5:29am. In the middle of a Croatian Festival. The strobe lights are moving across the trees, the smell of the sea air drifts up from the water’s edge, the stone walls of the fort are vibrating as the Sinai branded sound system reverberates. A multitude of people lost in the midst of the music, high on beers from the bar, other substances, or just life itself, move as if in seizure – flaying wildly with their whole bodies. This is subdub arena, this is drum and bass.
We are in the Fort Punta Christo on the Adriatic sea in Croatia. It’s a fortress built in the 19th century by the Austro-Hungarians to defend their main naval port, the city of Pula. Now part of Croatia, it’s otherwise abandoned except for several short months of the summer season.
It’s now home to Dimensions and Outlook festival, and you wonder how a festival managed to take over such an iconic and incredible location. The Croatians have never been good at preserving their heritage. There’s a feeling that as a new country split from Yugoslavia, tourism is the main goal. Either way, it’s allowed Outlook festival to take over the Fort and the Pula Amphitheatre, a two thousand year old Roman colloseum, to host its opening ceremony.
5:30am. One more blast of energy, and subdub is over. The crowd bleat for one more song. The DJ says he might be tempted, had not they already had 6 hours of straight music. The revellers slowly mong off into the rest of the arena. Security sweep the remaining few out, and close the heavy multi-story gates.
Dawn is coming.
A festival in Croatia, it appears, is like no other.
The Music
There are many reasons to festival in Croatia. The first is the music. Logistically, there are no maximum noise levels here so the music is loud and earplugs are a must at some venues. If you like your music wth no limits, this is the place for you.
Another plus is the array of music on offer. The UK festival scene can get a little incestual – bands move from weekend to weekend playing their latest tracks, drumming up business. Other bands are non-existent, having stopped the scene or relaxed from releasing new music, or maybe comfortably living on past glories.
Overseas festivals, on the other hand, allow you to get a taste of something new or different. As I browse the lineup on the Beach stage today, I list Numa Crew, BCee, Hybid Minds and LTJ Bukem.
Up in the Fort tonight, you can choose from Flava D, My Nu, The Bug and Flowdan, Enei, and Digital amongst others.
Rock up, see someone you’ve never heard of, and make new connections. Learn to love new music. Such is the beauty of the music scene here. You’ll go home with your Shazam full of songs to check out.
Furthermore, many festivals do not have a music cutoff. Main stages close at 6am, weary revellers return to camp, sleep and wake up in the afternoon ready for a late lunch and to do it all over again. It puts a new spin to the term “late night venue”
The Venues
Whilst we love good ol’ UK festivals, there’s really only two music venues across the summer – stage or circus tent. Here, at Outlook & Dimensions you have the choice of the Beach Stage which blares out each day, surprisingly across the private beach, to welcome swimmers and cocktail drinkers alike. Moving up into the main site, you’ll see The Clearing, one of the more typical stages based in a large open space fringed by trees. The Fort is where the aesthetics and impressive stages really blend. The most unique is in the old Fort, the inside of a turret with a maximum capacity of sixty people where the DJ plays from a window half way up. Outside is the Dungeon, the Void, and the Garden.
Two more eclectic venues are the Moat and Subdub. As mentioned, Subdub nestles in a massive courtyard to one side of the fort while the Moat, again unsurpisingly, is a long nd narrow astage built down in the Moat of the fortress where customers have to descend to listen to the music, and then reascend.
This beauty is mirror across many festival sites in Croatia, and even with the more regular venues, sipping a beer on the beach makes it a whole different world.
Holiday or Festival?
One of the more wholesome delights of Croatia is that it’s hard to distinguish whether you’re at a festival or on holiday. The sun beats down, large cocktails are sipped, people swim in the sea or sunbathe. You could be on an all inclusive beach holiday, except for the fact that you’re paying festival price for drinks and foods.
It’s one of the main reasons people are prepared to book flights, and an average budget can reach up to £1000 for the week. It’s fair to say though that if you’re prepared to camp, book early, and not go crazy on alcohol spends, your expenditure really dives. Many guests rent villas and hostels off site, commute to the festival and prices increase.
Whichever way you choose, people are prepared to spend more because there’s a certain intoxicity that comes with good weather and festival vibes, and the confusion is an experience in itself.
The Weather
It’s September and its 34 degrees. The heat is formidable, and dehydration is a worry. It’s a far cry to the rain of the English Summer. When it does rain, it comes in with force, often accompanied by thunder and lightning. It’s always spectacular, and a sight in itself.
It’s nice to be in a T-shirt at 4am in the morning, drenched in sweat though it may be from the dancing. Less is more. Guys are topless, girls in bikini. There’s a certain disregard and easiness in being able to get up to a festival in shorts and flip flops, rather than having to worry to pack full rain gear for the day ahead.
The Gratitude
One of the best reasons, ironically, to do a Croatian festival is the going home. Exhausted and sunburnt, there comes a time to board a flight back home and breathe a sight of relief. It’s been an amazing week(s) but there’s a gratitude to going home. A real appreciation both of how great it has been but also of the familiarness of home, and the joy of how simple UK festivals are in comparison.
Conversing in Croatian, figuring out whether your credit card will work, being overcharged for taxis, being lost, not understanding local processes – it’s all taken a toll.
You’ve conquered an overseas festival, but now it’s time to go home and remember the memories.