Even if you're not staying in Croatia at the moment and haven't been following the news lately, when you find out a heatwave got named after Lucifer himself, you'd be right to guess the country is going through a couple of hellish weeks.
Apart from living on cold water – okay, and an occasional cold beer – one of everyone's favourite ways to cool down is to have a large slice of a sweet watermelon you just took out of the fridge. It's the perfect summer fruit, light and juicy, the intense shade of red of its pulp brightening your day. It doubles as a drink and a dessert, you can count it as an afternoon snack... There's no downside to watermelon, and if you want to properly honour the unofficial queen of summer, what better way to do it than by staging a festival?
Istria has been bursting with food festivals lately, and it would be best to book accommodation somewhere in the centre of the region, rent a car and spend a few weeks just driving from town to town, feasting on best produce the peninsula can offer. Alas, not many of us can afford to dissapear for a month of gourmet bacchanalia, so one has to choose carefully.
The Turist Board of Tar-Vabriga municipality organised a Watermelon Festival on August 4 in the little village of Rošini. Actually, not a festival – a fešta. The watermelon party provided all the visitors, and there were plenty, with loads of freshly cut slices of happiness.
WATERMELON DAY Rošini - Villa Rossa, august 2017 from Josip Ruzic on Vimeo.
Even though the event was dedicated to watermelon, no proper fešta can pass without some more substantial food. After all, watermelon being 80% water, you can't blame people for getting hungry after a while. Ćevapi were grilled throughout the night, pork was roasted on a spit. Judging by the video above published by the tourist board, everybody had a pretty good time; I almost shed a tear watching the skilled locals slice gigantic watermelons with scary precision in no time, as it takes me almost 20 minutes to do the same without losing a finger or two. Maybe it comes down to practice, maybe to the quality of the tools – look at the size of those knives!
Watch the video for a recap of the fab event, and make sure to check out Tar-Vabriga on Facebook for future event announcements – they publish them on the regular, in four languages.
