On a private island off Croatia’s Dalmatian coast, an intimate electronic music festival marked the closing chapter of summer with five days and four nights of house, techno and community-powered by HK Audio systems from the shoreline and forest to the open water.
Taking place from 3–7 September, The Island Festival returned to Obonjan with around 700 guests. There are no day tickets-once attendees arrive by boat, the entire island becomes their home for the duration. More than half of the audience returns year after year, helping the festival retain the close-knit atmosphere that has led its organisers, artists and guests to describe it as a “family affair.”
Marco Lucarelli, organiser of The Island Festival and Managing Director of Crystal Collegium Travel GmbH, commented: “More than half of our guests come back year after year. We want to maintain that family tradition, so we ask people to bring their friends and allow the festival to grow organically. It isn’t overcrowded or over-commercialised; there is something special in the air when everybody comes together again after a year apart.”
HK Audio returned to Obonjan at the invitation of Lost Thought, whose co-owners and technical leads Tobias Rauhut and Stefan Lovrić worked alongside the manufacturer to deliver sound across the festival.
Karel Noon, Application Support Engineer at HK Audio, said: “When the Lost Thought team asked us to join them again, it was an immediate yes because we had fallen in love with the festival. The surroundings are wonderful, the artist booking is almost insanely good and every show takes place somewhere different. There is so much variety that it is very difficult not to fall in love with it.”
Rather than running several competing stages simultaneously, The Island Festival programmed music in one location at a time. This prevented sound from different systems spilling across the compact island, but it also created a shared experience in which the whole festival moved together.
As each session began, the sound naturally drew guests towards the next location. Whether travelling through the pine trees, gathering around the pool or following the music towards the waterfront, the audience moved as one. For the DJ, it meant having the entire island in the palm of their hand.
Rauhut reflected: “What I love most is the freedom. You are surrounded-or almost lost-on an island with hundreds of like-minded people, and you simply make the best of those five days. After the second night, it feels like one big family. You go to the beach the next day and everybody says hello. If you continue coming back year after year, that bond only gets stronger.”
HK Audio was on site throughout the festival, supporting the deployment and programming of the systems across five distinct settings: the Amphitheatre, Bar, Pool, Forest and Noir party boat. The rotating programme allowed the equipment to be reconfigured as the music moved around Obonjan, with each setup adapted to the size, layout and acoustic character of its location.
At the Amphitheatre, the main system comprised six CS 218 subwoofers and six CONTOUR XCX 210 LT long-throw point-source loudspeakers, powered by two C-DRIVE 8 PS X4 amplifier racks. Two CX 12 cabinets provided monitoring, while two CX 8 frontfills and two LINEAR 5 MK2 308 LTA outfills extended coverage across the audience area.
The programme moved through house, techno and bass-driven electronic music, with a line-up including Âme live, Dirty Doering, Denis Horvat, Marcus Meinhardt, Luna City Express and a 3000Grad showcase.
They continued: “HK Audio is still flying under the radar in this part of the industry, but the systems can compete with the big players. The sound is clear, the bass is powerful and it keeps improving. When you see everybody dancing, that is the best feedback you can get.”
For more information, visit hkaudio.com.
