Bear Stone Festival is a psych, stoner, desert rock festival set in the idyllic surrounds of Donje Primišlje, a village in Central Croatia. And it’s difficult to imagine a more perfect location to spend three days enjoying this kind of music. The festival site sits along the banks of the Mrežnica River, known for its clear, blue waters and numerous waterfalls. Expect to pitch your tent or park your campervan under a canopy of trees, next to the dense woodland that surrounds the site. This year’s edition will be my first, and I’ve spent a long time peering at the galleries and videos from previous years in genuine awe. Groups of brightly clad music-lovers sit by the banks of the river taking in the view, or swimming in the turqouise water. Others are sitting on picnic rugs enjoying a beer, a book, or a burger. Dog lovers are entertaining their animals and/or their human children. There’s even someone in a canoe. Not a cellphone in sight – just people living in the moment. And I’m not spreading the meme here: there is no signal at the festival – cash only – so we can all take a welcome trip back to 1995, and just enjoy it with our senses and not our screens.
As I say, it’s a perfect location: I’d be happy to rock up and just enjoy the space for a few days.
But that’s far from all that’s on offer. Remember that the thick, fuzzy riffs of doom will resound across the canyon; blues scales drenched in sonic LSD will coil amongst the tree trunks; and the grooves will be as warm and wild as the setting. In other words: sick line-up, man. This year there are over forty bands across three stages, with no clashes. There’s a very nicely curated selection of well-known US bands (King Buffalo and Brant Bjork trio? Yes please!), some big-hitters from the European stoner circuit (Monolord, Graveyard, Motorpsycho), and a whole load more.
I’m especially looking forward to A Place to Bury Strangers, New York’s post-punk/noise experimentalists, who’ll close the tranquil environs of Bear Stone with their legendarily-loud live show.
It’ll be great to see some local bands, like Portman from the East of the Croatia, who have twenty years of experience moulding some of the finest instrumental post and prog rock; or another instrumental band Bizon, from Split in the South of the country, who craft harder-edged, chameleonic sonic landscapes. For those who like it harder still, Lord Drunkalot from Zagreb play a rather eccentric mode of psychedelic heavy metal that’s designed for wild, beer-fueled head-banging and general drunken tomfoolery. Heavier still, Shell, also from Croatia’s capital, go from emotive alt-rock to full-blown sludge and post-metal intensity, while 10KRE further demonstrate how effective heavy grooves from that city’s scene can be.
Bear Stone has clearly worked at increasing the gender diversity of the fest, with all-female acts like Sweden’s Maidavale playing an eclectic blend of funky psych and krautrock, while The Darts, based in Seattle – with some major creds from the punk scene – play horror rock & roll and garage rock like an even sleazier version of The Cramps (no mean feat!). Earth Tongue, a garage punk duo with distinctive dual-vocals, are powered by the retro drums of Ezra Simons, and – hailing from Wellington, New Zealand – surely hold the record for the band who’ve travelled furthest to make it to Bear Stone.
Once the headlining bands wrap up each night around midnight, the party continues with slightly more electronic-oriented acts like Zagreb’s Bamwise dropping deep dub cuts, and Latvian duo Oil x Gas weirding us all out with propulsive, unpredictable synth-rock.
In a further distinctive feature of Bear Stone, there’s the Sviraj! (“Play on!”) stage on three days, featuring freeform jam sessions from the fest’s pool of musicians. This seems like a logical and obvious thing to do with any kind of festival – but especially given the kinds of sub-genres we’re dealing with here – yet I can’t recall seeing this elsewhere, or at least not featured so prominently and regularly. So I’m really looking forward to that.
And it all looks so colourful. Looking at photos of the tent stages from previous years, it’s clear Bear Stone is serious when it mentions the “psychedelic art installations and projections created using analog techniques”, which accompany the bands. Multi-coloured fractal patterns, weird cartoon creatures, and hypnotic spirals decorate the performers, the crowd, and the tents themselves. The stages also seem to be flanked by Japanese-style pegoda and large Buddhist statues, providing yet further visual treats on which to fix our gaze – augmented by intoxicants or otherwise.
So I’m excited, in case you can’t tell, and my hopes and expectations are high. The real test of a good festival is how well they handle the boring but necessary basics: clean, available, accessible toilets; decent food that caters to a range of needs and tastes; good sound and visuals; effective queue management; and all that kind of thing. And – judging by the helpful info on the Bear Stone website, and the glowing Echoes and Dust report from last year – I know we’re in safe hands.
So, if you’re not already coming along, get booking your trip to Crotia for what promises to be a vibrant weekend of beautiful natural landscape, colourful, friendly atmosphere, and an eclectic curation of epic bands. Bring on Bear Stone 2025!
