Croatian Diaries: OUTLOOK FESTIVAL

Outlook was my second Festival I had been to abroad. The first being

and

festival back in 2014. Outlook Festival is

‘

Europe's leading bass music and sound system culture festival.’ The four-day festival was based in a small ville called Stinjan on the outskirts of Pula. I feel like the location added to the vibe of the festival, which was very chilled during the day. Most people would lounge on the beach whilst enjoying the festival at the same time as the Beach Party stage was conveniently situated by the sea. The only thing that would have topped this was if the beach had sand rather than stones. That was the mode during the day, however the dynamic would often contrast the day by the time it was night, as the major names and headliners would appear from 9pm and onwards to the early hours.

Outlook Festival’s opening party happened the night before the official first day of Outlook.The evening was hosted at the Roman Amphitheatre, Pula Arena where Slum Village sang their classics ‘Tainted’ and ‘Selfish’ warming up the stage for the headlining act Mr Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley who brought the open aired arena alive.

Damian Marley

Pula Arena

I will honestly say that I didn’t know the entire line up of artists playing. However my two friends I went with knew a few. In fact we all individually had artists we wanted to see as our taste in genres differ, which played out well throughout the festival as there was always someone particular one of us wanted to see each night. I personally did not see that as a negative not knowing all the artists, that’s all apart of the fun at festivals discovering new sounds. For example, the band Hiatus Kaiyote, I had never heard of them yet I really enjoyed their set and the vocals of their lead singer. It’s the same with DJ Madam X she was phenomenal as she pleased the crowd with more than one set during the same night.

Then there were the artist I knew of but I had never seen them live neither was I too familiar with their music.

Little Simz

for example, I knew of her as I had seen her in Forbes 30 under 30 edition earlier this year. She’s was incredible! She set the place on fire. Don’t be fooled by her petit frame. AJ Tracy and Kano were also great sets. Not to mention

Akala

and the

Hot 8 Brass Band

from New Orleans who were probably one of my favourites.

Little Simz

Akala

Although the option to camp was there, we chose to get an apartment instead (which I am so glad we did).After camping last year at Bestival we had mutually agreed that we would not be camping at the following festival. However all of that being said, camping does have its benefits. The camp site is on the same site as the festival itself, you mingle and make friends with other festival goers etc. We stayed in a four persons apartment in Stinjan which was no more than a 10 minutes walk to the festival. Every apartment on our street were filled with Outlookers, mostly Brits surprisingly. We found that most people who were in apartments this time around were serial Outlook Festival goers who come annually.

Overall I really enjoyed this festival, the atmosphere was great, there were various choices of stages to go to, the food was good and reasonably priced. The music from the artists and DJ sets were electric. I don’t have a bad word to say really, however I am still contemplating whether I’m into the whole long weekend festival business. Are the one day festivals the way to go? It gets exhausting by the fourth day. Or perhaps I’m just getting old.

Photos by

Dan

Medhurst