Music

The Croatian island that’s set to become a summer-long music festival retreat

Festival promoter Sound Channel is taking over the Croatian island to create “the world’s first curated entertainment tourist destination”

The amphitheatre on Croatia’s Obonjan Island, which will be main music venue during the summer-long festival

Shilpa Ganatra's face
Shilpa Ganatra
Wed Apr 6 2016 - 17:03

After a short splutter at the turn of the decade, festivals are back in rude health – a recent trend has even developed of using islands as locations. This year will see the third iteration of the biennial Drop Everything on Inisheer, and Lost In A Moment on Osea Island off Essex.

So it’s an apt time to introduce the next concept of summer fun: an island whose only purpose is to provide a good time, all the time.

Like a holiday retreat for festival fans, this veritable utopia is set to become a reality as Croatia's Obonjan Island, located on the turquoise-blue waters of the Adriatic Sea and already known as the Island of Youth, begins its first year as "the world's first curated entertainment tourist destination". That's according to its new owners, Leeds-based Sound Channel, the team behind Croatia's Hideout and Unknown festivals.

Situated 45 minutes and a ferry ride away from Zadar airport, which helps serve the country’s 53,000 annual Irish visitors with direct flights, the group intend to make the island a full-time culture vulture’s playground. But for its inaugural year, it’s open for business between July 18th and mid-September, when 800 visitors can hang out for as long or little as they like from €73 per night.

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Music draws include DJ Shadow, Saul Williams, Linstrøm, Poliçia, Dilated Peoples and the island’s 25-piece orchestra, playing everything from David Bowie to Radiohead. During the day, the chilled-out atmosphere means there will be poolside DJs, though the focus is on film screenings, workshops and talks on all manner of subjects from astronomy to environmentalism.

The island will also double as an open gallery. Each week, new artists will create installations which fit in with its surrounds, including the beginnings of an underwater sculpture garden which will grow over the years.

With a focus on wellness, the organisers have laid on yoga sessions, hot tubs, couples massages sessions and a juice bar. Guests sleep on “super comfy beds” in forest lodges or canvas tents. The whole island is ecologically friendly, with the people behind the Eden Project helping on that front.

Sounds like a music fan’s paradise right? Almost: reports of the festival island being governed by Parliament Funkadelic, Judge Jules and The Presidents of The United States of America remain unconfirmed.