July 1, 2025 – Continental tourism in Croatia is on the rise, with various festivals, new and old, beginning to shine. Rather than celebrate this, why does Spancirfest feel threatened?
As a Dalmatian island boy, I was a latecomer to tourism in continental Croatia. But after a decade of living in Varazdin and Zagreb, I have become a true convert, and I MUCH prefer spending the peak summer months far from the coast and exploring the considerable offer away from the Adriatic, and then enjoying the coast in the shoulder months when it is cooler and much less busy.
And the more I explore continental Croatia, the more I discover. Excellent and lesser-known festivals such as Lukovo in Novska and Stara Jela z Dugog Sela were two new ones I enjoyed last year, for example, and recent heavyweights such as HeadOnEast in Osijek have joined more established festivals such as Vinkovacke Jeseni, Spancirfest, Bucijada, Picokijada and the Koprivnica Renaissance Festival to form an increasingly impressive continental offer.
And then there is Terezijana in Bjelovar, which was established in 1996, and which – like Bjelovar as a whole – has experienced a resurgence in the last few years. I was there for one night at the weekend, and what a fabulous, fabulous family festival, with something for everyone – we will be publishing a video about Terezijana later today. A festival that was three days long last year, five days this year, and which next year celebrates its 30th anniversary, coinciding with the opening of the new motorway to Bjelovar, as well as the much-anticipated thermal spa that will transform tourism in that region. A cause for celebration, right?
Not if you are the team at Spancirfest, the popular street festival in Varazdin, which put out the most extraordinary social media post the other day. Rather than celebrating that continental tourism is getting stronger (the offer when looked at as one is extremely impressive), Spancirfest chose an altogether different route – a translation of their Facebook post is below, accompanied by the photo above:
Since 1999, Špancirfest has been pushing boundaries, creating trends and building an authentic festival experience that inspires many, and we are proud to see our impact on the festival scene.
See you soon where it all begins – in Varaždin!
Apart from being extremely petty and small-minded – and the fact that it was published 3 days ago and is still live tells its own story – there are several embarrassing issues with the post.
Firstly, far from Varazdin being the place ‘where it all begins’, Spancirfest only started three years after Terezijana.
The idea that Bjelovar copied Varazdin with the burger festival is hilarious. Should Zagreb be complaining about Spancirfest copying them? And a fun fact from the Terezijana press conference a few weeks ago – the Burger Festival organisers declared that the Bjelovar Burger Festival was the most successful of all its events around Croatia last year. So much so that this year’s Terezijana combined the Burger, Pizza and Pancake Festivals in one for the first time in Croatia. I sincerely hope this combination will not appear at Spancirfest – I would hate the organisers to be open to accusations of copying another festival.
Two live acts appeared at both festivals out of many live acts over multiple days, including Croatia’s popular Eurovision entrant, Baby Lasagna. Is Spancirfest suggesting that anyone who books these acts in the future is copying their festival? It would be hard on the Baby Lasagnas of this world, having to give up their careers to avoid calls of imitation from the Spancirfest organisers.
The post is also disappointingly disingenuous in that the photo appears to show an almost carbon copy of a programme that looks identical. In fact, these are only 8 things in a programme with hundreds of things happening over 5 days, and most of these 8 are clearly ridiculous.
Even the impactful quote by Oscar Wilde has been edited. The full quote is:
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.
Terezijana was nothing short of fantastic. The only mediocrity here (actually below mediocrity) was Spancirfest’s attempt to undermine what they seem to perceive as a rival with this classless post. The best way for Spancirfest to rise above mediocrity would be by issuing a public apology, and by starting to support colleagues rather than trying to undermine them.
