Croatian Travel: Festivals
The Many Festivals of Croatia
Throughout Croatia there are always plenty of fun and fascinating festivals you can attend no matter what time of year or which city you are visiting. In Zagreb, the International Folklore Festival has been held in July for more than 40 years. This is a must-see event where you can enjoy traditional Croatian folk dancing and singing by performers dressed in traditional costumes. Events and activities take place for an entire week and you can also join in on many of the dancing, music, and art workshops that are meant to spread the culture of Croatia to tourists and locals alike.
Each year in the city of Rijeka on the northern coast is the largest and most elaborate festival in all of Croatia. Every February the Rijeka Carnival opens with the crowning of the Carnival Queen and from that moment on the city streets are filled with mask wearing carnival goers and dancing in the streets. In 1995, the European Federation of Carnival Cities named the Rijeka Carnival as one of the most exciting carnivals in all of Europe. With non-stop parades, concerts, sporting events, and plenty of masked balls to attend, this festival is not to be missed.
In Dubrovnik, the most popular and beautiful tourist destination in Croatia, there is the Dubrovnik Summer Festival which is a month long event that takes place each July and August. Music is very important to the culture of Croatia and this festival provides plenty of it. There are multiple open-air stages where you can find everything from local bands to traditional folklorists to the many big-name international stars that are featured throughout the celebration.
On the northern part of Croatia there is a heart-shaped region known as Istria. Right in the center of the region is the city of Pazin which is known as the inspirational city for the famous science-fiction novelist Jules Verne. Verne is best known for his fantastical novels, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and Around the World in Eighty Days. However, Verne used Pazin as the main location in his novel Mathias Sandorf, and Pazin has never forgotten it. The third week of June Pazin holds the Days of Jules Verne festival where they have races, reenactments from the novel, and walking tours that retrace the steps of the main character as he made his way through the city.
