Ultra Europe Festival, meeting place of dancing nomads

11.07.2022
Festivals

After a two-year hiatus, Ultra Europe Festival has finally reopened its doors for everyone who wants to dance and have a good time! The festival, which for a number of years gathered all the world’s biggest DJ faces and visitors from all over the world, is returning to the Split stadium in the Youth Park this year after a break caused by the coronavirus.

At this year’s Ultra we have the opportunity to enjoy the performances of stars such as Armin van Buuren, Marshmello, Afrojack, Vini Vici, Snake, Alesso, Hardwell, Martin Garrix, Tiësto, Above & Beyond, Steve Aoki and many others. Due to the stellar lineup that Ultra is bringing to Split this year, many consider this year’s edition of the festival to be one of the best ever.

The days of entertainment and dancing are certainly a good promotion of the host city – Split, so it is not surprising that restaurateurs rub their hands with satisfaction these days. For many of them, this is actually the peak of the season, since tourists from all over the world come to Ultra, which is mainly reflected in the increase in the number of flights from foreign countries. What our team liked most when visiting the Ultra Europe Festival was certainly the opportunity to meet a lot of interesting people from all over the world.

We enjoyed the most carefree dancing and the spectacular energy that the festival provides, and during short breaks (when our legs hurt from jumping so we had to stop for a while) we had the opportunity to talk with our peers from Spain who came to the festival for the 4th time in a row. Our new friends told us that, apart from the Ultra Europe Festival itself, they also really like the city of Split, so they are staying here for another week after the Ultra is over. By the way, the festival is held every year for 3 days (July 8, 9 and 10).

Ultra Europe Festival gathers people with a rich fashion expression

Every year, the festival, in addition to good music, drinks and fun, also offers a handful of creative and trendy fashion expressions. People from different cultures, with different life stories, levels of education, ages and understandings gather here in the same place, so it’s no wonder that we could witness special outfits that took our breath away!

There were people wearing sequins from head to toe, flags of their countries wrapped around their bodies, steampunk fashion, clothing that reveals more than it hides, men in miniskirts, girls with crazy hairdos and hats, people dressed in mesh fabrics… All in all , we saw a mix of everything. Some creations delighted us, some shocked us, some surprised us, but the feeling that prevailed was certainly that of excitement because we were in a place that above all shows a high level of tolerance – at the Ultra Europe Festival everyone felt welcome and no one cared what you look like, what you wear, what is your religion, what is the color of your skin or what language you speak.

Of course, now that the festival is over, we have the opportunity to listen to conflicting opinions about what it brings to Split, but also to the whole of Croatia. We would be hypocritical if we said that everyone is delighted with this party sensation – because they are not. Many citizens, especially the elderly, believe that Ultra is a bad form of promotion that only attracts idlers to the city and country, who then get drunk and destroy the city. However, like everything in life, this topic also has many who consider Ultra as a positive way of promoting our coast. We certainly agree with them considering that sometimes we all need to let off the brakes and just dance.

Cake shooting, which is the talk of the town these days!

Even the birds on the branch know that there is never a shortage of silly anecdotes and bizarre stories at the Ultra Europe Festival. Along with a few broken limbs, falling to the ground under the influence of alcohol and sleeping on benches when the program ends – this year we witnessed another performance by the famous American DJ Steve Aoki when he hit Split influencer Ela Jerković with a cake. Don’t worry, the young lady was not physically assaulted nor was there any kind of altercation. Namely, Aoki is famous in the world precisely for this move of hitting people with a cake.

A few years ago, the DJ explained that he was looking for an original way to promote his song “Cake me,” and a friend showed him a video of a piece of cake flying toward someone’s face in slow motion. Aoki liked the video so much that he decided to find inspiration for his performances in it. Although at first this move was supposed to be a one time thing, it grew into a tradition that fans continued to adore. In 2015, in order to please the fans, Aoki recorded another song with a similar name – Cake Face. He always performs this song in the middle of his performance, so fans who want to be pelted with cake have plenty of time to hold up a “Cake me!” banner, after which Aoki actually hits them with it!

However, we had no desire to dirty carefully selected outfits in this way…

After 3 sleepless nights, we can only say that this is the kind of fun for those who don’t need a ten-hour beauty sleep, because you’ll be doing everything but sleeping on the Ultra. It is definitely a festival that everyone should go to at least once in their life while they are still young and experience the dancing togetherness and absolute fun that they will never forget.

Your CTC Team, A. M.