A recap of Day 2 of the biggest open air festival in Croatia
This year, I only managed to go to Day 2 (Total Zagreb requires some taking care of) of INmusic Festival, and I felt really sad because everyone told me that Arcade Fire was on fire (see the wannabe pun I just made?), but the brilliant performances by Alt-J, Kings of Leon and Repetitor last night were more than enough for me.
I’ve been attending INmusic Festival on & off ever since I moved to Zagreb back in 2009; I had wanted to go sooner, too, but I was a minor and mama Nikšić wasn’t a fan of me travelling 500 km to go to a concert (even though mama Nikšić generally loves it when her children travel and go to concerts.)
I generally have the fondest memories of the festival: the euphoria you get the first time you go to a music festival and realise you’ll be doing it whenever you get the chance, pure bliss you feel when you get to see your favourite bands onstage (Arcade Fire, back in 2011, Arctic Monkeys in 2013, The Black Keys and Pixies in 2014, dancing in yesterday’s puddles while the sun is shining the next day to the beats of the Eagles of Death Metal, not caring that you drink overpriced beer and eat too expensive taquitos, or that you have to wait for 20 min to get into a pitch-black mobile toilet (which is a good thing, because then you can’t see anything around you), dancing to Backstreet Boys at silent disco – all of these things are truly some of the things that always bring a smile to my face.
INmusic Festival, 2011
This year’s edition was a first in many ways: normally, there was a stretch of grass between the place where you exchanged your tickets for wristbands and the place where you actually enter the festival where people would sit in groups and drink their regular-priced beer before entering the festival, but this year it was not possible – you had to leave everything behind as soon as you take your wristband, walk through an empty stretch of space where there were no people lounging around, and then get to the actual entrance, get your things checked again, and then go in. This was also the first year that the “one entrance – one exit per festival day” rule was implemented – there was a bar code at each wristband so you couldn’t re-enter if you exited the festival, which was new and strange to many people. This was the first year I got a press pass (yay Total Zagreb), and my wristband didn’t actually have a bar-code on it, so I’m not sure how they made sure the press didn’t leave the festival, but I also didn’t want to test it.
Even though we all idealise rain and puddles and think it’s going to be great and festival-like, I’m sorry, Glastonbury, music festivals when it doesn’t rain are the new black. Being able to sit down wherever you want and not having to worry if your raincoat is going to survive the pouring rain is underrated, I tell you.
INmusic Festival, 2015
Another first happened – I think the first sign that you’re getting older (gasp) is the fact that you want to stand in the back and not have to be pushed around by one of the biggest crowds in your life.
I can’t really pick a favourite of the night: Alt-J proved why indie rock lovers and hipsters worship them so much, making even people who were there just to see Kings of Leon shuffle their feet to the sounds of keyboards and Joe Newman’s captivating vocals. I know that every band says that they’re so happy to be at X, but Alt J’s singer said it with such humble conviction that I instantly loved them even more.The band loved it, the audience loved it even more – it was a win-win.
As always, Repetitor, proved just how much high-quality noise a three-people band can make, leaving you with a sense of euphoria and filled with energy that makes you feel like you can do anything. The crowd at their concerts could fuel a power plant, it’s just loads of energy explosion, and I mean the best kind.
Kings of Leon truly justified the fact that the festival tickets were sold out a week prior to the festival, for the first time in its history. They mixed old hits, like Notion, On Call, and Knocked Up, (which, I have to say, I prefer to the new stuff) with new songs, which sounded just as good. I just remember smiling and thinking about how I used to spend days listening to them back in 2010, or how I listened to Manhattan when I was travelling to actual Manhattan (I know, I’m very creative), and I honestly didn’t even notice that they were playing for an hour and 40 min. They sounded even better live than on their albums, which I consider to be pretty big.
I think the biggest compliment a festival can get is that you don’t take many photos (at least in my, taking-500-hundred-photos-of-everything world), and, other than recording a few videos to post to Total Zagreb and send to my friend who loves them, but couldn’t be there, I could’ve easily left my phone at home and I wouldn’t have missed it and I wouldn’t have regretted not taking photos.
Music being more than enough, I think, is what makes a festival great and, without a doubt, that’s what INmusic Festival #12 was.
