Tourist event “Wine ball”

As a place of bohemianism and the Wine Ball, where almost every house has a vineyard, with a climate suitable for growing vines and once the most successful Wine Cooperative in Yugoslavia, Vlasotince can be considered a town where there is a ""wine cult"". As the people of Vlasotince themselves say, wine is their tradition, they enjoy it, write songs about it and most households keep ""God's drink"" in their cellars. While this small place in the south of Serbia may not be an association for viticulture for young people now, wine used to be exported to Europe and Asia, and in the 1960s and 1970s more than half of Belgrade caterers were supplied with good wines from the Vlasotince cooperative. According to the old people of Vlasotince, this bazaar used to be full of bohemians, about whom stories are still told today. In July 1960, the Wine Ball was held for the first time in Vlasotince. The Tourist Organization of Vlasotince reminds that at that time, visitors were greeted by two huge wine bottles on the iron bridge over Vlasina, while they entered the ""ball stadium"" through a huge barrel. Those who wanted to spend the night in a small company had at their disposal specially arranged booths in the style of huts in the vineyards. They sat by the river Vlasina or on the grass in the surrounding vineyards, huts or in the summer garden ""Vlasina"". The beginning of the Wine Ball was announced with anti-hail rockets - they say in the Tourist Organization. In addition to the best winemaker and the happiest guest, Miss Wine Ball is also chosen at this event, which, according to tradition, should step on grapes with its feet, and the first bottle of wine made from it is sold at auction. In the past, one bottle was sold for 1,000 marks, older people from Vlasotince remember. Many people from Vlasotince lived from the production of wine in Turkish times, and there were several wineries in the neighborhood. At that time, they were the main suppliers of grapes in the Leskovac valley. Until 1985, ""domestic"" vines were present in this area - plovdina, which did not require much care, but still gave good yields, and each household had a plot of land under the vineyard, while many were intensively engaged in viticulture - says Novica Tričković from the Homeland Museum in Vlasotince. As Tričković explains, the wine cooperative and viticulture in Vlasotince and its surroundings experienced expansion in the period from 1960 to 1975. With over 2,500 cooperatives and its capacity, the Wine Cooperative in Vlasotince at that time was one of the largest cooperatives in Yugoslavia. And while in the period of prosperity in the Vlasotince vineyards there were 2,000 hectares under vines, now there are only about 250 hectares under vineyards in this area.