Croatia’s original and founding electronic music festival, The Garden Festival, concluded in truly spectacular fashion in early July over its 10^th anniversary. With its best ever lineup spread over a sublime week under the sun and stars, over 3000 people were wowed across a sublime week of music brimming with highlights, with the honour of bringing the decade to a suitably climatic end falling to DJ Harvey and his mercurial all night long set at Barbarella’s. In a more than fitting tribute to the festival which has helped inspire and shape the region’s now thriving scene, the best ever Garden Festival played out to a rapturous crowd for the final time.

Heralded as the catalyst for the now burgeoning scene in the entire Adriatic region, the Garden Festival started with just 300 people back in 2006, and has bloomed annually into its 10^th and final event, after the organisers decided it was time to bring the adventure to an end. Revered for its intimate family feel, no VIP areas and idyllic coastal setting, The Garden’s legacy will linger long in the memory.

And already very exciting plans are taking shape for a brand new festival taking place next summer – Love International – which adopts over The Garden’s unique ethos, running across 29^th June – Weds 6^th July 2016. It will feature an array of new artists and partners, as well as continuing to work with some of the crews who have been part of The Garden Festival’s growth over the last decade, and carrying those relationships forward. Nick Colgan, one of The Garden Festival’s founders, says: “We couldn’t have wished for a better end to our decade-long odyssey here, it was a truly fantastic way to finish. We also know our legacy is in really good hands, with Dave and Tom taking up the reins here next year. It has always been vitally important to us to keep everything growing here far into the future, and to do that now is the right time to let the guys fully lose in Croatia!”

Dave Harvey, one of the founders of Love International, explains: “The Garden Festival has been an integral part of my and Tom’s lives for many years, both as music lovers and also booking the majority of the acts. What Nick, Eddie, Charlotte and Gail have achieved is really quite remarkable, and it is very sad to see The Garden Festival finish. However, whilst all great things must come to an end, we have got lots of exciting plans for Love International which we are bringing to Tisno in July 2016. We intend to embrace the amazing legacy The Garden Festival is leaving in Croatia and across the whole region, and develop our own brand new perspective too. This is pooling together everything we have learnt from Love Saves The Day, Wow at Glastonbury, The Love Inn in Bristol and Futureboogie into something new and exciting for Croatia. What’s really important is that Love International will be on the same site, with a lot of the same team – and Tom and myself will be curating and running everything. It’s the next logical step for us, and for the Garden guys, who have given us this incredible platform upon which to continue building in the same spirit they have lovingly nurtured for the last decade. It’s their spirit and approach we will be embracing, retaining the family intimacy, the capped capacity and utilising the stunning Tisno site. My phone has been ringing constantly since The Garden finished – a lot of people want to be a part of what we are doing next year, and more news will be coming very soon.”

Love International

Weds 29^th June – Weds 6^th July 2016 The Garden Tisno, Petrica Glava 34, 22240, Tisno, Croatia Pre-register for tickets here.