Sea Dance Festival in Budva, Montenegro (15th-17th July)

Friends who camp together can do anything together!

Sea Dance Festival took place at Jaz Beach in Budva, Montenegro; this was the first year EXIT decided to do a sequel festival in Montenegro to celebrate their 15 years of successfully running EXIT Festival. Which was a great way to continue the festival spirit! Throughout the time spent in Novi Sad, Serbia you already knew who was going to both festivals. You just had to see the threaded baby blue wristband with woven in white thread reading ‘Exit Adventure’ on a wrist for you to know if they were also going to the second festival.

The boys kindly packing our tent..

Jaz Beach - Budva, Montenegro

On beautiful Jaz..

The vibe at Sea Dance was so different in comparison to EXIT festival but I expected so with the change of scenery and access to a beach especially. The time we arrived I could hear Jamiroquai doing their sound check, as they were the first to headline at the three-day extravaganza at midnight. Before watching the band’s performance at the main stage we thought we would explore the Sea dance ground, which was easy to do as everything was so close to each other. Three stages were lined up on the beach the Dance, Reggae and Latin Stages. I would say I spent an equal amount of time at all of them but preferably the Reggae and Latino stage as the Latino stage was nearer restaurants whereas the Reggae stage was just simply where the tunes and vibe were! In the 30 degrees heat the dance stage it just seemed that more of a stretch and effort to go to regularly during the short stay. It wasn’t far at all but we all have our preference’s I guess. Each stage had a connecting bar that were selling a good variety of cocktails Long Island, Mojitos, you name they were all available at your request (6€ each) alongside beer and ciders. Inside the Sea dance compound that was directly behind the beach included the Cinema stage, which was a screen that showed previous Exit Festival performance. I thought was a good idea, I heard Fatboy Slim’s set was incredible at a previous Exit so the cinema stage gave returning Exit fest people the chance to relive the past and rave to other previous Exit acts such as Snoop Dogg, DJ Frank and even a ‘the best of Exit’ edit. They also had the silent disco that was conveniently in between the chill out zone filled with colourful hammocks and dimmed lighting. On the other side of the silent disco were two to three 24-hour food stands selling pizza slices and crepes.

Even thought we had the same mobile showering and sink facilities as we did in Novi Sad, I think I preferred the one’s in Serbia, only because they had set up a reasonable amount of 30 more shower cubicles there than they did at Sea Dance, which meant there was always a morning queue to use the facilities. As for the toilet cubicles, I choose to do remember the damage of many of the ones I entered. I will never know how people manage to miss the toilet in a cubicle; surely there is not other distraction? Luckily they were cleaned out daily.

I don’t actually remember going to see a lot f the acts I was more or less just enjoying the atmosphere most of the time on the beach and camp site where I would meet other new people or have a drink up in someone’s tent before the main act. I did purposely make sure I saw Jamiroquai’s set (who remembers them!?). Their songs always remind me of my early childhood before they disappeared off music radar. I could not believe the amount of songs I had forgot about. I thought I just knew Cosmic Girl and Virtual Insanity – which I was gutted they didn’t perform. However it turned out I knew a lot more as the packed out field at the main stage sang away, I felt as if Jamourquai was a reminiscent for many people not just myself. Although I do wish Jay Kay actually finished a song, I can’t help but feel like we the audience were doing half of every song as the lead singer never got tired of pointed his microphone to the crowd.

The following night Example headlined however after keeping us waiting an hour and a half from his scheduled time ( he came on stage at 01:30am) I found I only had the patience to listen to listen to 2 of his hits, which was a shame because he has a few bangers when you think about it, But I really didn’t appreciate the wait so it was a early night for me Wednesday night/Tuesday morning? The morning on camp was interesting, as many people had mixed reviews on Example’s set. It sounded decent from my tent.

Jay Kay from Jamiroquai on the Main Stage

On our last day we jived and Zumba danced the whole day away even when the rain began to pour down. As two of the Latino dancers smartly encouraged everyone who laid on the stone like sand across from the stage to follow their moves as they instructed us in the sea before relocating in front of the stage where the DJ played and crowd continued to dance. Unfortunately I had to leave the last night early in order to catch our flight in Serbia back to the UK so I missed the last day headlining act Underworld. I loved how similar to Exit festival there was so much variety for music, I wasn’t too upset I missed the last night I think I most defiantly got my money’s worth baring in mind we bought one festival and got Sea Dance free!