Live performance is no doubt one of the most expressive platforms responsible for taking music from a unidimensional experience and intensifying its potency manyfold into a multi-sensory one.
Stunning sounds isolated from the company of visual performance, will always remain so, or simply put: ‘a good song is a good song.’ However, there’s a time for reveling in Grado audiophile geekiness and a time for collective celebration, on-going sonic indulgence and Funktion-One PA systems. More specifically in the UK, this time spans periodically from late May till early September and is more commonly referred to as the season of summer festivals.
Attracting sound-craving fans from all four corners of the Isles and beyond, British summer muddy music festivals are heralded internationally as some of the most impressive. Furthermore, to perform at, is for many musicians a validation that they have entered the upper echelons of their given genre.
As discussed previously, the UK continues to churn out new festivals on a yearly basis offering yet more variety for those seeking alternative experiences. A spectrum of choices appealing to the mainstream, genre-driven and even ’boutique’ crowd can be witnessed in all sorts of publications and targeted media/mass communication leading up to the summer months.
The problem is, it seems as if the UK scene has reached a saturation-point whereby there are just too many festivals, too many choices to be made and nothing really interesting, actually happening. For example, there are the people that will go to say, WOMAD on an annual basis. It’s a ritual, they enjoy the vibe and know what to expect (even though they don’t). They will look forward to hearing some random ‘Zulu string quartet’ and will share the good news in the aftermath upon return to their abode. Then there are the others who follow their favourite acts around. They check the line-ups of the festivals that relate to their genre/s of choice and only go to the ones that they recognise the performers they want to see*.
*Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club will be playing @ Standon Calling this year.
Excuse my generalisations, I’m not saying that there’s a problem with either of these strategies for deciding which festivals to hit. What I do find interesting, however, is how this sheds light on a key task of the festival producer. He must either book the biggest m*********kers within his scope and appeal to the masses that way. Or not bother at all – simply call the festival niche and book those that exemplify the ‘vibe’ trying to be portrayed as well as focusing all resources on ensuring the appropriate crowd, atmosphere, etc and get people in that way.
Whether you require tens of thousands or a couple hundred, fundamentally, it’s the people that make the festivals, so they must be catered for.
So where am I going with this? The point, is that as plentiful as the options may seem, the overall end products are limited. You can pretty much go to a handful of contrasting festivals and get the gist.
For people that have been going for years, the seemingly “growing” UK music festival industry has in actual fact, plateaued and is in decline. The few gems of small festivals that have recently dared to be game-changing, now cease to exist. On the same token, the self-cannibalisation of larger festivals continue to increase as organisers eat at each other’s predictable line-ups. This predicament inspires only the uninitiated youth; true festival aficionados are today’s real casualties, since the remnants of better times are now extinct in the festival scene (or at least much harder to find).
Apathy should be the last emotion summonsed when considering festivals of any sort. Yet lets face it, after many years of the same summer festival clichés, who can really be arsed for the camping, crappy sanitation and over-priced food if anyone less than your favourite artist is set to perform? Not me.
In order to reverse this downward spiral, many UK and mainland European organisers have shut up shop, set their sights further afield and emigrated to Croatia. More specifically to, the Garden, Petrčane. These collaborations on new soil were never an attempt to recreate Ibiza or Ayia Napa but to provide an antithetical retreat for those that have become apathetic to the aforementioned commonplace ‘music havens’. This formula seems to have solved more problems than it initially envisaged as the festival scene in Petrčane (a small fishing village in Zadar) has continued to grow exponentially since its inception (in the form of the Garden Festival) 5 years or so ago.
Regarding festivals, mainland Europe shares pretty much the same story as the UK. However, being outside of the Euro-zone, Croatia seems to be one of the more mysterious and least rinsed locations in the midst of festival-hogging countries such as Spain.
Succeeding in its underdog route, the Garden, Petrčane is now boasting 5 solid festivals that can hold their own amongst the very best with added perks.
THE GARDEN FESTIVAL: 2nd-11th July
SOUNDWAVE: 23rd-25th July
SUNCEBEAT: 13th-15th August
ELECTRIC ELEPHANT: 27th-29th August
STOP MAKING SENSE: 3rd-5th September
These festivals do differ from each other, but only slightly. Really, it’s all about being low-key in gimmicks, high-quality in music and all-round, good vibes. Petrčane takes the general festival template and tones things down. People that go, tend to stay in villas, spending a longer holiday duration in the village and only attending the festival as part of the weekend in-between. Sound-wise, the majority of the festivals cater to those that are into the kind of music you’d find at Southport Weekender (who are the organisers of Suncebeat), with quality yet not ridiculously famous live acts. The Garden Festival is about as commercial as it gets but is still not really. And then you have the dance music vibes at Stop Making Sense, Suncebeat and Soundwave that encompass the genre right from the hardcore electronic to the jazzy, down-tempo scale of the spectrum.
The location is picturesque, atmosphere unpretentious and yet rammed with musicians and DJs playing what they want. In the name of hedonism, every festival offers boat parties across the Adriatic Sea allowing partiers the opportunity to revel in the glory of the location.
This year, there are some sizeable names reaching such as Carl Craig, Jazzanova, Roy Ayers, Norman Jay, Francois K and Mayer Hawthorne, as well as many lesser-known artists to keep everyone on their toes.
Despite still being classified as ‘boutique’ (due to its size), the steadily growing and loyal fan-base are fast spreading the gospel of Petrčane and sadly enough soon, these festivals will find themselves at the brink of losing what initially made them the vibe to be at. As more dough is being pumped into the area, the once word-of-mouth policy has already morphed into a major marketing push that will no doubt attract the good and the lame. After all, everybody loves the sunshine. I personally give the location a few more years before it becomes the next ‘England with sun, sand, sea and sex’ all over again…
Catch it now before its too late.
Loading...