Music Festival Destinations: Croatia.

Croatia is located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe on the Adriatic Sea and is well known for its great summer weather and continues to be a popular tourist destination. The number of summer visitors has spawned a thriving music festival season for the small European country with a wide choice for festival-goers to choose from.

Croatia is a small country with a population of just 4m yet it attracts almost 20m visitors each year to its stunning coastline and the famous city of Dubrovnik Old Town. Croatia is known for its traditional Croatian Cravat (Tie) and Lace as well as being the birth place of Nikola Tesla. In modern times Croatians love football and are proud of their international team. Croatians are friendly, happy to help, and most social interactions are carried out with a smile. As many as 80% are multi lingual with 65% speaking English. Croatia has over twenty notable music festivals worthy of consideration.

The Big Ones.
Croatia has a good selection of festivals but only a few with over 100,000 visitors to choose from. Just one this year and the other postponed to 2022.

INmusic Festival 
Situated in the capital city of Zagreb the festival regularly attracts over 100,000 visitors each year and features different stages for Indie rock, Heavy metal and Electronica. Unfortunately, the festival has been cancelled this year being postponed to June 2022.

Ultra Europe
Taking place in the popular resort of Split more than 150,000 attend Ultra Europe every summer. The European edition of the global EDM brand spans across parks, beaches and boat parties. The event is scheduled to take place this year on 9th - 11th July 2021.

The Other Ones.
There are so many music festivals to choose from in Croatia and they are generally quite small events but the focus is on the experience rather than numbers thanks to some stunning locations. Here is a selection of the best festivals set to take place this year and beyond.

Seasplash Festival 
Located in the coastal resort of Šibenik this festival can be small with between 10,000 and 20,000 festival-goers each year and the focus is very much on Reggae, Dub, Ska, Trance and Drum 'n' bass. The event is scheduled to go ahead this year on 15th - 18th July 2021. 

Outlook Origins Festival 
The festival takes place each year in Tisno. The stage location can be wild with Dubstep, Reggae, Hip hop, Ragga, Drum and Bass, Garage, House and Techno booming around a spectacular cliff-top fortress by the sea. The location can limit capacity to around 15,000. The festival goes ahead this year from 29th July - 2nd August 2021.

Hideout Festival 
Taking place on Zrće Beach near Novalja this one of the larger festivals that takes place in this region of Croatia attracting 20,000 visitors each year. The EDM festival features boat and beach parties with House, Techno and Garage. This year's event has been rescheduled to 5th – 9th September 2021.

Love International
Another festival based in Tisno featuring Disco, House, Techno, Dub, Reggae, Funk and Balearic. The festival is small with no more that 5,000 festival-goers attending each year. The festival will not take place this year and has been postponed to 13th - 19th July 2022. 

Sonus Festival
Situated on Pag Island near Novalja the five-day festival features the best of EDM and Techno with day and night stages and boat parties. The event attracts more than 20,000 festival goers each year but has been cancelled in 2021 and postponed to 21st – 25th August 2022.

Fresh Island Festival 
Close to the town of Novalja the festival takes place on Zrće beach and features Hip-hop, R&B, Afrobeats, Trap and Grime. The event attracts about 15,000 visitors over five days but has yet to confirm any dates for 2021 so it's not clear if it will go ahead this year or be postponed to 2022.

As with every other European country Croatia did not escape form the coronavirus pandemic with most events cancelled in 2020. As with travelling internationally anywhere in 2021 festival-goers should check potential travel restrictions and likely infection prevention protocols in place including rapid COVID-19 tests and the possibility of mandatory vaccine passports. For those that make it to one of Croatia’s music festivals they will be sure to enjoy the experience.

For any event organiser planning their music festival using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their festival logistics. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors guestlists and ticketing. 

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