Smiling faces, dancing teenagers, colourful flags at INMUSIC 2016
18.07.2016
If you are in Zagreb and there are thousands of smiling faces, dancing teenagers, colourful flags and weird party costumes all around, it’s undeniable fact that INmusic time of year has already approached. During three days (from 21-23 June) we have witnessed some great shows, lots of postive vibrations and strong, licentious energy by festivalgoers from all over the world.

The main curse of almost every INmusic festival is pournig rain, so this year wasn’t an exception. Although, rain was only falling the night before and on Monday morning, we are welcomed by huge mud area in front of the Main stage at the very beginning of the festival. The first act we get to see is The Coral. English indie-rockers , despite their early show schedule, manage to set sparse audience in the dance mode. Their set is a combination of songs from this year record „Distance Inbetween“ and older hits like „Dreaming of You“ or „Jacqueline“. Over on the Hidden stage, Slovenian band, Nikki Louder, is having one of the most chaotic and intense performance of their career, as well as local band Chui, whose experimental space jazz take on music is tearing people’s minds apart. No doubt these groups succeeded to expand their funbase after powerful gigs.

Meanwhile, Nottingham’s Jake Bugg is causing enormous excitation on Main stage, especially between flood of teenage girls, who clearly expected this show with great eager. Bugg answers them showcasing excellent guitar skills and singing heartbreaking folk rock ballads. The crowd recieve well songs from his most recent effort „On My One“, but become really delighted when earlier numbers like „Slumville Sunrise“, „Two Fingers“ and „Lightning Bolt“ are played. Young Englishman prove that he is one of the most talented world’s musicians and that hype around him is nothing but justified.



Headlining slot of the first day is reserved for Gutterdämmerung feat. Henry Rollins. Truly unknown project to a large part of audience, it was announced like the loudest silent movie filled with music stars like Grace Jones, Iggy Pop, Lemmy, Jesse Hughes, Nina Hagen, Mark Lanegan and Slash. All that we get is sloppy performance of some of the greatest rock hits by not so good band behind the big screen. Basically, it’s soundtrack of the movie performed live and the smallest crowd ever at midnight on Main stage show their opinion about it. Django Django, on the other hand, demonstrate outstanding party under command of charismatic frontman Vincent Neff. Fullfilled with cheerful hipsters , OTP World stage converts to impressive dancefloor. Back over on the Hidden stage, American punk rock band, Pennywise, ends the night with energetic and vigorous set. We had to wait until 2 a.m. for real headbanging, crowd surfing and devil horn hand gestures.

As is the curse of the rain, another unpleasant tradition follows the INmusic and that would be cancellation of concerts. This year, pre-festival cacellations include Motorhead and The Heavy, but Skunk Anansie’s quitting right before the show due to singer injury is indeed frustrating. Zagreb group Kawasaki 3p (un)successfully replace British band by making lively ambience in the early evening. Florence and the Machine headline Tuesday night and they create magical atmosphere. Florence Welch, who supposed to appear at last year festival edition, is stunning as always. Modern hippy princess sings her heart of, running barefoot from one part of the stage to another, dancing like there’s no tomorrow and enjoying every second she spends with her fans. Songs like „Shake It Out“, „Spectrum“, „Dog Day Are Over“ or „What Kind of Man“ produce an eruption of excitement amongst the largest audience of the entire festival. This performance is astonishing spectacle and trully confirmes her status of worldwide star. Most of the crowd leaves after this show, but i stick around for Dutch band , My Baby. They are playing psychodelic blues with dub/funk rhytms, so the little tent stage becomes a real discoteque during their show. Also, we get cool rendition of Bob Dylan’s „Masters of War“ so i think everybody is satisfied.



Ungrateful timetable makes that last day of festival starts with alt-rock heroes Wilco. Luckily, they don’t mind and give us adorable concert. Career-spanning hits, such as „I Am Trying to Break Your Heart“, „Via Chicago“, „Handshake Drugs“ or „Art of Almost“ revive some nostalgic feelings and make this one of the most memorable performances of the whole festival. After Wilco, the next big act on the Main stage is The Kooks. Every move of frontman Luke Pritchard is followed by screams and claps from girls who look like they are obsessed with him. The Kooks are playing very good set, consisting mostly of songs from debut „Inside In/Inside Out“. Their music is bright and danceable, so everyone shake to the rhytm and enjoy the sound. Croatian bands Sleepyheads and all female lineup Žen also make great impressions, while Yeasayer put up some stylish performance, with bass driven and catchy tunes.

Alternative-rock queen PJ Harvey closes the festival Main stage. Her entrance onto the scene is subtle, but she doesn’t get unnoticed for too long. Her presence is glowing, she is inspiring and divine. Her face and body expressions, reliving the songs all over again, gasping rawness in voice are just few things which make Polly Jean one of the most distinctive artist in music today. Setlist is consist of numbers from her recent record „The Hope Six Demolition Project“ wholly performed and timeless songs like „50ft Queene“, „To Bring You My Love“ and „Down by the Water“. Her mighty sound and encore with „A Perfect Day Elise“ is the best way to round up the story of 12th edition of INmusic festival.

18.07.2016, 18:35 von Tobias Haslinger