Soundwave Dances Into Balkans

Dance music is making rapid growth in The Balkans as Soundwave Festival debuts July 17-20, offering four days of live music, DJs, boat parties, and “guaranteed sunshine” on the beautiful Croatian coast.

The region already has the 4-year-old SeeMe dance music conference, which has DJ shows every night, in Sofia, Bulgaria, June 4-6. Serbia’s Exit Festival has attracted a lot of U.K. fans by putting major acts on the dance stage.

This year – Exit’s 10th anniversary – the July 9-12 dance stage lineup includes top international DJs playing back-to-back sessions including Carl Cox vs. Green Velvet, Sasha vs. Digweed, Richie Hawtin vs. Dubfire, Eric Prydz vs. Adam Beyer, and Sander Kleinenberg vs. Darren Emerson.

The new Soundwave will be at Petrcane, close to Zadar, a fishing village on a peninsula where the Dalmatian coast meets the Adriatic Sea. The site has an outside amphitheatre overlooking the ocean for live acts, a beachside dance stage terrace and a 600-capacity nightclub. It’s the first festival Soundcrash has staged outside the U.K. The event is run by Leeds-based dance specialist New Bohemia and London promoter Soundcrash, the team that stages successful U.K. club nights in London and throughout the British mainland.

“When we came up with the idea for the Soundwave Festival, our goal was to create not only the best event we could, but to make sure that it was affordable to as many people as possible,” said festival co-founder Noah Ball in a statement, adding that all but 500 of the £60 ($91.6) seats have already sold. “Looking at the current lineup and with tickets costing less than the average night out in the U.K., I think we can happily say we’ve succeeded on both counts.”

Dance music fans that are awake during daylight can spend time exploring the scenic countryside and visiting the islands just off the coast.

The talent on display includes DJ Yoda, Hexstatic, The Bays, Alice Russell, Tom Middleton, Bonobo and DJ Format.