Arguably Croatia’s most creative festival gets underway once more in the picturesque northern city of Varazdin on August 19, 2016, with the opening of Spancirfest 2016. This year’s event has quite a lineup.
Summer may be concentrated on the coast in August for millions of holidaymakers in Croatia, but those in the know will be heading north this weekend for the start of this year’s Spancirfest in Varazdin, one of the most exciting festivals in the entire Croatian cultural calendar. A chance for creative minds to come together and express themselves, to wander and enjoy street entertainment and organised concerts in a way perhaps like no other in Croatia. Here is a little taster of last year’s event to give you an initial impression:
The official wesite introduces the festival thus:
“The basic idea of the festival, named “Špancirfest”, is to make sure that during the period of the 10 days of the festival most visitors feel they belong to a particular cultural community that cultivates creative thinking, imagination and freedom of expression. “Špancirfest” gathers both professional and self-taught artists from all over the world. It takes place at the end of August and, as the first street festival in Croatia, is the most visited and most influential festival of this type in the country. It brings together musicians and bands, theatre companies, street performance companies, individual street performers and visual artists (multimedia, painting, product design etc.).”
This year’s festival hosts a typically strong lineup of main acts, which you can get an overview of in the video below, or scroll down for a list of the main performers and dates when they are playing:
Friday August 19
Kiril Dzajkovski Feat, TK Wonder and MC Wasp
TBF and the Varazdin Chamber Orchestra
Jinx
Dub FX
Sowas
Saturday August 20
Laibach
Quasarr
Homage to Arsen Deic, Tedi Spalato, Lea Dekleva and Zoran Predin
Rambo Amadeus and Five Winnetous Sextet
Sunday August 21
Pips Chips and Video Clips
Repetitor
Urban & 4
Electric Swing Circus
Monday August 22
Orthodox Celts
Brkovi
Kisa Metaka
Kranksvester
Tuesday August 23
Manu Chao La Ventura
Postolar Tripper
Hornsman Coyote & Soulcraft
Vlado Kreslin
Wednesday August 24
The Fralje
Thursday August 25
Esma Redzepova
Friday August 26
Pavel
Zvonko Bogdan
Saturday August 27
Lovely Quinces
Puncke
Auguste
Toni Cetinski
Pravila Igra
Perpetuum Jazzile
Sunday August 28
Hladno Pivo
Siddharta
Russkaya
Neno Belan and the Mediteran Orchestra
There of course are just the headline acts – there will be hundreds of other events going on all over the city. Take a look at this sampler of the street performers on show:
It promised to be a fabulous occasion once again. For more information about the festival and ticket purchasing, check the official Spancirfest website.
