Edina Vošanović and Mladen Molnar, while German EVS volunteer Nicolas Zdun coordinated sports workshops with help from local volunteers Miloš Popić and Anis Rendić.
In the evenings there was free time where camp participants could play and sing together, and occasionally danced or learned to dance with Sarah El Taki and Tamara Wonner.
Everyone enjoyed the camp and were sad when it was over. For the international volunteers, this was one of the greatest weeks of their time in Bosnia.
This was the first time in years that Svitac was able to hold a summer music camp outside of Brčko, offering a chance for young people to travel outside their commmunity in Bosnia for the activities. It was made possible through a generous £5,000 donation from the estate of the late Antonia Yates.
Here is a gallery of the activities:
Here is the campground GRM that the camp took place at:
