First Thrill Blues Festival? A success!
After over 4,000 people gather for Eric Sardinas to sing the Doors’ hit "Roadhouse Blues" at the very first Thrill Blues Festival, most skeptics will now understand the strange idea of Darko Bakić, Boris Hrepić and Dražen Klarić to create a blues festival in the heart of the Cetina region, reported Vecernji List on July 15, 2017.
The choice of bands, the atmosphere, and the perfect location next to the Cetina river had everyone delighted for the first edition of the Thrill Blues Festival in Trilj. Eric Sardinas, the headliner of the festival who performed accompanied by his group Big Motor, completely blew the audience away with a full-blooded blues set. No weaker were the other bands at the festival including Kotor’s Light Under The Black Mountain, Rijeka’s guitarist Hal, and local bands Dbluz from Sinj and Ozone from Trilj, best known for their cover of "Cetina".
The festival started in the morning with a workshop focused on blues music. The mentor of the workshop was artistic director of the festival Boris Hrepić and Eric Sardinas who taught the most important lesson of all - "music is a universal language that we all feel.”
In the afternoon, Trilj caterers helped to promote the city’s most famous speciality - frogs. The frogs were prepared in different ways, and particularly popular were "frogs to go." After that, a lecture on 9 years of Croatian blues in Memphis, as well as the premiere of documentary film ‘Goin’ Down South’ by Boris Hrepić and Siniša Bizović was organized.
The carefully organized program, which just about filled accommodation facilities in Trilj and Sinj, brought a smile to the face of Trilj Mayor Ivana Šipić.
“Not only does Zagora have traditional ganga, rera, and harmony singing groups, but we have a lot of musical quality and we showed that in the hinterland of Split in the summer we can make a good program. Although tonight is ULTRA in Split, there was a lot of youth from Split here today. Their happy faces did all the talking,” said an enthusiastic Šipić who added that such events should have more courage and not always think about the costs.
After the first edition of the Thrill Blues Festival came to an end, plans for the next festival are already in motion.
“People said that there has never been a blues festival like this in all of Croatia. I thank the Tourist Board of Trilj who is led by director Andrian Ivkovic, and the whole town of Trilj as this has given us recognition and helped out the city,” said Hrepić.
