PHOTOS: Colour, Cuisine and Art of Koprivnica at Motifs of Podravina

Motifs of Podravina Festival Autumn 2021

The city centre streets and parks of Koprivnica will once again explode with colour, cuisine, music, dance and art this weekend for the 28th Motifs of Podravina Festival. The much-loved event showcases all of the unique aspects of culture from the region.

Usually taking place in summer, the 2020 event was postponed by the pandemic and instead held in autumn. With very surprising results. Numbers of visitors to the event increased dramatically. As a result, another autumn edition of Motifs of Podravina will take place on Saturday 2 October and Sunday 3 October 2021.

A run-up to the event is already underway at some of Koprivnica Križevci County’s most famous museums. There are special exhibitions currently on show at Koprivnica Gallery, the Gallery of Naive Art in Hlebine and the Mijo Kovačić Gallery in Koprivnica. All these participating museums will open their doors to the public for free this weekend.

The celebrated works of the region’s famous artists will be joined by an explosion of colour through Koprivnica City Park. There, one of the largest outdoor exhibitions of art in Croatia takes place. Over 50 Croatian Naive Artists will be displayed through the park and on Zrinski Square. As such, this is one of the best times and places to come and learn more about Croatian Naive Art and the very famous branch of it that comes from this region – the Hlebine School (you can read more about it here).

Stalls displaying Hlebine school paintings and other art of the region will be interspersed with others offering arts & crafts, traditional produce and tasty treats.

Holding the event in autumn allows Motifs of Podravina to take advantage of harvest time. Colourful pumpkins and squash might well be seen. The surrounding countryside is rich with wild mushrooms. Famously, they are collected to make a local specialty soup. And, the county’s famous corn is ripe and ready, as are the chestnuts. So, too, the brilliant, new season wines of Koprivnica Križevci County. This year, some of the best local wines will be joined by guests from Hungary and presented by Koprivnica City Museum.

Vineyards of Koprivnica-Križevci County © Marc Rowlands

Award-winning wine of Koprivnica © Marc Rowlands

Adding to the colour with a distinctly local flavour, music, folklore and dance are offered by Folklore Ensemble Koprivnica, the International Children’s Folklore Societies Meeting and KUD Rudar Glogovac. Additional music comes from Koprivnica City Puhački Orkestar, folk-rock band Ogenj and singer Eric Vidovic.

Entrance to Motifs of Podravina Festival. Photographic preview of the event made possible with the kind assistance of Turistička Zajednica Koprivnica here and photographer Mato Zeman.