Over the years, the Ultra brand has grown considerably. From its humble beginnings in Miami to its recent worldwide expansion, the festival is now a staple of the EDM industry and consistently puts on high quality events each and every year. One of the newest additions to the family comes in the form of Ultra Europe, which takes place every July in sunny Split, Croatia, a breathtaking location that plays host to the three-day fest.
As was the case last year, the organizers turn the event into a weeklong celebration, kicking things off with an opening party before the festival gets underway for three days, which then leads into a boat party, a beach party and finally, the closing party. It’s an exhausting romp through Croatia, to be sure, but for EDM fans and those looking to have a good time, it’s a week in paradise.
But back to the main event itself, Ultra Europe is held at Poljud Stadium and like last year, the massive brought with it a tremendous line-up of talent, encompassing some of the biggest names in EDM alongside a strong handful of underground artists to balance things out. Spread across several stages, Ultra Europe’s 5pm – 5am runtime was certainly draining, but if you paced yourself accordingly and made sure to stay hydrated, it was an absolute blast.
Though I’ve been to many, many EDM festivals stateside, this was my first trip across the sea for a fest and as expected, I walked away very pleased. It’s clear that the Ultra brand is strong no matter where in the world you go and getting to check out what they have to offer, over in another continent, was certainly an enjoyable experience, for a number of reasons.
Let’s start off with the location though, because that always plays a big part in festivals. For Ultra Europe, the organizers were smart to choose Croatia, an absolutely gorgeous country in Europe that has only recently been put on the map as a hot spot tourist destination, especially for young people. Surrounded by the Adriatic Sea and made up of several beautiful, small islands, the country is an ideal spot to hold a music festival.
As with events like EDC Vegas, it’s simply too hot to get your groove on during the day, so things kick off in the evening and carry on well into the morning, once the sun has gone down and the unforgivingly high temperatures drop a bit. It’s still extremely hot and humid, but as the night progresses, it does get a lot more bearable.