Loncarijada — the pottery fair

Loncarijada is the pottery fair held in Zlakusa within the Autumn in Zlakusa cultural festival. It gathers potters from across Serbia and the surrounding region: experience is exchanged, materials and techniques compared, and it shows what the craft that made the village famous amounts to today.

When

In autumn

Where

Zlakusa, City of Uzice

Part of

Autumn in Zlakusa

Festival since

1992

Fair started

around 2009

Who comes

Potters from Serbia and the region

What happens at Loncarijada

The fair is first of all a meeting of makers. Vessels are exhibited, different clays, tempers and firing methods stand side by side, and round tables run alongside the exhibition — on how the craft is passed on, how it is defended against imitation, and how it survives as a living income.

For a visitor from outside the trade it is the one chance in the year to see pottery from several regions in one place, rather than only the local work.

Its place within Autumn in Zlakusa

Loncarijada is not a separate festival but a programme inside Autumn in Zlakusa, held since 1992. Until 2009 Autumn contained one of the two international ceramics colonies; when the colony became independent, the pottery fair was started within Autumn instead.

Not Grncarijada

The name is often given wrongly. The fair is called Loncarijada — from loncarija, the older word for the same craft, used in Zlakusa alongside grncarija.