July 6, 2020 – The 8th edition of Forestland readies to open the festival season in Croatia with music workshops, club programs, activities and performances that culminate from July 17 to 19 in the forest of Brezje. In a slightly modified form adapted to the ‘new normal’, Forestland will be held this year for 48 hours, from Friday to Sunday, on three stages with over 60 different musicians.
Live performances, trap and hip hop
The young Croatian forces of the new wave of rap, trap and hip hop will have their opportunity on Saturday, July 18, on the main stage. Zembo Latifa, Swen and Tikach, 30zona, Kuku$ and Dino Blunt & Swana are some of the names that will bravely enter the first open-air festival of the new age.
Techno – renaissance wave of electronic music
A new wave of techno has re-emerged on the wings of electronic music’s popularization. Slovenian great Uroš Umek is a legend of the scene, with performances that date back to the Kuršanec club Ex. From former semi-illegal raves, today, the best Slovenian electronic brand was born. Festival-goers will also enjoy Tea Vučković, a DJ whose name is synonymous with strong and energetic techno sets. The Slovenian has a lot of experience, and after her native Slovenia, she honed her craft on regional and world club and festival stages. Tea releases music for respectable techno labels Techburst Records, Eclipse Recordings Funk’n’Deep, DSR Digital, Blue Monkey Records, Moonlogic Records. She is involved in the organization of parties, club evenings and festivals (ECO Fest), as well as education on stage.
From Croatia, on the other hand, Forestland presents Kraundler and Felver, Eleven and Yakka. ELEVEN, the independent live act of ABOP drummer Ivan Levačić, is characterized by the sound of electronics, IDM, electro and other genres of electronic music. Solid, dance groove and bass sections intertwine with emotional, film themes and upbeat sequences of analog synthesizers. He has already left a deep mark on the domestic music scene as the author and active member of the bands ABOP, Chui and Kries, and is the former drummer of Pridjevi, Lollobrigida, Pips, Chips & Videoclips and Mayales and backing drummer Natali Dizdar and Dino Dvornik.
ELEVEN performs his music live with the help of synthesizers, sequencers, samplers and rhythm machines. He was nominated for this year’s Ambassador Award for “The most promising band/songwriter’s electronic music project”.
And the winner of the Ambassador 2018 award for the Croatian DJ of the Year, chosen by the audience, and one of the most current house DJs on the regional scene is YAKKA, the owner of the Beatality Records label, which includes releases for foreign publishers (Pacha, King Street, Deeperfect, Casa Rossa Cruise Music and many others). All techno fans know about the Koprivnica DJ and producer Kraundler. Fully committed to producing his own music, Kraundler is ranked among the very top regional producers.
48 hours of Forestland
Since the third year of the festival, Forestland is a multi-day event, the culmination of summer in Međimurje, which is attended by hundreds and thousands of visitors, tourists, young and old. Musical performances by dozens of artists, an adrenaline park and the beautiful Međimurje are a guarantee of a great time.
“We haven’t slept in the past months, we won’t lie to you,” said Krešo Biškup, the festival’s spokesman. “From the whole situation with this pandemic, we have decided to wait, be persistent and keep hope. We knew we were going to have to change the story, we canceled the big foreign DJs and focused on the region, the neighborhood, our “home”. In February, we had the entire construction of the festival closed, all the concepts, we worked on dozens, and maybe even hundreds of hours of meetings, preparations, conceptual solutions to make everything fall into place.”
The Forestland festival is the only festival of this size in northern Zagreb and almost the only festival in Croatia to be held this summer. “The trust of the partners was not lacking, it was difficult, but we broke through. As there are no activities, no events, everyone cut their marketing budgets first, but we can readily say – our partners are loyal to us, we have confidence and we will continue to work. We are followed in 2020 by HEP, one of the main partners is Zagrebačka pivovara with which we have excellent, long-term cooperation, which will continue, then Coca Cola and a number of accompanying assortments, Jagermeister, Red Bull, but also our local community.
The Tourist Board of Međimurje follows in our footsteps, and we return with an excellent promotion of Međimurje, the destinations and activities we create. The official vehicle of the festival is the new Suzuki hybrid, a Vitara SUV provided to us by AC Baumgartner, which has been supporting us for many years,” says Biškup.
“Local municipalities, the County, we are partners with all institutions that support us, and our favorite is when we place a beautiful story in the world. The photo and image that Croatia Full of Life shares and is proud of these days – the Croatian National Tourist Board gives us the wind in our backs and helps us to create the best festival so far. Of course, media coverage is extremely important, and this is where we come to mutual cooperation, storytelling and relevance of the content.”
What’s next? Forestland’s multi-year plan:
“The story of the Forestland festival has its own multi-year plan. We never just work on the current project, but plan, look to the future and think about what we can improve, fix, change and make attractive. We are in negotiations with big production companies, they are coming to accompany one artist to Forestland where they will record a video for his new single, agencies are following their performers and pictures from the ‘Forest’ will tour the world. In 2021, we continue to hope to become part of another larger, global story, because northern Croatia deserves such a focus, attraction and quality that foreigners and tourists already recognize,”adds Biškup.
Forestland takes place from 17 to 19 July in Brezje, from noon on Friday to Sunday at noon when the afterparty moves to the pools in Toplice Sveti Martin where all visitors with bracelets have free admission all day.
Tickets for the festival are 100 kuna, valid for both days of the festival, and you can find them online, at www.ticket2go.hr or at the entrance to the festival from July 17 at 12:00 pm. More info about Forestland can be found here.
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