Outlook Origins

Well that was a lot of fun! On the 27th July I packed up my little car and headed off to Tisno for Outlook Origins. As I was staying on site I could check in a day before the festival started. So The Garden in Tisno is pretty much just used for festivals in Summer. Back to back, one bumps out and one bumps straight in. After checking in I went and set up my tent for the first time. Pretty stoked with it really. Sure it’s a bit smaller than what I have back at home but I have less things with me too. It’s a good size, nice big square shape and I can stand in it.

Turns out it was also the last day of SuncéBeat which was also being held at the venue, and being onsite meant I got to check out the last day of it. It was cool to get to see this other festival and it’s kinda vibe. Not really my thing, it was a pretty disco/funk sort of vibe. It was a bit of an older UK crowd, a lot more people 40+ at this one over Outlook in hindsight. Actually I think this venue is pretty much just a resort for UK people to go stay at and festival/party at.

When I checked in onsite I was given my wristband that gets used to pay for everything on site. You just go and top it up by card or cash, and then flash it at all the food stores, general store, bars, and restaurant. I had downloaded the app that Outlook had posted on their insta page and wow! Best festival app I have ever used. It’s got a great timetable function for seeing everyone on, or just looking at who you have saved. The map you can even click on the stages and it will show you who is playing that day. The beg game changer here though was the chat functionality. You create your user profile and there is a big group chat forum where little sub chats can be started. I had found one for Solo Travellers so introduced myself there, and also in a AUS/KIWI group chat. As soon as I arrived on site there was a group of 3 people in front of me who recognised me from the group chat. Was awesome to straight off the bat have someone to chat with. They were staying in one of the apartments on site and I ended up popping over there for a bit in the evening and hanging out for a chat and a drink.

Stace, Aaron, and Adam were the first Melbourne dwellers (2 originally from NZ) I met there. Super lovely and they even charged up one of my battery packs for me during the festival. I think in the end I only met 2 Melbourne folks who were actually Australian. Everyone else that lived in Melbourne was from somewhere else first. Adam was 8 months into a solo trip himself and Stace was at the end of her 3 months. Awesome to hear about their travels and other festivals and places they had been.

The music was going till 4am or something so I decided to pop a sleeping pill and knock myself to get a good bit of rest. In the morning I quickly realised that I got the sky a bit backwards and the sun was heating up my tent nice and early. I got up and noticed that there was a great shady patch about 5M away so I just unpegged, pulled the things from inside out and dragged the tent over into the morning shade. Once I put everything back in I realised just how much a difference that shade made. Where I was now probably got me an extra 2 hours of morning tent time. I was still up at 6ish most days but I could stay laying down.

There was a shower block and toilet block on site and somewhere to fill up my water bottle. My morning routine was pretty much get up have a shower, then go lie back in my tent for a bit until the restaurant opened for breakfast at 9am. Then I would head to the beach and wander through the shallows watching all the fish swim up and around my legs.

I kept winding up with a sun lounge in a shady spot and that became my doof throne. It became a joke with everyone I met across the week that it was my spot. They kept saying I needed to sign it but I was like why, I’m here and you all know it’s mine anyway. It was a good spot for sharing with the people I met and it worked out well for all of us really. Camping on the site does put you in a position to be at the beach early each day. Majority of people staying on site are in cabins/apartments and lots of people stay off site.

I collected a pretty cool bunch of people across the week. In the app I pretty much just posted in the two groups, I have long pink hair, come say hi. Then there was all the others who I just started chatting to at random times.
Nica was amazing! We just met and hit it off day 1, before the music had even started. Sitting on the beach in the shade, we just got chatting. Last year her and her bestie came to the festival, however her mate couldn’t make it this year so she came anyway! We shared lots of dance floor and beach times over the week, just constantly crossing paths.

Thursday tunes started at around 2pm at the beach stage and after grabbing some food I went for a boogie. Danced around, chatting to peeps, and bumped into Yume a familiar face from Oz. Met her friends she was with and added some more dance floor buddies to the collection.

Then it was pretty much rinse and repeat for the rest of the week. Back to the beach in the morning and chilling out.
Met Marco and Milan who were two Serbian dudes who had driven across for the festival. They are DnB fans and apparently the scene in Serbia is on life support. Was good chatting with them and hanging out at the beach, they were super lovely and happy to mind my chair for me when I went to get a drink or whatevs.

I also met up with Dean and Rob who were both from the UK and solo travellers. We all had chatted via the app and met up, was good to have some faces and peeps to wave at on a dance floor or hang out and chat with.

On Friday night I headed out for the Dynamics Boat Party! As soon as I was on board I met Annabelle from the UK and added a new friend to the collection. The tunes were epic and I was so glad I had booked the evening boat. This was probably the least busy boat and for having room to dance I was stoked. I pretty much booked this one after looking at all the lineups and opting to support the bass babe sisters and find out who the girls spinning were on the all female lineup. Watching the scenery change with the light and getting to look back to the shore and see Tisno lit up at night and the festival site was also pretty cool.

There was an epic storm on Saturday morning. I was woken up by the wind at about 4:30am. Then soon slunk into a spiral of googling what to do in a tent during a lightning storm. Messaging my Mum, and posting on my instagram stories. It probably wasn’t helped by the fact I was watching the radar intently as I saw the lightning hit the ground 2.47km away, then .76 km away, then .48km away. Mind you, the new tent held up really well! I hadn’t done a great job of putting the extra ropes out, and the tent is just a single layer style. There was a lot of rain for a bit and it kind of misted I guess is the right word. Nothing got super wet, there weren’t puddles, just a bit of top dampness. Nothing that wasn’t going to dry as soon as the storm broke.

Anyway, I went back to my spot at the beach after breakfast again and met Laith and Madison from Denver. We met after having lived through the intense storm in tents experience and they were super fun! We got in a groove for the rest of our festival time and shared some DFloors.

There was actually quite a few people from Denver. I think about 3 different groups that I cam across were from there. Definitely the largest American population I met there. Also met Sydney who was with her partner and they were from Atlanta. Trevor was the one Canadian I met but he lives in Vienna now, and Drew it was her birthday during the festival and she was solo travelling too. I can’t remember where she was from, but def the States.

So good when there are those people you just sync up with at a festival. Especially when you start introducing peeps you have met to others and there is this nice crew vibe going around. There were a few from the Melbourne scene who I bumped into and quickly discovered mutual connections with too! I feel like after the storm the rest of the days just started rolling into one. We hit the point of we just live here now and this is life.

The music was amazing and I had some great dances. I really found my routine of hanging out at the beach and chilling till about 4 or 5 when I would go eat again. Then I would start dancing, and pretty much go till about 1:30-ish and head to bed. I ended up giving away the after parties ticket I had purchased to someone on the app looking for one. When I got my tickets it was pretty cheap and I didn’t know if I would want to go or not so just picked one up. Realistically with me sleeping in a tent that 2-6 am was my most likely to catch some ZZZ’s time so trying to after party it in then was not responsible of me. And I am now old and responsible. Or I just respect my mental health and have learnt that my human body requires some sleep to function sanely. Anyway, I hope the person I gifted the ticket to had fun and enjoyed themselves.

By the last night I was dwindling with my energy to move. I was digging the tunes but I was exhausted from just being up all the time. So I enjoyed the main stage from my bed (it was super close) the bass vibrations through the ground was amazing! I was up super early and had packed up my tent and everything by 7:30am. I think knowing that (tomorrow now) I am heading off for camping again for another festival for over a week, I allowed myself to chill a bit and not push FOMO on myself.

So yes, I am getting ready to head to Slunj now before making my way to the Modem site on Saturday. This one will be big. I won’t be back here with anymore updates until after the 15th or so. I am sure there will lots more to catch on then!