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Will Coldwell at the Guardian previews this year’s festivals in Croatia, and talks to the UK promoter who helped kickstart the scene.

When Nick Colgan, Brummie music promoter and founder of the Garden Festival, moved to Croatia with his wife Charlotte to open a bar in Zadar, back in 2004, there was, as he puts it, “no one here”.

The couple had fallen in love with the country’s rugged beauty after a family holiday a year earlier. “Tourism was just starting to pick up after the war,” he says. “Travelling here was difficult, too. The idea for a festival came about because we were just trying to find ways to get people over.”

They found a venue in the tiny coastal resort of Petrčane, a few miles north of Zadar, and, with the help of family and friends in the music industry, threw the first Garden Festival for around 300 people.

That was in 2006. A decade on and music festivals – for visitors at least – have become part of the cultural fabric of Croatia. Over the past five years, the number of festivals in the country has doubled: now there are 20 major events held across its islands and coastal resorts.

Click here to read the Full Article at The Guardian Online