Outlook Festival is quirky with hidden delights

I’ve only ever been to one festival abroad and it was a very civilised affair without even having the option to camp – granted I didn’t jump on the camping wagon here but that was due to my extreme aversion to 30 plus degree heat in a hungover tent situation. Being a snob and getting a cheap apartment owned by a delightful couple in the surrounding city Pula was a much better option for me and my comrades.

As a first time goer the festival site was novel. It is set in Fort Punta Christa surrounding the city, which means that some of the stages are set in some pretty amazing stone ruins with stage names such as Outside the Fort and The Moat painting an exciting picture for you.

My biggest warning is that the festival is not wheelchair accessible in the slightest. Because of the fort setting the terrain is extremely treacherous and you have to walk up and down steep hills to get to each area on gravelled ground. They operate a ‘no open toed shoes at night’ policy for a very good reason!

The festival set up is beach parties and boat parties that you have to buy tickets for in advance throughout the day with the stages opening at about 8pm.

My first stop was The Heatwave’s Hot Wuk boat party and I’m just going to casually put it out there as one of the best parties I have ever experienced – imagine a carnival on a boat in the sunshine, surrounded by fun-loving people. For three hours the dancehall and bashment collective kept revellers entertained and winding our waists as they played out perfect musical accompaniment to the sunshine and flowing drinks.

Key highlights were members of the Croatian staff being genuinely entertained by the crowd’s enthusiasm and cheekily filming it, as well as the boat nearly tipping over as everyone joined in an organised ‘palance’ dance move when reaching the dock. It was the perfect prelude to the evening’s antics and every single face leaving the boat was grinning smugly.

I caught Andreya Triana on the main Harbour stage although she had only gathered a small crowd as the night was still young. Her smooth jazzy tones and silky voice were a good warm up to get the crowd ready for the night’s heavier music ahead.

London hip hop collective Livin' Proof followed with a half hour set starting with newer hip hop jams and ending with classics. Hardcore hip hop heads were bouncing along to the Trap beats right from the start with the crowd getting more hyped up as the classics dropped – it was an excellent varied hip hop and crowd-drawing set.

In general the festival operated on a token system where you bought tokens from designated booths, which you exchanged for food or drink at the bars and food stalls. In general the system worked well and queues weren’t too painful and it was a treat to be dealing with the healthy European measures of alcohol although the stalls closed at certain times so you had to make sure you weren’t caught short with just cash on you.

High Focus Records were up next and if I’m honest I found the whole thing a little akin to Blazin’ Squad but the crowd (who were admittedly mostly in their late teens or early twenties) absolutely loved them.

They are a rap collective of young guys that started with about 6 members onstage. I can’t actually tell you how many of them were actually in the group because they just multiplied like gremlins during their set ending with about 13 of them, some rapping, some dancing, some just sitting elusively on speakers and nodding along to the music.

Their lyricism was all a bit young for a relic like myself but I have to say they were really entertaining to watch backed by good beats, and they worked well with the crowd.

Although exhausting to navigate, the festival site was quirky with hidden delights such as a chill out area full of hay bales and little tucked away nooks where you could chill out between the action.

It has to be noted that the festival staff and the accident and emergency crew (who I had to unfortunately visit due to an injury resurfacing due to the terrain) were top notch in terms of politeness and customer service throughout the festival.

I found myself in the early hours of the morning floating from stage to stage following the big bass sounds that took over the night.

The Moat is an incredible venue with narrow walls that reach skywards and amazing graphics and lasers bouncing off the walls, and this is where I stumbled across Decibel.

He played a set that hyped the crowd up easily with arms flailing to techno, dubstep, and house. Unexpected delights came in the form of the UK Garage and Grime that he dropped that both surprised and elated the crowd.

The DJs don’t stop playing until 6am and there comes a clear point in the evening where the festival becomes a haven for dubstep enthusiasts, which admittedly most of the throng were, but if you struggle with this genre of music I think you might want to have an early night or find other ways to entertain yourself – I personally found drinking copious amounts of alcohol and making new friends in a hay pit worked for me but each to their own of course.

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