Music fans were invited to venture to the Unknown this September. The brand new festival, located in Rovinj, Croatia, is the combined project of Hideout, London's Field Day and Warehouse Project – a collection of event organisers who know a thing or two about staging a festival. The five day event boasted a stellar line up of both live acts and DJs, the first of it's kind to offer such variety out of the crop of Adriatic festivals.
All of the action took place in Camp Amarin, a ten minute journey from the town centre of Rovinj. A variety of accommodation options were available - on-site camping, apartments, a swanky hotel on an island or off-site apartments for anyone wanting to experience a bit of Croatian culture in the town centre. The festival site was stunning, taking place alongside the seafront with a total of six stages, including a mirrored Mad Ferret stage hidden among the forest and a pool stage open until the early hours.
One of the highlights of the festival was the boat parties. I can’t think of a better way to enjoy a DJ set while travelling around the beautiful Istrian coastline. Although they sold out within minutes, I managed to blag a place on the 20 Years of Kompakt party on Tuesday, with German electro producer Michael Mayer taking to the decks. Unfortunately DJ Koze, who was also supposed to be playing pulled out, but Mayer still played a few of his tracks in honour.
The top live acts didn't really get going until Tuesday evening, with Erol Alklan, Jackmaster and Jamie XX all playing the Forest Stage - perhaps the most lively of all the arenas. Although not on until 4am, party-goers stayed up to watch Putney's own Jamie XX. The producer and remix artist played a varied set and managed to keep the crowd going until the early hours.
On Wednesday the heavens opened, but the rain didn't stop everybody having fun. Jessie Ware took to the main stage just before the rain began pelting down, wowing everyone with her powerful harmonies and songs such as 'Running' which have been the soundtrack to the summer.
There were a few horror stories about tents flooding, but it dried up again for everyone to enjoy The Horrors. The post-punk rockers played lush shoegaze music and had everyone in a trance with 'Still Life.' Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaur (TEED), played an energetic live set with four dinosaur dancing girls blasting confetti into the crowd. But one of the main highlights on Wednesday was deep house innovator Kerri Chandler, with the atmosphere of the pool stage rising to fevered levels through his jazz-infused beats.
Unknown was the festival which kept on giving, and on Thursday organisers dished out another treat – a party on ‘Boiler Room Island’ with live coverage for anyone tuning into underground music show Boiler Room TV. The sun came back out, with Bill Brewster, PBR Streetgang and Django Django playing tracks while attendees lounged by the sea or bopped along with a beer on the tiny island.
In the evening Four Tet launched straight into ‘Love Cry’, accompanied by some huge bouncing. His abstract electronic beats resulted in more of a laid-back crowd than previously experienced at the main stage. For house music fans the forest stage was the place to head to, with German artists Henrik Schwarz performing live, followed by Ame and Dixon. Eskimo Twins, Tiga and Maceo Plex also played until 5am at the Pool Stage, with most people choosing to wander between the two.
By Friday everybody was feeling a bit bleary-eyed, but after a quick meal at the sites restaurant we were on our way to watch the headline acts. Mercury-nominated Jon Hopkins was one of Unknown’s highlights. He played a short and intense set of tracks from his breakthrough fourth album Immunity, a melodic mix of electronica and sensual ambient beats.
Quirky indie band Django Django followed later on the main stage, proving again how diverse Unknown’s line up is, delighting the crowd with their wacky math-beat syle tracks such as ‘Hail Bop.’ Garage two-piece Disclosure played a live set after what has been an amazing year for the Reigate brothers. Cyril Hahn, John Talabot and Joy Orbison all continued the theme of deep house music. An after party followed at the forest stage led by Jackmaster.
The success of Unknown lay with the diverse line-up, mixing a UK festival atmosphere with poolside Ibiza style partying and tunes. For a festival only in it’s first year the organisers managed to pull it off with only a few minor teething problems.
The only downside was the bouts of rain and maybe next year there could perhaps be some tented arenas to get over this problem, but no rain got in the way of people having fun. With one of the best line-ups on offer in 2013, I’m excited to see how Unknown will develop over the next few years.
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