HRTurizam writes that at ZOF, you can participate in four different sports: Olive Island Trail (5, 10, and 21 km), kayak race, SUP race, and speed climbing. However, what is important to point out is that Zadar Outdoor Festival is equally interesting and suitable for recreationists in full physical fitness and families with children who want to spend a day in nature and relax and have fun. Thus, various workshops were organized in addition to competitive disciplines, such as the Kizomba dance workshop, children’s kayak, yoga, and a sport climbing workshop.
“We save nature for future runners” is the main motto of ZOF, so the entire Festival is “plastic-free,” and the medals are ecological and wooden.
“At the Zadar Outdoor Festival, we paid special attention to preserving the nature of the Island of Ugljan, under the motto ‘We preserve nature for future runners!’ Thus, we advise all competitors to carry reusable water bottles. When serving food, we use only recyclable materials; our Festival is completely “plastic-free.” In addition to medals, which are ecological and made of wood, we also give olive seedlings to the fastest competitors. Suppose they do not have a place to plant it at home. In that case, they can donate it to the Municipality of Preko and plant it in the future Mediterranean garden above Preko, next to the water reservoir ‘Stonovac,’ which was built in 1924, as the largest water collection in this area and a beautiful lookout. So every year, there will be additional motivation to participate in our Festival and come to watch how the olives are growing. We paid special attention to lunch for all competitors after the trail, so we decided on an indigenous dish of this area – Čičvarda prepared in homemade olive oil,” says Iva Bencun, director of the Zadar Outdoor Festival.
It is clear to everyone how important an event like ZOF is to extend the tourist season and develop active tourism for which the Zadar region is known.
“I would like to thank the organizers of the Zadar Outdoor Festival for deciding to organize most of this year’s edition of the Preko festival on the island of Ugljan. I hope that we will continue our cooperation next year because I believe that it will be good and successful and that more and more people will participate in the Festival every year. It is important for us to extend the season and active tourism, but also the entire infrastructure that we have been building for the last four or five years; breaking through bike paths, roads, rest areas, lookouts, and all the educational hiking trails we did and the Željina Cliff for sport climbing, which we reactivated, so it is important that it all comes to life and that Adventure Island becomes in the true sense of the word, “adventure,” said Jure Brižić, mayor of Preko.
“Zadar Outdoor Festival is a continuation of everything we have been doing in recent years on the island of Ugljan. Emphasis is placed on active holidays, with family vacations in the heart of the season in July and August. All our efforts in the development of active tourism in recent years have contributed to the arrival of more active guests on the island of Ugljan; for example, now in September we have an increase compared to last year of 200%, and if we compare with 2019, we again have a growth of about 10%, which is great. We will strive to develop the infrastructure for active holidays further, cooperate with the Zadar Outdoor Festival as before, and in the future be a support in some other events, such as bike races, where we want to promote bike trails, and even connect with Pašman, so it will be one big event that will connect both islands,” said Ivan Košta, director of the Preko Tourist Board.
Two weeks later, on Saturday, October 9, the Zadar Outdoor Festival continues with another exciting trail – Ravni kotari. You can find out more information about the Zadar Outdoor Festival here.
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