Thanks to a group of tireless enthusiasts - people who love the sea and maritime tradition have been working hard on organising the Fiumare festival - The Kvarner Festival of the sea and naval tradition. It's an exciting event for both local people and visitors to Rijeka, taking place for the eighth time, with the final goal of reviving the hundred-year-old maritime tradition of the city. During the festival, Rijeka is taken back one hundred years, when the area around the Dead Channel was the location of the intensive merchant traffic every day. 

It's a unique festival of the sea and maritime tradition, and numerous events are held offering visitors a look into Rijeka's merchant past, still connected with today's everyday life. Thirty partners participated in the creation of the program, ten associations are guests in the organisation of the festival, and it will take place in 25 locations throughout the city. 

Traditional wooden sailboats are moored in the Dead Channel, merchants and crafts-people are wearing traditional outfits from all parts of Kvarner, and there are interactive workshops of various maritime and fishing skills. There will be ship modeling workshops as well as promotions of old traditions, photos and pictures, traditional songs and dances, and traditional and indigenous food and drinks. Organised tours of the theatre and historic locations in the centre of the town, regattas by traditional sailboats - all of this will be a part of the collage of the Dead Channel through the centuries. 

The festival started on Tuesday, May 28th, with the presentation of a traditional boat which was rebuilt using the funds given for that purpose by a European project, and a parade by the participants of the festival. On Friday and Saturday, the people of Rijeka are invited to participate in the programs which will be organised on the Pier of Karolina Riječka, mostly for children and young people, including lectures, education, musical events, and exhibitions. 

Rijeka's Mayor Vojko Obersnel stresses that the primary value of the Fiumare festival is the fact that it brings to the attention the true roots of the area related to maritime tradition which helped form Rijeka into an open, cosmopolitan town which attracts many new people, boats, and ideas, which it is today. 

2019 is the ninth year that the Circus Street Festival CU'FUS will be held in the town of Samobor, a well-liked weekend-visit destination located just west of Zagreb. The festival, in Croatian called Cirkuski ulični festival u Samoboru (which abbreviates to CU'FUS) will take place over three days in May, on the 17th, 18th and 19th at the several locations in the town. Most notably, you will be able to see the circus street performers at the Kralj Tomislav Square and in the park next to the Samobor Museum - both of those locations are very close to the centre of the town.

Addition programs will be a part of the festival as well: CU'FUSEK includes children's program, performances and animation, CHILLBAR AT CU'FUS is the everyday musical program which will be paired with the circus street performances at the park all day, CU'FUZIK - live music to be performed at the festival, numerous workshops (CU'FUSARIJE), a circus cabaret night, various presentations designed to attract as many various types of visitors, from those who know a lot about circus to those just learning more about the art. There will be an eco-corner, different foods and drinks offered to the visitors (and there is always good food in Samobor, especially the traditional sweets) etc. Some of the more prominent names performing at the festival will be SelfIgniting Italian, UnbelievablyBalancingVenezuelan, Niki Beluči - you're forgiven if you've never really heard of them, but that only means you need to go to Samobor to find out more about them!

The artists participating in the festival this year are discovering the various spheres and limits of the circus performance art, which includes experimenting with different new media, such as music, contemporary dance, miming, physical theatre, digital arts and many others. That way all of the participants will see what the most modern circus experience has to offer.

The program at the CU'FUS Circus Street Festival is free, but it is polite to leave a donation in the artists' hat if you've enjoyed the performance. More info and a detailed program of the festival can be found on www.cufus.net. You must come to CU'FUS! (yes, it rhymes better in Croatian)

As Morski writes on the 15th of April, 2019, the Mediterranean Festival of Books, a book fair with a sales and festival nature will be organised by the Association of Publishers and Bookstores of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) and under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture, Split-Dalmatia County and the City of Split, will be held from the 8th to the 12th of May, 2019.

A record 100 exhibitors will be offering discounted books with up to seventy percent off, with around 10,000 titles to choose from.

As always, entrance is free and during the five days of the festival, you will be able to see the latest publications covering a space of more than two thousand square metres in the large hall of ŠC (Arena) Gripe, and there are also three other stages where the Mediterranean Festival of Books program will take place.

In addition to the well-known Bookvarij and Mali Bookvarij locations where children's workshops, panel discussions and a professional program will be held, the evening part of this event related to all things books will also be located at the "Cukarin" hospitality facility in Gripe.

Fifty program activities have been prepared, and the expectation is for as many as 35 promotions of the latest works of some award-winning and acclaimed authors to take place.

Among other things, this year's Mediterranean Festival of Books program will include panels consisting of prominent lecturers who will talk about important local topics, and there will of course be a multitude of workshops for the youngest among the festival's visitors on offer. Numerous promotions for new children's editions are also being planned.

All information and a detailed oveview of the Mediterranean Festival of Books 2019 program with its workshop schedule is available here, as well as having been published on the event's official Facebook page and on Instagram.

The Mediterranean Book Festival is being organised with the support of numerous partners such as the Split Tourist Board, Split University, Split Student Centre, the Split Sports Facilities public institution, Hotel Zagreb - Split, Cukarin Gripe, Slobodna Dalmacija, Europlakat, Mandis, CineStar, Barcaffè, CedevitaGo, and Kala.

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