Jazz will be heard at eight town locations. Evening concerts will take place at the Large Stage of the Open Air Theatre and  Street Jazz Festival will fill your afternoons with music played live on Opatija’s hotels and cafes terraces along the main street.

Lovers of the sea will have the opportunity to sail along the Opatija’s coast on the Jazz Boat having a drink and listening to good music.

The 10th Liburnia Jazz Festival can thus announce a total of twenty concerts on eight stages.

Besides the Street Jazz Festival, six concerts will take place on the stage of the Open Air Theatre during the three Festival days.

More info on Liburnia Jazz Festival & Workshops page  http://www.liburniajazz.hr/

The Soundwave Festival in Croatia has announced a second round of acts with The Cinematic Orchestra, DâM FunK & Zero 7 (DJ set), amongst those joining the likes of Toddla-T, Benji B, DJ Format, Andreya Trianna and DJ Vadim already on the bill.

The festival, now in its second year, has already been chosen by The Guardian as one of their top ten festivals to try in 2010, describing it as having “all the quirks of a Bestival but in a far more beautiful, and sunny setting”.

Situated in the picturesque Dalmatian fishing village of Petrcane, in near vicinity of Zadar, Soundwave 2009 was a sell out event with the crowds enjoying glorious sunshine, boat parties, club nights and sets from artists such as DJ Yoda, Hexstatic, The Bays, Alice Russell and many more.

Said Noah Ball, Soundwave promoter, “I think anyone who came to the festival and saw the site last year will be able to imagine what a mindblowing experience it will be to see The Cinematic Orchestra play by the sea and under the stars. I wasn’t sure last year could be beaten but I think we may have just done it.”

Said Rob Waller, Soundwave Promoter, “After the success of last year we’ve been inundated with artists who wanted to play Soundwave in 2010. With these new additions to the line-up we really do have the line-up of our dreams now. What could better than spending the day relaxing in the sunshine, listening to the likes of Zero 7 before getting down to some serious partying as the sun sets.”

Launched by UK promoters Soundcrash and New Bohemia, Soundwave is the perfect combination of summer holiday and cutting edge music festival, a chance to hear the best new music around whilst cooling your toes in the crystal blue waters of the Adriatic Sea.

Festival Listing Info:

23-25 July, 2010
The Soundwave Festival
The Garden, Petrcane, Croatia

“All the quirks of a Bestival but in a far more beautiful, and sunny setting” The Guardian

“Perhaps the summer’s most beautiful site” Time Out

“Basically The Big Chill on sea” London Lite

CONFIRMED LINE-UP
The Cinematic Orchestra / Zero 7 (DJ set) / Toddla T / DâM FunK / Smith & Mighty / Benji B / DJ Vadim / DJ Format / Charlie Dark / Mr Thing / Stuart McCallum (The Cinematic Orchestra) / Mr Thing / Kid Kanevil / Jon Kennedy / Yarah Bravo / Part Time Heroes / Laura J Martin / Andreya Triana / Homecut / Bridgette Amofah / Nathan “Flutebox” Lee / Bullion & Paul White / dEbruit / Alexander Nut / Andy H & Gilla / ASM – A State of Mind / Blue Daisy / Channel One Sound System / Confusion DJs / DJ Cheeba / DJ Suhaid / Gentleman’s Dub Club / Illum Sphere / Lone / Milly Blue / Phat Phillie / Riot Jazz / RSD / Shepdog / The Bedmo Disco Soundsystem / Fife / Hobbes / Join The Dots DJs / Paper Tiger / The BPM
Plus many more TBC + Download festival broshure here

TICKETS: Tickets are £75 (plus booking fee) and available from http://www.soundwavecroatia.com/ .  A limited number of earlybird tickets are available priced at £50 but these are expected to be sold out before the end of January.

TRAVEL INFO: The closest airport to Petrcane is Zadar which is serviced daily by flights from across the UK and Europe and is approximately twenty minutes away by car. Other airports in the region include Split Airport (90 mins) and Zagreb airport (3hr). For those with more time for an adventure other airport options in Croatia include Rijeka, Pula or Dubrovnik. Also not too far away are Ljubljana in Slovenia with Easyjet and Trieste in Italy with Ryanair.

ACCOMMODATION: Whilst there is no on site camping at Soundwave there is a wide range of hotels, campsites, apartments and villas all within close proximity to the festival site. Check here listing of Petrcane Hotels + browse and book accommodation in Petrcane

Read more about Mljet and other Croatian Islands

The Dubrovnik Christmas Jazz Gala include concerts and workshops from various jazz musicians that will take place from the 28th to 31st December in Dubrovnik, Croatia:

• 29th December, Saturday, 8pm @ Hotel Dubrovnik Palace (Club Orlandiño)
• 30th December, Sunday, 9pm : @ Hotel Dubrovnik Palace (Sunset Lounge)
• 31st December, Monday, 9pm : @ Stradun (Placa) – the main Dubrovnik square - for the New Year’s celebration.

The musicians performing are: Douglas Sides (drums), Shawn Montero (vocal), Marcelo Godoy (vocal, electric and acoustic guitar), Filho Nelson (guitar), Ishaq Abdullah (bass), Steven Hupkens (keys), Reggie Johnson (double bass), Domagoy Ralasic (sax, clarinet), Jesse Davis (sax), Julius Green (vocal)

Plus Free Jazz Workshops  will be held every day (11am to 1pm and 5pm to 6.30 pm)

More info at : http://www.jazz.agevent.biz/

Zadar’s Sea Organ - a real music instrument built into Zadar‘s harbor and sea front is now the subject of a video by National Geographic, and features an interview with Croatian architect Nikola Bašić, who explains how it was planned and designed.

It also features the haunting music it creates, which, coupled with the waves, leaves us drifting off to sleep. 

The Sea Organ is seventy meters long with about thirty five organ pipes built in concrete. The pipes are located so that the sea water and wind movements produce sounds that are heard by passers by so that it achieves a communication with nature and promotes a unity of architecture and environment. As sea forces and energies are unpredictable in terms of tides and winds, this organ offers never-ending concert of numerous music variations in which the performer is nature itself.

Have a look and listen here 

Croatian musicians have been for the first time been joined by artists from six European countries, which has also been the partner country to this year‘s Varaždin Baroque Evenings, staging concerts in their countries too.

In this fashion the Varaždin Baroque Evenings, which have been held for almost four decades and have long ago been recognised outside of Croatia as a significant cultural event, have united several European nations in a single cultural undertaking.

Varaždin has always been a centre of the urban cultural scene.

Music has always been at the heart of this baroque town, once the Croatian capital, and its citizens delighted to the sounds of musical virtuosos, dances and walks on the stunning town streets.

In the colour of the town‘s streets, where hundreds of thousands of tourists from around the world delight in the Špancirfest, held in August and September, or during the Baroque Evenings, the tradition and way of life in old Varaždin is reflected.

Through its Baroque evening Varaždin did not only attract the world‘s greatest names in music, it also promoted its own tourism through culture.

So it is that in the dominant edifice of the Old Town and in the Baroque churches and palaces, open to many cultural happenings, it again wrote new pages of its rich history, preserving its traditional way of life that tourists also recognise through the realisation of quality cultural projects.

For more info on Varazdin check our Varazdin Travel Directory.

After the opening of the Ružic Gallery, revival of scenes from the history of the Tvrdava (fortress) and opening of a traditional blacksmith’s workshop, Slavonski Brod got yet for another interesting facility – Tamburitza Museum, located within the Tvrdava.

This is a unique project given that nowhere in Croatia to date has a similar museum been opened which is dedicated only to this recognisable musical symbol of Slavonia.

The museum presents the hundred year old history of the Tamburitza in Slavonski Brod and the whole Slavonski Brod- Posavina County and displays a series of very valuable exhibits like a tamburitza from 1920 and handwritten notes for a tamburitza orchestra which were written back in 1912.

There are also classical exhibits and old photographs as well as organised workshops for visitors to see the process of making this traditional musical instrument.

The museum is located in the Kapelan apartment of the Tvrdava, right next to the Tourist-information centre of Slavonski Brod ( Slavonski Brod Tourist Board http://www.tzgsb.hr/ )

More about tamburica at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamburitza

‘The bustling walled city of Dubrovnik hosts its spectacular summer festival, 58th in a row. 
Review of top solo artists, chamber ensembles and orchestras from all around the world: Midori, Kremerata Baltica and Gidon Kremer, Krzysztof Penderecki and Sinfonietta Cracovia, Slovene Philharmonic Orchestra and George Pehlivanian…will be performing this year on remarkable squares, palaces, churches, gardens and streets of Dubrovnik. The Festival has already hosted many famous choreographers like Cunningham, Graham, Fabre and the companies such as the Twentieth Century Ballet of Maurice Bejart, the London Festival Ballet… and this summer Festival audience will enjoy in performances of the famous Paris Opera Ballet as well as CityDance Ensemble from Washington.Midnight serenades, drama spectacles, world premiers, local heritage and world classics, exhibitions of mainstream and alternative art are only some of the reasons why the number of visitors has constantly been increasing.  

“The inseparability of the actual or real city from the imaginary and artistic city is what fascinates me” says Prlender, General Manager, and probably Festival’s visitors, too.’

A spokesman for the event said: “Anyone who came to the first Garden Festival last June will tell you that it was a complete blast!

“One thousand groovers from all over Europe descended on the beautiful village of Petrcane (near Zadar) for three days and nights of no-nonsense fun and frolics. The live stage hosted some of the finest bands to spring from the soul/dance music underground scene and the club rocked till dawn with expertly laid down beats by DJs of distinction.

“Our philosophy is inspiring music and creative art and providing a meeting place for like minded people, from all walks of life. Get away from the fast life. Stop. Meditate. Share ideas and stories. Celebrate life, the moment and new experiences.”

Acts and DJs to include Nightmare On Wax, Crazy P and Cubismo (all live), plus Jazzy Jeff, Unabombers, Mr Scruff, A Man Called Adam, Faith DJs (Stuart Patterson, Terry Farley, Dave Jarvis), Sean Rowley, Kwinzola, Quantic, Joe 90, Woody, Bootsy, Bobby Beige, Deep Fried Funk DJs, Qool DJ Marv and Keb Darge.

Stuart Patterson, Faith head honcho, told Club Mix: “Fancy dancing outside next to the sea to the likes of The UnaBombers, Mr Scruff, A Man Called Adam and The Faith Boys where the cost of the whole weekend is less than a round in Amnesia? Yeah? Well a few of us went to the first Garden Festival in Zadar, Croatia, last year and it comes highly recommended.”

Passes are £30 each + Hotel accommodation the organisers recommend is very reasonable.

Contact www.thegardenfestival2007.com and www.myspace.com/thegardenzadar.

The blog started just couple days ago and whoever is running it, is really busy adding new stuff all the time.

Large part of the music selection is hard (or impossible) to find in music shops, so this is unique opportunity to listen to some Croatian “oldies but goldies”

Go and check yourself – listen to Croatian pop music from 60’s and 70’s at: http://adults_only.bloger.hr/