When Nick Colgan, Brummie music promoter and founder of the Garden Festival, moved to Croatia with his wife Charlotte to open a bar in Zadar, back in 2004, there was, as he puts it, “no one here”.

The couple had fallen in love with the country’s rugged beauty after a family holiday a year earlier. “Tourism was just starting to pick up after the war,” he says. “Travelling here was difficult, too. The idea for a festival came about because we were just trying to find ways to get people over.”

They found a venue in the tiny coastal resort of Petrčane, a few miles north of Zadar, and, with the help of family and friends in the music industry, threw the first Garden Festival for around 300 people.

That was in 2006. A decade on and music festivals – for visitors at least – have become part of the cultural fabric of Croatia. Over the past five years, the number of festivals in the country has doubled: now there are 20 major events held across its islands and coastal resorts. And during the boom in 2011, when six new festivals launched, arrivals to Zadar, the main city and airport hub for the festival scene, increased by 51,000, a study by organisers of the Hideout festival found.

Fatboy Slim is set to perform at Croatia Rocks this summer. Photograph: Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images

While most events have a reputation for catering for specific musical niches – usually the dance and electronic scenes – 2015 will see the addition of its most mainstream festival yet, Croatia Rocks, on nearby Pag island. It’s an offshoot of the Ibiza Rocks event, and its lineup will include Fatboy Slim and The Vaccines.

This year is a milestone for the Garden team. They will be celebrating the 10th and final edition of the festival. Then their focus will be on managing their bar, also called the Garden, in Zadar and a Garden venue down the coast in Tisno, which provides a site and a production team for many other festivals: it recently expanded to include 80 apartments and a campsite. This year, the team plans to open what will be the first craft brewery on the Dalmatian coast.

Tisno’s mayor, Ivan Klarin, has seen a marked change in the town since Garden set up shop there. “Ten years ago it was rare to see that many young people enjoying Tisno and staying more than one or two days,” he says. “Many businesses have opened since the festivals established themselves. Locals are now more open to new ideas.”

Splashdown in Pula … the Outlook Festival Photograph: Dan Medhurst

This effect has been echoed elsewhere in Croatia. In Pula, the 19th-century Fort Punta Christo, is the striking venue for festivals including September bass party Outlook and underground electronic event Dimensions (at the end of August).

The organiser of both, Noah Ball, says: “When we first turned up at the fort, there was really just the odd free party going on there – acid and grappa and 200 people. It now operates as a bar throughout the summer season, a handful of bars and restaurants have opened next door, and we’re closely tied with the mayor and tourist board. In Croatia, the holiday season is usually July and August. We’ve extended the season by a fortnight.”

But the festivals have not always been universally welcomed. The transformation of Petrčane from a sleepy village to a party hub wasn’t to the taste of all the villagers – Colgan spent six months trying to get the priest back on side after the village was shaken to the core by Outlook festival’s debut dubstep event in 2008. Despite winning him over, pressure from a hotel near the festival site meant that four years later, Colgan was forced to move the festival site to Tisno.

Clear the decks … Theo Parish at the Dimensions Festival, Croatia. Photograph: Dan Medhurst

“Petrčane was the original site of a lot of the festivals and growth was tremendous while it had them there,” says Ball. “Hundreds of apartments were being put up at the time when the festival was told to move. If you go back there now, there are still hundreds of unfinished apartments.”

Croatia remains a relatively low-key destination, as far as UK holidaymakers are concerned; it took some time to recover following the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s and while UK tourist arrivals have increased by 86% in the last five years, according to Hideout’s study, just 400,000 Brits travel there each year, compared with the two million-plus who visit each of Italy and Greece, and the 12 million who visit Spain. But the festivals that have emerged – many of which are run by UK promoters who target their home followers – have turned it into a familiar party destination for young people.

“Going to a festival in Croatia has almost become a university right of passage,” says Ball. “A few years ago, we had a series of dreadful summers in the UK and some people were looking beyond Ibiza for a dance-music experience. The lineups at European festivals elsewhere are just as good, and the tickets are often cheaper.”

For Colgan, who – by providing a site, local connections and support for promoters – has been instrumental in the growth of the scene, the explosion has still come as a surprise.

“Never in a million years could I have predicted how it would pan out,” he says. “After that first festival, I remember turning to my partner, Eddie, and saying that was it. That was never gonna happen again … But it just kept on rolling.”

THIS SUMMER’S EVENTS…

The Garden Festival



Photograph: Khris Cowley

The final blowout for the Garden Festival will undoubtedly be a magical affair. The lineup is a roll call of exactly the kind of DJs partiers want to hear while grooving in the sunshine, with old-school legends Greg Wilson and Nightmares on Wax alongside big new names such as Leon Vynehall.

• Held at The Garden Tisno, 1-8 July, day passes from £20, full week £120, ticket and accommodation package from £525, camping from £12 a night, thegardenfestival.eu

Hideout



The fifth anniversary of Hideout means an even bigger party headlined by chart-topping names. Duke Dumont, Seth Troxler and Gorgon City are on the bill, with tightly programmed boat parties hosted by everyone from Dusky to Skream. Over 100 artists will keep the music pumping on Zrce beach.

• Zcre beach, Pag, 28 June-2 July, £129, boat parties from £20, luxury camping from £16 a night, hideoutfestival.com

Soundwave



With a chilled-out vibe, Soundwave brings together the best in contemporary soul and hip-hop, with an electronic twist and Channel One Soundsystem thrown in. Expect beautiful nu-soul from Andreya Triana, Alice Russell and Fatima, with dancing tunes from Craig Charles and Mr Scruff.

• The Garden Tisno, 6-10 August, £125, ticket and camping packages from £190, soundwavecroatia.com

Dimensions



Held in the atmospheric setting of a 19th-century coastal fort, Dimensions is an underground dance party featuring the best electronic acts of the moment: Mala, Ben Ufo, Dorian Concept and Jeremy Underground, plus live performances from Four Tet and Little Dragon. A particular treat has to be George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic live – it’s not four to the floor but, damn, it will be fun.

• Fort Punta Christo, Pula, 26-30 August, £140, ticket and camping £190, dimensionsfestival.com

Stop Making Sense



Launched in 2010, Stop Making Sense is run by trendsetting promoters from London, Glasgow and Paris. Leading UK clubs Corsica Studios and Sub Club are among those represented at the party, featuring techno producer Levon Vincent and Anja Schneider. Festival name aside, you know it makes sense.

• The Garden Tisno, 16-20 July, £80, camping from £12 a night, apartments for four people from £704 for four nights, stopmakingsense.eu