Apokalypsa will be held in Kalypso Club on July 1 with the artists like Ben Sims, DJ Rush, Misa Salacova, Lucca etc, while boat party will be unique story with house sets from Ben Sims and DJ Rush. Summer of Love is EDM festival from July 1 to July 3 in clubs Rocks and Kalypso. The line up includes artists like Julian Jordan, Bass Jackers, Moksi, etc.
You have been in the electronic scene for many generations, what were your beginnings and first contacts with dance music?
We've been in the electronic scene since 1999, Paul van Dyk came to our first event on a train for 200 Deutschmarks and had a plastic bag with 10 vinyls in his hand, or we organized events in car garages where Chris Liebing and Marco Carola came and played incredible underground techno. To be honest, in the Czech Republic in the 90' there were discos at the time where Dr.Alban, 2Unlimited, and the big guys from the gyms were bumping shoulders, and looking for fights and physical assault .
This was exactly the reason I didn't feel comfortable at these events – I found it primitive fun. On the other hand, at techno/house events there was peace, people liked each other, no one was looking at who was wearing what clothes, and they were enjoying the music together. That was the main impetus – cohesion and community.
Have you visited and spent any time in Pag, Croatia?
Of course, as a "proper" Czech I was "obliged" to spend many days in Croatia every year, as a small child, because our family had a travel agency and for many years took tourists to Pag. I had a nice childhood there and many "teenage memories".
What is the story of the creation of Apokalypsa and Citadela?
Apokalypsa and Citadela are one of the first big techno indoor events in the Czech Republic and they are the only two indoor events that have survived so many years and are still running today, all the others have gone bankrupt.
Not many people of today's generation know that Apokalypsa and Citadela have been competitors and great rivals since 1999. Apokalypsa used to bring in the famous "in" techno names, Citadela brought in more intellectual artists. This "war" was won by Apokalypsa and the project was bought by Citadela. Apokalypsa was never afraid to carry names that resonated, we didn't play "promoter smarties" but carried who simply "pulled" or was controversial. At the same time, we were not afraid to bring in other varieties of techno, in the Czech Republic we started the trend of "schranz" – nowadays hardtechno.
We still keep this style in our lineups, maybe out of nostalgia, but we still believe that in the morning it should be from the floor. Apokalypsa has always been controversial because we weren't afraid to bring in a lot of technological innovations at the time – like the water laser wall, voice-over dj trailers or moving LED screens, the first megamixes and the horror end-of-the-world themes (get it, we are talking about the year around 2004) By buying the Citadela project, we turned this event into a universal electronic project without techno, where Paul van Dyk plays regularly and several times a year, or sometimes we do EDM lineup or tech/house like Worakls or Paul Kalkbrenner, Sven Vath, for the first time we brought Deadmau5. Citadel had to differentiate itself from Apokalypsa, as a techno project it would cease to exist.
This season you are coming to Zrce with two festivals (Apokalypsa and Summer of Love), do you know the Adriatic electronic scene in general?
One of the members of our team has a lot of experience with Zrce, I travelled all over Europe with my wife [Misa Salacova] with a djbag, we've been organizing events in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the United Arab of Emirates for over 22 years. But to be honest our production experience suitable for Zrce is mainly from Ibiza, where we organized our own projects in Eden club, Cafe Del Mar, Mambo or you could hear our projects for example on Ibiza Global radio. Ibiza is a great school for producing events on the beach. We firmly believe that we have something to offer this beach, something to learn from it and something to leave something back on Zrce.
What kind of atmosphere and energy will you bring with Apokalypsa? Different forms of electronic sound?
Apokalypsa has the character of an event, where there are always several varieties of techno-music on the main stage. We always want every visitor to have a good time at Apokalypsa, whether they like more groovy techno, dark techno, detroit and even acid techno, classic English techno or not afraid to go into hard techno at the end of the event. Apokalypsa always includes a thematic AV visual story, dj trailers narrated by hollywodks speakers. We also want to bring special quieter sets, which is why we've chosen a partyboat featuring house alter-egos Dj Rush and Ben Sims. Who can say they've experienced these two techno veterans in a house set at sea?
What are some of the reasons you chose Zrce beach as the festival location? And what are your plans here?
I've been following Zrce beach for a long time – and I hope I'm not offending anyone by saying this, for a long time I saw it as a kind of "kids" disco for tourists, except for Club Kalypso, which is the closest to our ideology at the moment. I really don't want to offend anyone and I have respect for every promoter, but that was my feeling. Of course, there are always genres that have been on a "wave" for a certain period of time and promoters have to do these events because a lot of times they get paid by the profits from events that are on a completely different level in terms of musical quality.
We don't only do techno, but we sell out halls and amphitheatres for 15 – 20 thousand people with pop mainstream artists from all over the world, we organize tours for rock bands, or we do classical music. With Zrce we got the impression in the last 2 years that it wants to become more Ibiza, to be really clubby and no longer just a port for kids with no musical opinion – and we want to be there, because this is what we enjoy and look forward to the next years!
What is the concept and idea behind the "Summer of Love" festival? Will it offer something innovative and unique on the Croatian coast?
The Summer Of Love festival was one of the best Czech open air dance festivals ever, and I bought the rights to this festival after its collapse only to keep the SOL brand from disappearing – I never thought I would ever use this idea. When I saw the possibility of holding events in Zrce, I automatically associated the name of the festival with this landscape – it was a sign.
Summer Of Love is a concept of an EDM festival where we would always like to invite more world names on one stage and for one entrance fee. In this premium year we have prepared a great line up enriched with an afternoon party right on the beach by the sea or a party boat, where the atmosphere is incredible and no Czech party boat can even come close to it. At the Kalypso club, two names from the Top 100 DJs in the world will perform at the premium edition. Also worth mentioning is Moksi, a name that is very popular in our country and in the surrounding countries. Then Brooks, who is known to more than one Martin Garrix fan, will perform at the Rocks club.
What is your overall view of the Croatian electronic scene? Have you been to any festivals and events in Croatia? If so, which ones do you remember the most?
Croatia doesn't have as many clubs as, for example, the Czech Republic, it's more like lounge bars so there's no comparison.It's no coincidence that Croatia is home to one of the biggest festivals in the world, Ultra Europe. Novalja is a beautiful town and Zrce beach is like a smaller Ibiza. I see it that we can build a very strong brand on Zrce that will offer visitors the best that the world scene has to offer. Zrce has great potential to become another Ibiza and that is why we have chosen this destination as our next home.
