The main road Tuzla-Doboj is almost blocked. Kilometer-long column leads to Lukavac. Drivers are nervous and impatient. No, it is not a traffic accident. Thousands of citizens headed towards Puračić, a settlement located six kilometers away from Lukavac and some 2 kilometers away from Tuzla, just like they do every year on October 12, 13 and 15.
The traditional fair is being held here for the 155th time. The fair is also known as the “Bosnian Oktoberfest,” the most visited event in the northeastern Bosnia, and probably in the entire country as well.
Stories say that beginnings of this fair are related to the opening of the market in this settlement in 1824, which was opened by Husein captain Gradaščević himself. Since then, market days have been organized, and in later years the event turned into a fair which is visited by around 200.000 people in three days.
Parking ticket costs three or five BAM, depending on the proximity of the parking to the fair venue. At the very entrance to the fair, you can buy garments for three or five BAM, as well as “German makeup” for one BAM!
Two men play traditional instruments and sing for the visitors, who sometimes reward them with money. On the street you can hear the shouts of beggars and people who collect money for the treatment of ill people.
On the booths you can buy literally everything – clothes, footwear, toys and candies, food, furniture and animals.
Adem Čeh from the settlement Goduš near Visoko sells various things at the fair.
“Everything you see here are handmade products, made by people from Goduš, a village located between Ilidža, Kiseljak and Visoko. Five hundred residents live there and we all work,” said Adem.
The fair also had a huge amusement park which attracts thousands of young people and children. It takes at least half an hour of walking to get from the entrance to the fair to the amusement park, if you only walk, without visiting the booths.
It is certainly worth visiting one of the oldest fair events in Europe. Hosts say that everyone can find something for themselves.
(Source: faktor.ba)
