This morning I heard from several friends in Motovun that the beer and kebab festival had started with so many incidents caused by the rowdy Istrian youth that an extraordinary session of the municipal council was held yesterday, the second day of the five-day event. The film festival was eclipsed by its illegitimate counterpart well before it really began in earnest. Given the impotence of the council, as well as the complicity of the media, the only hope at present is a heavy rain, which has been forecast for the next few days. The forecast must have prompted the unruly mob to all the shenanigans that are usually reserved for the last couple of days of the festival. With the exception of a few who make good money during the event, everyone else in Motovun is praying for rain. I join them with all my heart. Rain, sweet rain, drench the hilltown with all your might! Wash the mob away never to return! Drown the fake cultural event in your sweet waters for all time to come!