The fifth edition of the Sea Star Festival will take place in Umag in Istria on the 19th and 20th May 2023, a slightly earlier date than normal!
Sea Star Festival
Taking place in the Stella Maris lagoon in the very pretty Istrian town of Umag – one of the most northern of all the towns on Croatia’s coastline – this is one of the earliest events on the Croatian festival calendar. The festival officially runs over these two days in mid May; however, there is also a welcome party on the 18th May and a closing party on the 21st so you can easily party for four days straight!
Sea Star is officially part of the ‘Exit family’ group of festivals – the largest of these is, of course, Exit Festival in Novi Sad, Serbia, with other events in neighbouring countries such as the Sea Dance Festival in Budva, Montenegro.
There have been some big-name artists on the bill in previous years, much to the delight of the revellers who attended – The Prodigy, Robin Schulz, Fatboy Slim, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Hurts, Paul Van Dyk and Pendulum have all played at Sea Star.
For 2023, The Prodigy are returning as headliners and Indira Paganotto is also on the bill. Keep checking back regularly to see other acts added to the line-up.
It’s no surprise that Sea Star has been nominated for the Best Medium-Sized Festival category (for festivals of up to 40,000 visitors) at the European Festival Awards multiple times.
Tickets for Sea Star Festival
Tickets are currently priced at €45 (plus booking fee) and can be purchased online Sea Star tickets page. VIP tickets cost €120 (plus b.f.) which offers VIP main stage access, whilst there’s also an Ultimate VIP ticket for €999 which includes onstage access, VIP access AND 2 nights in a 4-star hotel.
Accommodation
There’s an onsite campsite – the Sea Star Camp – which is right on the beach and minutes away from the main festival site. The campsite costs €30 per person for 2 nights or €40 for 3 nights – you can book online.
Alternatively, you can book apartments or villas local to the festival site. See the Accommodation page for more details.
Otherwise, there is plenty of other accommodation (hotels, hostels, apartments and more) in Umag. See our Accommodation in Umag page for details.
Getting to Umag and Sea Star Festival
The nearest Croatian airport to the festival site is Pula Airport, which has a good number of flights arriving from the UK, Ireland and the rest of Europe. Check out our Getting to Istria page for full details of these.
Zagreb Airport may also be a possibility to fly to; from there, transfer to the main bus station in Zagreb and then get a bus over to Umag. Once again, see our Getting to Zagreb page for details of flights.
Perhaps more suitably, for other options, airports in nearby northeastern Italy are also very suitable to fly to – notably, Trieste or one of the Venice airports. From Venice it would be best to first transfer to Trieste; from Trieste, there is a direct bus to Umag. See our Travelling from Trieste and Travelling from Venice pages for more advice.
More info
Full details on the festival can be found on the official website, Facebook or on Twitter.