As the Art Director for Freeq Magazine I was very kindly invited to attend the second ever Soundwave festival in the beautiful fishing village of Petrčane Croatia.
As the music scene in Croatia is fast becoming the new and cheaper alternative to Ibiza we struggled to get a flight into the neighbouring city of Zadar so instead like many others decided on a mini road trip flying to Trieste in Italy and driving through Slovenia and a good chunk of Croatia. Whilst this was a fantastic feast of idyllic scenery for the eyes I would not suggest doing it the freeq way and only giving yourselves one day to complete this monster of a journey. If you fancy seeing the sights along the way I would suggest stopping over for the night somewhere along the coast and splitting the journey up. If however you just wanna get there and dance your board shorts off then you can fly straight into Zadar…BUT…You do need to book early to avoid disappointment. This place is popular!
After bickering in the car for hours and trying to get to grips with Croatian road signage we finally made it to Kozino (the next village along from Petrčane) where we were met by our legend of a host Borgan and his family who showed us to our cute seafront apartment and guided us to the nearest pub and restaurant…I think he sensed we needed beer.
After filling up on excellent food and beer at ‘Tonys’ (a mere £45 for four people plus take out beers) we were desperate to get down to the Soundwave site and case the joint…however the journey had taken its toll and by the time we had walked back to our apartment, quite frankly we were knackered.
We woke the next day to the most beautiful view from our balcony, clear blue sea, red hot sunshine and the residents’ boats gently bobbing up and down off shore. It felt like a double treat…I was going to a festival but I was also on holiday, It was hot and sunny, not wet and muddy.
A short walk through the woods brought us out to Petrčane were we could hear the hustle and bustle of festival goers and more importantly…the music!
After checking out the site, which doesn’t take long as it is very intimate, we picked up some very strong cocktails from the Tiki Bar and set our towels out next to the beach stage where they were pumping out some classic house and disco tunes. As I watched people dancing in the sea right in front of the DJ stand I wondered why it had taken me so long to do a beach festival and whether or not I could go back to being knee deep in mud and freezing cold?
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