After almost a month of no blogging, its only right that I tell you what I’ve been up to. In the middle of July I headed to Croatia for the Soundwave festival which takes place in Petrcane near Zadar. Its the most beautiful festival site I have ever seen. Located right on the sea in the grounds of a hotel.
The festival site is extremely small, but with a capacity of only 3000 it needs not be any bigger, and it never felt over-crowded like so many festivals do. There is a main stage, smaller forrest stage, a balcony over the sea with DJ’s, and an indoor club which is open after the bands finish. During the day most of the punters take to the beach which manages not to have an overcrowded feel due to the bay of Petrcane being so big. The festival also boasts having some of the cleanest festival toilets I’ve ever come across! There are also a number of boat parties organised by the festival although these sell out before the festival and I didn’t manage to get a ticket.
I was persuaded to go to Soundwave simply from watching the promo video, which you can watch below. It really does give an accurate description of the festival. Chilled but lively, loads of fun and in the most beautiful location. The atmosphere of the festival is wonderful, a little like The Big Chill, very chilled and everyone is having such a great time. It was wonderful to be part of it.
Music wise its a mixture of dance, reggae, dub, drum and bass, jazz, soul and almost anything else really. I even managed to get my dose of folk from Laura J Martin. The headliners were Bonobo, Little Dragon and Roots Manuva but it was some of the smaller bands which provided my festival highlights. Riot Jazz and Smerins Anti-Social Club had incredible crowd reactions and went down a storm.
Submotion Orchestra were my favourite new find of the weekend. They make dubstep music, but its incredibly chilled and fronted by the voice of the angel, I think they impressed many.
Shura are a duo who could have a bright future ahead of them. They are like a slightly darker, slightly more electro version of bands like Elephant and Beach House. Aleksandra’s voice is husky yet dreamy and armed with a loop pedel they create a sound quite unique to them.
As I previously mentioned, my folk fix for the weekend came from the sounds of Laura J Martin whose voice is as unique as Joanna Newsom’s as she flounces about the stage, flute in arm and a host of pedals by foot. Her music is quite unlike anything else and I was surprised by how well it went down at the festival.
Overall, Soundwave is a fantastic festival, and one I couldn’t recommend more. 2012 yeah?
flying with anna 
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Sounds great! I’m thinking of going with a few mates this year. Was wondering what the general age range was at the festival and was the crowd mainly Croatian, European, British? Cheers.
Hey Rob,
It is great!
The age range is generally between 18 and 30, probably more specifically 20-24 ish.
The crowd is mostly British, a lot of people from Manchester as the festival organisers are from Manchester and so a lot of the bands are. Lots of people from London and Bristol too. I didn’t meet any Croatians, lots of Dutch, German, Scandinavians though.
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What about the atmosphere? Is it REALLY chilled out? Cos I like the chill, but I’m 19 and I like a bit of action!
Yeah really chilled out in the day- all the music is kinda trip-hop, slow jazz etc. but in the evening it’s wild- the most amazing party with the best soundtrack.