Sea Star Festival ( sh, / ) is a

music festival A music festival is a community event with performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock, blues, folk, jazz, classical music), nationality, locality of musicians, or h ...

organized by the team behind EXIT Festival in Serbia. It was held for the first time on 26–27 May 2017 at the Stella Maris Resort in the City of Umag, while the second edition was held in 2018 on 25–26 May. The festival features rock, pop, electronic, techno, house, hip-hop, metal and punk acts performing on multiple stages. Some notable names who performed include

Fatboy Slim Norman Quentin Cook (born Quentin Leo Cook, 31 July 1963), also known by his stage name Fatboy Slim, is an English musician, DJ, and record producer who helped to popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. In the 1980s, Cook was the bassist f ...

, Paul Kalkbrenner, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Hurts, Paul Van Dyk, Sven Väth, Wu-Tang Clan,

Dubioza kolektiv Dubioza kolektiv (also known simply as Dubioza) is a Bosnian avant-garde dub rock group known for their crossover style that incorporates elements of hip hop, dub, ska, reggae, rock, punk, electronic music, and Balkan music, and for their soci ...

, Amelie Lens,

UMEK Uroš Umek (; born May 16, 1976), better known as DJ Umek or simply Umek, is a Slovenian dance music producer and DJ. Musically active since 1993, he is the owner of several techno record labels. In 1999 he founded Consumer Recreation and Recycle ...

Meduza ''Meduza'' ( rus, Медуза, t=jellyfish) is a Russian- and English-language independent news website, headquartered in Riga. It was founded in 2014 by a group of former employees of the then-independent ''Lenta.ru'' news website. Free mob ...

, Onyx,

The Prodigy The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music band formed in Braintree, Essex, in 1990 by producer, keyboard player and songwriter Liam Howlett. The original line-up also featured dancer and singer Keith Flint and dancer and occasional l ...

, Robin Schulz and many more. In its first festival year in 2017, Sea Star was shortlisted in two categories at the annual European Festivals Awards which are held in

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...

, Netherlands, competing for the title of best mid-sized and best new festival. At national level, in 2017 Sea Star won the Capra D’Oro award given by Istria Tourist Board for promoting the region of Istra, while winning the "Ambasador" award in the same year for best new festival. Sea Star also caught the attention of international media, with Travel Magazine concluding that with "outstanding productions the festival is set to be a stunner".

Location

Sea Star's Festival site is the Stella Maris Complex on the

Istria Istria ( ; Croatian language, Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; ist, Eîstria; Istro-Romanian language, Istro-Romanian, Italian language, Italian and Venetian language, Venetian: ; formerly in Latin and in Ancient Greek) is the larges ...

n beach at the north of the Croatian seaside.

Key stages

Sea Star festival has six stages in total. ''The Tesla Main Stage'' presents the headliners of the festival, while ''Nautilus Arena'', located under the main ATP stadium, is dedicated one night to hip-hop acts, and the other to alternative electronic music. Stages named ''Beach Groove Stage'', ''Exotic Laguna'' and ''Silent Octopus'' bring a variety of genres with hip-hop, reggae, latino,

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

, techno. ''Cinema Stage'' boasts a huge screen where movies and best EXIT performances are shown in HD.

History by years

Sea Star 2017

Sea Star Festival 2017 took place 26–27 May 2017 and was attended by 50,000 people. Although it was planned to be a two-day festival, Day Zero was held on 25 May, as well as an after-party on 28 May 2017. The headlining acts for Sea Star 2017 included

, Paul Kalkbrenner,

, Mahmut Orhan, Modestep LIVE, Pendulum DJ Set, Rambo Amadeus, SARS,

Spiller Cristiano Spiller (born 3 April 1975) is an Italian electronic music DJ and record producer. He is best known for his 2000 single " Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)", featuring Sophie Ellis-Bextor. The song reached number-one in the UK, Australia, ...

, Bad Copy, Urban&4, Elemental, Pips, Chips & Videoclips, Matter and many more. Sea Star festival presented a combination of various live and electronic acts, ranging from famous big beat and techno acts to

acid house Acid house (also simply known as just "acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synthesiz ...

music, as well as rock and pop. Around 70 acts performed at the festival. It was one of four festivals of EXIT Summer of Love 2017. EXIT Summer of Love celebrated the 50th anniversary of the

Summer of Love The Summer of Love was a social phenomenon that occurred during the summer of 1967, when as many as 100,000 people, mostly young people sporting hippie fashions of dress and behavior, converged in San Francisco's neighborhood of Haight-Ashbury. ...

and marked the most important events from 1967 when the revolutionary Peace Movement began. Besides Sea Star Festival, it included three more music festivals –

Revolution Festival Revolution (Romanian: Revolușn) was a summer music festival which is held in the city of Timișoara, Romania. The festival was founded in 2015 in Timișoara as a part of the EXIT Festival's EXIT Adventure package, which also contained EXIT and ...

in Romania on 2–3 June 2017, EXIT Festival in Serbia on 6–9 July 2017 and Sea Dance Festival in Montenegro on 13–15 July 2017.

Sea Star 2018

Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike at Sea Star Festival 2018

Sea Star Festival 2018 took place 25–26 May 2018. It was attended by 35,000 people. The headlining acts for Sea Star 2018 included Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Hurts, Robin Schulz and Paul Van Dyk as well as Luke Slater, Ofenbach,

Tram 11 Tram 11 is a Croatian rap group consisting of Nenad Šimun "Target" and Srđan Ćuk " General Woo". It is named after a tram line, number 11, that connects the western part of Zagreb from where Target is, with the eastern part where General Woo li ...

, Filatov & Karas, Edo Maajka & Bend and many more. Sea Star festival presented a combination of various live and electronic acts, ranging from famous

and

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' (G ...

acts to trance music.

Disciples A disciple is a follower and student of a mentor, teacher, or other figure. It can refer to: Religion * Disciple (Christianity), a student of Jesus Christ * Twelve Apostles of Jesus, sometimes called the Twelve Disciples * Seventy disciples in ...

have cancelled their performance prior to the festival. Instead, they have performed at the 2018 edition of the EXIT Festival. Sea Star is one of the six festivals of EXIT Freedom 2018. Besides Sea Star, EXIT Freedom includes six more music festivals – Festival 84 in Bosnia and Herzegovina on 15–18 March 2018,

in Romania on 31 May–2 June 2018, EXIT Festival in Serbia on 12–15 July 2018, Sea Dance Festival in Montenegro on 30 August–1 September and

No Sleep Festival No Sleep ( sr, Но слип / ''No slip'') is a music festival which is held at 8 locations in the city of Belgrade, Serbia. The festival was founded in 2017 in Novi Sad as a part of the EXIT Festival, influenced by the festival's No Sleep No ...

in Serbia on 15–18 November 2018.

Sea Star 2019

Sea Star Festival 2019 took place 24–25 May 2019. It was attended by 40,000 people. The headlining acts for Sea Star 2019 included Wu-Tang Clan, Sven Väth and many more. Sea Star Festival 2019 presented a combination of various live and electronic acts, ranging from famous hip hop acts to techno and

music. Sea Star was the first of the five festivals of EXIT Tribe 2019. Besides Sea Star, EXIT Tribe included four more music festivals – EXIT Festival in Serbia on 4-7 July 2019,

in Romania on 8-10 August 2019, Sea Dance Festival in Montenegro from 31 August to 1 September 2019 and

in Serbia from 8-9 November 2019.

Sea Star 2020

Sea Star Festival 2020 was supposed to take place 22–23 May 2020 until its cancellation and postponement to 2021, due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Organizers of the festival announced that all of the acts announced for Sea Star 2020 would be performing at the 2021 edition of the festival.

Sea Star 2021

Sea Star Festival 2021 was supposed to take place 28–29 May 2021 until its cancellation and postponement to 2022, due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Organizers of the festival announced that all of the acts announced for Sea Star 2021 would be performing at the 2022 edition of the festival.

Sea Star 2022

Sea Star Festival 2022 took place 27–28 May 2022. It was attended by 40,000 people. The headlining acts for Sea Star 2022 included Onyx,

, Amelie Lens,

Dubioza Kolektiv Dubioza kolektiv (also known simply as Dubioza) is a Bosnian avant-garde dub rock group known for their crossover style that incorporates elements of hip hop, dub, ska, reggae, rock, punk, electronic music, and Balkan music, and for their soci ...

and many more. Sea Star 2022 presented a combination of various live and electronic acts, ranging from famous hip-hop, techno and rock acts to

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...

and

music. It was the second of the eight festivals organized by the EXIT group. Besides Sea Star, EXIT included four more music festivals -

in Serbia on 8–9 April and 11–12 November, EXIT Festival in Serbia on 7–10 July, respectively and Sea Dance Festival in Montenegro on 26–28 August and Ada Divine Awakening Festival in Montenegro on 13–18 September.

Sea Star 2023

Sea Star Festival 2023 took place 19–20 May 2023. It was attended by 42,000 people. The headlining acts for Sea Star 2023 will include

, Robin Schulz and many more. Sea Star 2023 will present a combination of various live and electronic acts, ranging from famous hip-hop and electronic acts to psychedelic trance and

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

music. It will be the first of the seven festivals organized by the EXIT group. Besides Sea Star, EXIT includes four more music festivals - EXIT Festival in Serbia on 6–9 July, Ada Divine Awakening Festival in Montenegro on 18–20 August, Sea Dance Festival on 15–20 September, and

in Serbia in November.

Festival by year

References

External links

*{{official, seastarfestival.com Music festivals established in 2017 Electronic music festivals in Croatia Tourist attractions in Istria County Spring (season) events in Croatia