A fantastic celebration with more than 42,000 visitors marked the special fifth-anniversary edition of the Sea Star Festival last weekend. For four days, Umag’s Stella Maris lagoon was a melting pot for fans from more than 40 countries, who got to see the biggest global and regional musical acts!
The event, which launched the new tourist and festival season, surpassed last year’s attendance figures on the first night with performances by Robin Schulz, Senidah, and Hiljson Mandela and went a few steps further on Saturday night with global giants The Prodigy and techno superstar Indira Paganotto, whose performance was a real musical and spiritual experience and a perfect introduction to her show in the temple of electronic music at Exit’s Dance Arena. The honor of closing the festival went to the 17-year-old electronic-music sensation – Lanna from Novi Sad! The greatest electro punks of all time “hijacked” the Tesla Main Stage, delivered a performance that will keep fans hooked for days, and quickly shared their enthusiastic first impressions on social media. As was the case in all the years prior, in addition to kicking off the tourist summer, Sea Star fully completed another mission — that of peace, love, and unity — showing how harmonious young people from all over the world can be when having fun.
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The Umag event, organized by the EXIT team, once again delighted audiences, adding a new chapter to the region’s festival history. The festival’s first night was carried by furious shows performed by global and regional superstars, who greeted the euphoric audience and turned the Stella Maris lagoon into a magnificent dance floor. On the first night, the Tesla Main Stage was filled with world-famous hits served up in masterful DJ sets by hitmaker Robin Schulz and house grandmaster Mahmut Orhan, while the Balkan trap queen Senidah, and trap icon Hiljson Mandela, for whom this was also the first solo performance at Sea Star, delivered energetic live performances to the delight of the audience. People also flocked to see Nika Turković in her first big festival performance and Slovenian fan-favorites Joker Out. On the first night, many people’s favorite stage, Nautilus Arena, welcomed powerful b2b techno sets delivered by Daria Kolosova, Etapp Kyle, Marko Nastić, Dejan Milićević, DJ Jock, and Shipe. The first day of the festival was also marked by the panel “Development of the Tourist Offer in the Off-Season,” which focused on one of the festival’s core missions.
Rising stars and some experienced regional acts opened the second night of the festival, with Zembo Latifa, Dzipsii, and Podočnjaci, presenting themselves on the main festival stage in their first big festival performances, before the hip-hop duo Krankšvester took over the stage in preparation for the main event. Everyone eagerly awaited the moment when one of today’s most sought-after world tours — that of electro-punk giants The Prodigy — would take the stage with unbridled energy! With the first beats of their furious setlist, these global music giants powerfully launched a constellation of their timeless classics, accompanied by a spectacular audio-visual show presented by one of the best festival productions ever seen on the Adriatic. “Croatia Sea Star festival, u were massive,” The Prodigy said on Instagram right after the gig, openly sharing their delight to be back at the festival that they launched with an equally powerful performance six years ago! Techno superstar Indira Paganotto continued in the same vein with an eclectic DJ set, keeping the audience’s energy high until 5 a.m., while the great regional electronic-music sensation — 17-year-old DJ Lanna from Novi Sad got to perform the festival’s closing set.
On the second night of the festival, the neighboring Nautilus Arena hosted leading regional trap acts, and the audience welcomed their trap heroes and heroines, such as Grše, Fox & Surreal, 30Zona, Ružno pače, Buntai, Miach, Micka Lifa, Masayah, and TTM. This year, the redesigned Electric Waves stage, located at the intersection of the main festival roads, had its time to shine on every festival night. It delighted the audience with its charm throughout each night, and regional house DJs, including Bronski, Ilija Rudman, Marcel, Kali, Ian F, and others, performed high-quality sets there.
This year’s edition of the festival also delighted with its impressive, as yet unseen production value, which left tens of thousands of visitors speechless. The spirit of Exit’s biggest stages was felt at every step of Sea Star and set entirely new standards for future editions. More than 42,000 visitors from more than 40 countries across four continents passed through the festival gates this year, and aside from the local audience, fans from Slovenia, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia prevailed, but there were also those who came to Umag from the USA, Australia, Israel, and Kuwait.
This year’s Sea Star festival was realized with the support of the Croatian Tourist Board, the County of Istria, the city of Umag, the Tourist Board of the City of Umag, the Istria Tourist Board, and Plava Laguna.
