This year's Garden Festival - one of the most prominent and famous of all the music festivals held in Croatia - has a change of venue. After a very enjoyable number of years in the the little village of Petrcane, north of Zadar, the festival is moving to the town of Tisno on the island of Murter (although the island is only 20m from the mainland and connected by bridge!), which is located roughly halfway between Zadar and Split.
Now in its seventh year, 2012's festival will be held for one week from 4th to 11th July and is sure to be just as fantastic as the previous versions - if not better. (Wouldn't you want to be part of the festival in its first year at its new venue?!)
Take a look at reviews of 2010's event to see what went down! See The Guardian's review: Garden Festival (18th July 2010) and a piece from Scotland on Sunday:
Croatia - the Dalmatian Coast and Garden Festival (24th August 2010)
The Festival
Now located in the beautiful setting of The Garden Tisno, revellers will be spoilt by the idyllic private bay with its own sandy beach (somewhat or a rarity in Croatia!).
The line-up for the 2012 festival is yet to be announced but, going on previous years, it's sure to be superb. Last year's acts included Odyssey, Norman Jay, Electric Wire Hustle, Soul Clap and Greg Wilson amongst many others.
The change of venue will have no impact on level of revelry at the Garden Festival. 2012 will see three stages host all the acts - including a beach stage - and the infamous boat parties will also return. (Tip: Snap up tickets for these boat parties soon - they tend to get sold out very quickly!)
Barbarella's Discotheque is making a return for 2012 in the new venue, in a great location just 10 minutes away (by organised transfer) for you to party the night away (literally!) after the festival ends each day. This year's Barbarella's is larger than in previous years, meaning there will be no capacity restrictions.
Tickets for the Garden Festival
Tickets are available now on the Garden Festival's website. The "Sunshine and Goodtimes week pass" costs £90.
Boat party and after-party tickets at Barbarella's have yet to be released, so watch this space.
Accommodation for the Festival
Because of the change of venue for 2012, there is now the opportunity to book more on-site accommodation. The Garden Festival are offering both apartments and camping with the festival grounds. Contact the organisers (see the email addresses listed on their Facebook page, as well as some "preview" photos!) for more details. Once again, these are likely to get snapped up very quickly, so be sure to book soon!
Alternatively, you can also book your own accomodation in Tisno or nearby using the search box below:
As you will see, there's a number of small hotels and private accommodation options in Tisno itself. There are also a few more options in other nearby towns such as Murter, Pirovac and Vodice.
Getting to Tisno
As we've mentioned, Tisno is approximately halfway between the town of Zadar and the city of Split which is a great location - not just for the festival, but also for the ease in reaching it!
Split has great connections from the UK - there are flights from Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton and Stansted in London, as well as Bristol and Manchester. See our Getting to Split page for full details of air routes. There are also many flights to Split from elsewhere in Europe.
Ryanair fly to Zadar from London Stansted and East Midlands airport - and, once again, there are plenty of flights from the rest of Europe. See the Getting to North Dalmatia section.
You can contact the Garden Festival to arrange an airport transfer from either of these airports, or take a bus from the airport you fly into to the main bus station in that town and then travel on from there.
If you're having trouble getting public transport to Tisno, try searching for buses to "Murter". Alternatively, Sibenik is the nearest large town to Tisno and the island of Murter, so you can easily get a bus to here from either Zadar or Split.
Do also take a look at our Getting There & Travelling Around sections for other possible options of reaching Croatia and then travelling to Tisno. (Or away from Tisno after the Festival ends.)
For more on the town of Tisno, check out the website of Tisno tourist office.
More info
There's full information about the festival on its official website - Garden Festival - although it's also advisable to check out their Facebook page for the latest news as and when it's announced!
Images thanks to Damo at Tandem PR.
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