Croatia Winter Music Festival capped off a momentous debut edition late last week, as it pulled down the curtain on an unprecedented seven events in seven days at the Zagreb Arena.
The historic week, which ran from December 31 to January 6, saw over 25,000 revellers from 60 different countries attend the festivities, as some of the biggest talents in electronic music such as Armin van Buuren, Sander van Doorn, R3hab, Felix Jaehn, MOTi and Headhunterz performed to adoring locals.
The highlight of the seven day period was undoubtedly the Zagreb 360° New Year’s Eve party, which saw Armin van Buuren ring in the new year in style to over 10,000 partygoers. Joined by the likes of Sander of Doorn, MOTi and Juicy M, van Buuren also set up a special stream of the event LIVE on his Facebook for those that weren’t able to make the occasion, with over 650,000 people tuning in online to witness the Dutch legend.
Following the New Years Eve extravaganza, Croatia Winter Music Festival ran a further six events across the following days with talent including R3hab, Felix Jaehn, Matisse & Sadko and Sick Individuals. Van Buuren’s own Armada label also hosted an Armada only evening, which saw trance staples such as Jochen Miller, Omnia, Mark Sixma and David Gravell perform.
In a first for a major electronic event, the inaugural edition of Croatia Winter Music Festival also saw the addition of a gaming competition, with both professionals and fans facing off to win prizes in a number of games such as Hearthstone, League of Legends, Overwatch and FIFA 17 on January 2 and 3. All in all, over €15,000 was up for grabs across the competitions, with more than 80,000 tuning in online at xxx (where??).
With the first year proving such a success, organisers are already laying out plans to make the next edition of Croatia Winter Music Festival even bigger and better. Names of the first performers for the second Croatia Winter Music Festival will be revealed in March 2017.
