Following the success of the inaugural Hideout festival we caught up with Mark for a chat 

Due to the ticket prices and the English weather do you think festival goers now think it’s cost effective to go to hideout and combine a festival with a short break?

Yes definitely the majority of festival goers actually came over for more than the 3 days. More like 5-10 days as some came before to see Croatia and some stayed after to recover and they also saw it as their summer holiday. We had events that people knew about like the boat parties before the event. 

What’s the difference between organizing a European festival abroad in comparison with organizing a similar event in the UK?

The cost is cheaper to do it abroad, things like hiring stuff is a lot cheaper and there are not so many licenses plus they encourage you to put on the event. In general the whole process is cheaper. 

So are the Local community and Police happy for you to put on the festival and how does the Red tape, Health and safety, policing differ? 

Well I have organised a lot of events in the past and know about Red tape, Risk assessments etc so they are quite happy for me to let them know what policing we need  in the town where the Festival  gets staged, they are also really flexible, but that does not mean we cut corners and put on a ropey event. We make sure everything’s safe and secure as we would for an event in the UK. We know our crowd and what we need to put in place and they are happy to listen and let us organize it and the locals were happy. 

Do you think more people are attending festivals abroad and due you see it as a growing market? 

Yes 100% a growing market. People are choosing to come to Hideout but some also go to other festivals including Glastonbury, Creamfields, Global gathering, Leeds and Reading. A few only come to Hideout but a lot do both festivals aboard as well as the UK. 

Is Swimwear the dress code? 

We do get people in t-shirt and shorts but we also have pool parties and people dancing to the music in the sea of an evening. The locals said the weather had not been so good but it was over 25 degrees everyday.

Tell us and the pre parties and boat trips? 

The boat parties are in the day time as an entertainment supplement on the Festival ticket as well as the pool parties. We had between 2-4 packed boats everyday with 90% of the capacity. The tickets price is competitive at £90 you will not get close to that for what we offer in the UK. A rough price bracket in eastern events, Slovenia, Serbia is about £80-£100 for a 3-4 day event. 

What is the Ethos of Hideout? 

Ethos is for bringing everyone together not just English festival goers but Croatians everyone is welcome. We had an eclectic line up this year and many performers on the stunning Zrce Beach in Croatia. 

It’s a definitive style of music not for everyone’s music taste. We had a mix of nationalities probably 70% were English and 30% from Croatia, Italy, Europe. When people arrived there were a few moans, travelling time and the long coach trip from the airport, but when they see the beautiful countryside they forget it and are surprised at how pretty Croatia is. 

3 Essential’s to take to Hideout? 

I always get stumped with this one. Sunscreen, sunglasses and shorts. 

What food and drink is there on offer? 

Well a few people moaned because we don’t have cider. But the bars otherwise are the same as in the Uk with lots of choice. Food wise it just local restaurants and outlets along the beach and in the surrounding town. Anything from seafood, fish, octopus with lot’s of outlets selling the usual Pizza, burger and chips, chicken and steak. 

How happy are you with the acts you booked to play? 

To be honest as it was the 1st Festival we did not think we would get as many as we did. We booked 90% of the acts we wanted and the 10% we did not get will probably be at the 2012 event so we were very happy with the line up. 

Hidout 2012 Tickets are already on sale due to popular demand and if you missed out last year here is a taste of the festival.