The music festival in Lastovo, which has been going on for almost a quarter of a century since its initial jazz version, will once again take place in this year's five-day edition in the bay of St. Mihovila will host a number of interesting performers, along with an attractive accompanying program, this year also spiced up by the Perseid meteor shower.
The program starts August 10 on Thursday with the gift of Kina Mediteran, a screening of the feature film "MIÚCHA – THE VOICE OF BOSSA NOVA", by Liliana Mutti & Daniel Zarvosa (Brazil, USA, 2022) on the wall of Uljara, followed by a stand-up performance by Goran Vugrinec and a warm-up for the musical part of the program with DJ D -Gree, who is at Lastovo for the sixth time with his seductive sets that start in the afternoon and end deep into the night.
Two exhibitions are opening on the same day. The first documents the project "YOUTH PROTECT THE NATURE OF LASTOVA ISLAND" by the VAL Association, describing actions that included cleaning beaches and the environment, setting up an eco-bench made of recycled material with a message about the beauty of the island that needs to be preserved, photographing wild landfills, and cleaning the beaches on the neighboring island of Mljet together with to young people from Mljet. Jelena Vojinović's photography exhibition "vidim LAstovo" is a special treat because it presents three years of work by the Lastovo guest and her exceptional interpretation of the island she fell in love with at first sight. The photos will be displayed on the wall of Uljara, but also partly on Pjevor in front of the premises of the festival organizers, the association LA!UVO! – ASSOCIATIONS for VISIBILITY OF THE ISLAND! SWALLOW! Where in the morning the "listen&listen" street concert of the festival participants will be held.
U Friday 11.08. the music program in Mihajlo is opened by FREEKIND and DEMENTRONOMES. The musical duo FreeKind consists of Sara Ester Gredelj from Croatia and Nina Korošak Serčić from Slovenia, who met at a jazz workshop in Grožnjan, and perform neo soul in perfect combination with R'n'B and hip-hop. In addition to composing their own songs and performing them themselves, they also produce them themselves, and their EP "Not Good Enough" and their first album "Since Always and Forever" really bring us a respectable rounded musical product that would be very difficult to define geographically, so we can call it and worldwide. Dementronomes, on the other hand, are a hilarious funk-soul band formed in 2011 in Zagreb, so you need solid dance fitness for the first night.
JE VEUX – Željka Veverec – who under the tears of St. Lovre performs in Saturday 12.08. three years ago she released her debut album "I Glow" and presents her eclectic dance electro-soul journey, and after the concert DJ D-Gree gets reinforcements and DJ PIPS (Slaven Tušek) joins him at the desk and the evening ends with their joint "SATURDAY" NIGHT FEVER" set.
U Sunday 13.08. the bands IDEM and FUNK SHUI are performing. Idem is the new project of Antun Aleksa, trombonist of the bands Porto Morto and Jeboton and guitarist and singer of the band Trophy Jump, and Funk Shui are a collective from Skopje that has existed since 2010 and fuse jazz, rap, rock and indie pop. They have four albums and a huge concert experience behind them, so they guarantee that even that evening will be packed with top performances and good fun.
The final day of the festival, Monday, August 14, a touch of psychedelia is brought to us by AUF WIEDERSEHEN and NEMANJA. If you like "strong, danceable and repetitive groove, endless energy, free and unrestrained musical improvisation" (Zli Hadzo) and "minimalist beats harmonized with guitar riffs and decorated with psychedelia or a fantastic combination of seductive electronics, synthesizers and rhythm machines from one , that is garage rock, blues and punk from the other side"(Balkanrock), there is Auf Wiedersehen. NEMANJA (Luka Šipetić) from Pula recently released his third album "Voodoo Beat" (after "Tarot Funk" from 2019 and "Cosmic Disco" from 2020), inspired by Afro-Colombian rhythms, Caribbean dub sounds, tropical exotica and elements of early electronic music from the beginning of the 70s.
In addition to all that, Lunar, one of the founders of the Croatian graffiti scene, who painted and exhibited his works in countries on six continents, thus leaving his mark in numerous cities around the world, including Antwerp, Vienna, Copenhagen, Dublin, is also a guest at the festival this year. Edinburgh, Hamburg, Istanbul, Le Locle, Malmoe, Marseille, Mexico City, Milan, Rotterdam, Sofia, Sydney, Tbilisi, Thessaloniki, Valletta, etc., and now Lastovo is joining the list. Coming to your senses after such nights will be easier with Yoga with Ana every day of the festival from 18:30 p.m. Traditionally, the last two afternoons of the festival are reserved for volleyball and bocce tournaments, where the winners await valuable prizes sponsored by LA!majica, the Lastovo Islands Nature Park and the Tourist Board of the Municipality of Lastovo.
For an impressive five days on an island with an official population of 748, we thank the enormous effort of the local association LA!UVO! which organizes musical events in the rest of the year, with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Media, the Municipality of Lastovo, the Tourist Board of the Municipality of Lastovo, Dubrovnik-Neretva County, the Lastovo Islands Nature Park and the Croatian Society of Composers, and to a considerable extent with its own funds.
Tickets can be purchased in advance online on the link and in the association's premises at Pjevor 10 from 10 a.m. to 14 p.m. and from 18 p.m. to 20 p.m. The price of the festival ticket is 45 EUR in advance and 53 EUR from Friday, August 11 until the end of the festival. Daily tickets are 15 EUR in advance and 17 EUR on the day.
Lastovo has 26 bays and beaches and 200 kilometers of hiking trails
The Romans, who called the island Augusta Insula, or Imperial Island, and because of the many natural beauties and abundance of sea fish. Although it is ten kilometers long and less than six kilometers wide, on Lastovo you can find a large number of natural beaches and hidden coves, as well as dense pine forests. All this, with clear sea, more than 200 kilometers hiking trails and the facilities it offers, attract tourists from all over the world.
It is located on the Island in total 26 beaches and coves. The beaches are wild, naturally rocky and rocky, and the sea is crystal clear, clear greenish blue, which makes it attractive to tourists from all over the world. There are numerous taverns on Lastovo, as well as rural households, so there is no lack of good food. The choice is wide, from traditional dishes, ie seafood delicacies and desserts, to meat dishes. As far as accommodation capacities are concerned, most of them are private accommodation; apartments, studio apartments, Robinson accommodation, rooms and holiday homes, and there are two camps, a hotel, and lighthouses Sušac and Struga.
/// Lastovo - island of crystal stars
Cover photo: Image by Filip Filipovic from Pixabay
