It’s tough to describe what makes anything great. Be it a movie, album, sportsman, or in this case a festival. But one thing is for certain, InMusic is absolutely a great festival, one that should be on every music fan's bucket list.
Celebrating their fifteenth anniversary, the Croatian festival that has previously hosted the likes of Florence + The Machine, Arctic Monkeys, and The Cure just to name a few, ensured another stacked lineup for this year’s edition.
Four nights. Four huge headliners, The Killers, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Deftones, and Kasabian each closed the main stage on their respective night. Alongside the headliners the festival followed tradition, drawing attention to some of the very best of Croatian music. The festival also brought in quality artists from around the globe, with artists such as Fontaines D.C, IDLES, Royal Bloods, and Roisin Murphy all taking to the stage, just to name a few.
The Killers closed the live music for night one, showing exactly why they are regarded as one of the best bands left walking the planet. 17 songs, not a dull moment, never letting up and never missing a beat. True performers of the highest degree, every song you know the words and every song you’re singing them back to frontman Brandon Flowers.
It takes a great live band to play seventeen songs without slipping once, but it’s a truly special band who can not only do that, but also miss out some of their biggest hits along the way. Dustland Fairytale, Bones, The Way It Was, For Reasons Unknown all didn’t make the cut, yet that didn’t matter. A truly phenomenal band, producing a truly phenomenal night of music.
Credit: Rob Loud
Performing on the same day were IDLES, Fontaines D.C, and Hinds. All three bands worthy of high praise themselves for their album work, yet sadly only two out of three translated well to the live stage. Where IDLES and Hinds both delivered, the usually brilliant Fontaines D.C fell somewhat short of the mark.
As of the time of writing Fontaines have played exactly 100 shows since the start of 2021, as well as releasing an album earlier this year. That combined with an hour long set which missed off some of their biggest tracks, led to their performance falling below what you may expect. In fairness The Killers as mentioned missed songs off their setlist, but in the case of Fontaines missing Hurricane Laughter, Roy’s Tune and Liberty Belle felt like it was to the detriment of the set. Whether it was simply a matter of fatigue, or something else it amounted to an average set from a far above average band.
Tuesday saw Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds close the main stage. It’s a music festival, and he is a musician, but he is so much more than that. A true performance from a true performer, indescribably cool without trying to be, his entire set was captivating and engaging.
Impossible to take your eyes away, he swooned his way through a 19-song set, aided by his band who brought the whole performance together. Few artists will ever hit the level of Cave, who has ascended beyond that of a just live musician.
Credit: InMusic Festival - Filip Busic
Like Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Deftones were formed in the 1980s, and their loyal fans have followed them around the globe. For their Croatian contingent, it has been a long wait for the band to return, last playing in the country back in 2006. Almost 18 years to the day since their last performance in Croatia, the California natives dominated the stage. For fans of their particular brand of metal/rock this was a truly welcome return.
Credit also has to go to UK rockers Royal Blood taking to the main stage before Deftones, who’s music could be heard from one side of the river to the other. A band from the UK with two primary members, performing a live set to a huge Croatian reception, it almost feels like you’re seeing double with Sleaford Mods taking to a side stage on the same night. Fresh off playing shows in Lithuania, and Norway the week before, the Midlands duo delivered exactly what their fans were looking for once again.
Thursday night marked the closing night for the week’s festivities, and it’d take a hell of a band to close the festival in style, enter Kasabian. The reality is for many Kasabian will have the loss of frontman Tom Meighan following his conviction of domestic abuse against his now wife, hanging over the bands head. Yet for those who can look past that and give the band a chance, the fact of the matter is as a live band they’ve not lost a step at all, if anything they have moved forward.
As tight a performance as you will see or hear, Serge Pizzorno has effortlessly fallen into the role of the frontman, whilst the rest of the band have never sounded better. Like an Olympian with a point to prove, the group have picked up the baton and gone for gold. 25 years on from their first performance as a band, they truly are better than ever.
Credit: InMusic Festival - Filip Busic
Located on the beautiful Jarun Lake, the sights were picturesque, and the music was almost always pitched just right. From a production side of things each headliner had their money’s worth of theatrics, and if you looked past the main stage the festival's one-of-a-kind Tesla Tower showcases InMusic’s variety at its very best. With the best of 60s, 70s, and 80s blaring, the 360-degree screens immerse you like no other stage could. With that in mind, it begs the question, who wouldn’t want to dance in a Tesla Tower?
Credit: InMusic Festival - Filip Busic
If the Tesla Tower and the headliners weren’t enough, the festival has a little bit of something for everyone. Across the seven stages, there’s karaoke, silent discos, the aforementioned lineup that boasted bands local and far, and with that InMusic boasts one of the most important things any festival can have, value! At just €91 (£78.50), there are very few festivals around the globe that can offer what InMusic does. Every year they have delivered, and now after 15 years there is denying it’s a festival that is not to be missed.
Credit: InMusic Festival - Filip Busic
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