Outlook Festival bills itself as ‘Europe’s Leading Bass Music & Soundsystem Culture Festival.’
I’d second that.
Taking place in the out-of-this-world 18th century Fort Punto Christo, Croatia, this festival saw an incredible selection of artists tear it up on sound systems that damaged the stability of my ribcage.
The line up included greats such as Nicky Blackmarket, Shy FX and Friction, but the D&B line up was hardly a drop in the ocean when you look at the diversity and volume of other artists in attendance. With beach parties by day and fort parties by night, the festival’s growth from approximately 5,000 attendees in 2010 to 10,000 attendees in 2011 is a testament to its popularity. It was inevitable that this could cause problems. Speaking to Outlook they confirmed that the amount of people in the campsite grew from 2500 to 6000+ and although there was still room for more tents, apparently the campsite did not fulfil its side of the contract in providing additional facilities so at peak times the queues for the showers were grim! Bonuses of the campsite though, if you got there early enough, you could literally set up camp with the beach on your doorstep. The fort was about 10 minutes walk from there too.
Experience has taught me I would rather not wake up in a tent/sauna if it can be helped so we booked an apartment a short drive away from all the madness, in an area recommended on the Outlook website – Fazana. Taxis ranged from £8 to £16 each way, depending on how many of you there were and what your bartering skills were like.
I strongly recommend taking a look at Fort Punto Christo on the Outlook website. One arena that doesn’t get mention on there was aptly named ‘The Moat’. Picture this: a long, narrow, empty moat filled with speakers, high walls and a stage at the end, epic. On Friday night this was home to the likes of Ant TC1, Survival, Spy, DLR, Loxy & Ink, Spinline and Nymfo (who absolutely smashed it!).
To accommodate the extra guests this year, the main arena was placed a short walk away from the fort and was extremely impressive. Like the other arena’s, the sound system was mind-blowing and they had obviously shelled out a lot on the lighting and visuals. Next to the main arena was the smaller, but by no means disappointing Dock Stage. One of my musical highlights of the week was the somewhat Shogun affair on Saturday night with Spectrasoul, Alix Perez, Rockwell, Icicle, Distance, Commix and D Bridge, hosted by Stamina MC and SP:MC.
During the week there was a lot of talk about the boat parties which set sail from the Dock Stage. Ones to mention for the D&B heads were Renegade Hardware, Detonate, Dispatch and Shogun Audio. If you didn’t have dodgy sea legs it was a must.
Favourite tune of the festival was without a doubt ‘Marka’ (forthcoming on Exit records) by Skeptical and Dub Phizix. This gully track was new to me before heading out to Croatia and it creates one hell of an atmosphere – especially when you are watching 2’000 people from a balcony above, stomping around in an abandoned fort, creating the biggest dust cloud ever.
All in all, what a week. Outlook 2012? Definitely.
Words by Victoria Freeth