When we found out that this festival will take place at the beginning of the July in Zagreb, we immediately knew we must be there! The festival was scheduled for Saturday but me and Allegra planned to be in Zagreb a day earlier, meaning Friday evening.

On Friday after work our adventure was about to start. We put our backpacks on and walked to the railway station and took train to Varaždin. From there we continued the journey to Zagreb by car and time passed by quickly when chatting in good company. Upon arriving in Zagreb we arrived to our friend Željka, who was our host and great company for the weekend. The time was ripe to eat some food and drink a couple of beers at her place and we played with her sweet kitten until we all grew tired and went to sleep.

Saturday morning was beautiful, so it was time to go sightseeing. I must admit that I love Zagreb and it´s downtown old buildings, the romantic feeling and the spirit of the city. It is something special and a must see. We visited a couple of book and comic stores and also Zrinjevac park. After chilling and resting there for a while we went to the old city core, Kamenita vrata and Štros, visited the museum of broken relationships, drank some coffee and returned to center to eat some delicious burgers there. When we got back some energy we visited another friend and it was about time to return and get ourselves ready for the festival.

Zmajevo festival took place in the Jankomir industrial wastelands at the Zmajska craft brewery so we took Uber to get there. When we arrived the people there were getting ready to watch on screen football match that Croatia played that night for the World cup. The festival was besides music also craft beer festival, so there was a large choice of tasty craft beers there and also some delicious food. We all know how it turned out and about 11 pm the gig finally started while we took some time prior to the gig to, besides checking the football game, talk with some old and new friends.

First band who took the stage were OGENJ from Koprivnica area. The guys played a while ago in my hometown and I know couple of guys from the band and they are very good and friendly people. This band plays a mixture of traditional folk music from their region and punkrock and they do it really good. Their show was total high energy with people dancing all around with smiles on their faces and having a blast. No one could stand still while Ogenj blasted their hits like “Lepa Mara” or “Hote hote” in their 45-minute set.

PIČKE VRIŠTE from Zagreb were next to tear the stage apart. They are on of my favorite Croatian bands and I saw them play a lot of times and this time was no exception. The guys provided an awesome set of their melodic punkrock songs. They are still promoting their new album “Crna kutija” that came out two months ago so the set was comprised mainly of the songs from that record like “Tko ostaje”, “Mi”, “Samo tren”, “Večeras odlazim” but also some favorites from the debut record were added in the set like “Tvoje ime”, “Novi ja” and of course they ended their mighty set with “Sjeti se” and “Oprosti”. The band was in good mood and the crowd recognized the effort and had a blast.

SIX PACK are of my all time favorite bands and I haven˙t seen them live for about 3 or 4 years so I was really looking forward to their gig. The singer Miki and his crew started their show and I saw that they had a new bass player but Miki later told me that this was their friend who only jumped in for this gig because one of the guys couldn˙t come to the gig. They opened up with “Delfinov let” and continued their set with classics like “Fabrička greška”, “Dva minuta straha”, “Olovke izlomljenog srca” but also with some newer stuff like “Paramparčad” or “Eskadrila čudnih jutarnjih snova”. The crowd loved their set, everyone was singing along, dancing and the atmosphere was splendid, so Six Pack once again proved that they are still one of the best.

The last band to play were MAŠINKO from Zagreb. I love this band and I never witnessed them play on their home turf, so I was eager to see how it will be to see them in Zagreb. Mašinko tore the stage and night apart with their set of melodic punkrock anthems just made for singing along and dancing and smiling. Anthems like “Kad idemo van”, “Kad vjetar kaže stani”, “Dolje na dnu” or “Odzvanjala je pjesma” made me sing at the top of my lungs. Mašinko also played some newer material like “Punim plućima” and “Veća lopata” along with “Monumentalna” and “041”. Of course they also did “Kako je Potjeh tražio rakiju” which is still one of their biggest hits. For the end of their set they played “Pobuna” which is Debeli Precjednik cover and “Erupcija sreće” and ended their one hour set triumphantly.

We returned to our friend Željka˙s place to get some well deserved rest and happily returned home in the Sunday afternoon hours. To sum it all up, this was an awesome weekend and an awesome festival filled with positive energy, friendship, great music and great beer!