View of Obertauern, nestled in the Alps, where Nick and Charlotte Colgan are planning to launch their latest event: A Winter Garden. Courtesy The Garden Productions
A Winter Garden is launching this December in the heart of the Alps, promising international top DJs, great hospitality, and exhilarating skiing across four days and nights. It’s the latest endeavor by Nick and Charlotte Colgan, the duo behind Croatia’s Garden Festival, The Garden Productions and The Garden Brewery.
After two decades of helping shape Croatia’s event industry, which put the country back on the map as a popular tourist destination, they have set their eyes on Obertauern in Austria, where they intend to bring their signature blend of local focus and international vision in an intimate setting to a whole new audience.
Pollstar reached out to Nick Colgan to talk about the fascinating history that has led to A Winter Garden.
Originally from Birmingham, England, Colgan has been working in music events in some capacity or another for 40 years, most notably with good friends and UK reggae icons UB40. Touring the world extensively lost its appeal once children entered the picture in the late 1990s, which is when Colgan and his wife Charlotte began thinking about a lifestyle change that would allow the family to spend more time together.
“We were looking for something,” says Colgan, “we had not a clue what it was, but looking for a complete change. We were thinking about setting up a small bar or something like that in the sunshine. We came away on holiday to Croatia in 2003, which was absolutely beautiful, and we thought, ‘Hold on a second, maybe this is what we’ve been looking for’.”
The stars aligned soon after that holiday, when a stunning venue became available, lending itself perfectly to their idea: the garden of an old hotel, 2,500 square meters of outdoor space sitting on top of the city walls of Zadar. “We had no experience running a bar, but we went for it,” Colgan recalls.
The Garden Lounge opened in 2004 and was a game-changer for the region. Croatia had been a popular tourist destination in the 1970s and 1980s, but the Croatian war of independence in the early 1990s put a stop to that. The conflict ended in 1996, but a people hardened by war tends to forget, or unlearn, how to simply chill and have a good time. The Colgans and their Garden ended up becoming a part of the economic recovery, and, indeed, cultural resurrection of Croatia in the 2000s.
The Garden Lounge itself, a popular destination for locals, wouldn’t have been enough to accomplish that. But in 2006, the Colgans launched The Garden Festival, along with their friends Eddie and Gail O’Callaghan, welcoming 400 people in its first year, mostly family, friends, industry pros, and press. “We did it in June. The weather was awful on Friday and Saturday, but the sun came out on Sunday and completely changed the vibe. It was bloody hard work, but everybody that came said they had an amazing time, so the four of us realised we potentially had something special. Though I remember sitting with my wife after we’d finished, and going, ‘You know what, I’m never doing that again. That was ridiculous.’ But the feedback over the following weeks was just incredible, with everybody saying, ‘you’ve got to do this again, what an amazing place!’ You’ve got to remember, in those days, the only way people could get in from abroad was to fly into Zagreb and travel down to the coast, which was no mean feat,” Colgan recalls.
Nick and Charlotte Colgan posing in front of the map of the very first Garden Festival, which took place in Zadar, Croatia, June 2-4, 2006. Courtesy The Garden Productions
Due to popular demand, The Garden Festival returned in 2007, doubling the number of guests. By 2009, it attracted 3,500 people. The festival is part of the reason budget airlines started adding destinations along the Croatian coast, which, in turn, helped the events that began popping up everywhere grow.
The Garden Festival used to take place close to the Colgans’ home, a 900-year old fishing village near Zadar called Petrčane. Further increasing its capacity to meet the growing demand had never felt right, so instead they opened the festival site to other promoters, who hosted their own events, and elongated the region’s event season.
In 2012, The Garden Festival had to move, as its old venue became unavailable. The Colgans struck gold in Tisno, which is located pretty much exactly inbetween the international airports of Zadar or Split. “The venue was owned by the state oil company Ina, it stemmed back from their socialist days, when it was a place for the employees to take a holiday. It fell into despair after the war; however, it’s in a stunning location,” says Colgan. What is more, the new venue offers accommodation and camping options, opening new possibilities for the types of events that could be hosted in Tisno on the Adriatic coastline.
Colgan recalls contacting the state oil company, “thinking they were just gonna say ‘no’ straight away. But I went for a meeting in Zagreb the following day, and they said, ‘yes’, believe it or not, which was crazy.”
After 10 years of promoting and selling out the Garden Festival, it felt like time for a change. Says Colgan, “I told everyone that I thought we should stop promoting our own events, and everyone thought I was crazy. Maybe I was, but I thought it’d be good for us to go out on a high and then concentrate our efforts on the production side of things, and the venue side of things, and create a model, whereas outside promoters could come in and basically use it as a turnkey venue for music festivals.”
Today, The Garden is a full-service partner for outside promoters looking to do events in Croatia, taking care of infrastructure, legal matters, permits, production, including sound and lights, so the promoters coming can concentrate on promoting. Partners making use of this offer include Defected, Dekmantel, Love International, and more, who’ve all established their own signature festivals in Tisno.
Some of these events are in their tenth year now, all have remained around a 5,000 capacity so the atmosphere doesn’t suffer. Around ten events take place each year, and because they share the production, the economics add up, even in today’s tough climate.
The vibe at The Garden Resort in Tisno, where The Garden Festival used to take place, establishing Tisno, on the Croatian island of Murter, as a festival location. Several promoters are now using the site for their own events. Picture by Khris Cowley
Another huge element to The Garden’s success formula is its own brewery. “We realized we were selling a lot of beer. At the same time, one of the few, but big complaints we had was the quality of the beer. I’m not saying the beer locally is bad, but one year we did a deal with Carlsberg, and I think we had Tuborg or something, and the number of complaints that we had was ridiculous,” he recalls, “We opened our first brewery in 2016, and in 2020, during COVID, we expanded and moved venues. The Garden Brewery is now one of the top craft breweries in Europe, we’re in major retail outlet, and now we can offer good beer at all our events.”
The organic growth, and the synergies that have been established across the years, as well as the addition of an indoor nightclub by the name of Mali Barbarella’s in the Croatian capital of Zagreb, which honours the original Barbarellas’ Discotheque in Petrčane and Tisno, have led to a healthy business mix that makes up the year for The Garden: from spring events at the brewery to the outdoor season in Tisno, and back to Zagreb for indoor events as the weather turns cooler.
And now, The Garden has announced its first winter event, not in Croatia, but in Austria. The Winter Garden sees the Colgans take the same approach they did with the first Garden Festival back in 2006: a small first edition, a boutique approach in close collaboration with local decision makers in the pretty Salzburger Land at [PLACES] Obertauern by Valamar, set against the spectacular backdrop of the Austrian alps.
Promotional poster for the first edition of A Winter Garden.
“I went last year to have a look, and thought, ‘what an absolutely amazing place’. And I’m not even a skier. I met the tourist board there, who were game. We looked at the original Garden Festival, going back to our roots: one hotel, 350 capacity, and invite friends, family partners, journalists, see what they think, and then, hopefully, build it from there,” Colgan explains.
The musical lineup of the first edition of A Winter Garden, Dec. 8-12, features Gerd Janson, Peach, Olive F, Dave Harvey, Chez Damier, Ellie Stokes, Ilija Rudman, Guru Logic (Live), Mark Broadbent, Pepi Jogarde, and more. The days can be spent skiing – or taking skiing lessons – and making use of the hotel’s extensive wellness offer.
Some of the third-party festivals partnering with The Garden in Croatia have already voiced interest in adding a winter event to their portfolios. “The idea moving forward,” says Colgan, “is a similar kind of model as we have in Tisno but in the Austrian Alps at the end of the year: five weeks, five different events, at a capacity of 3,500 to 5,000 people max.”
Obertauern is ideally positioned for guests from Croatia and neighbouring countries, being just a four-hour drive from Zagreb, and two hours from Ljubljana. Trieste in Italy, Munich in Germany, and Graz in Austria are all around two-and half hour’s drive away. UK guests have frequent direct flights from many UK airports, with flight times as short as two hours.
With its unique concept, stunning location and The Garden Festival team’s 20-year experience behind it, A Winter Garden has the potential to emulate the success of the original Garden. “Our mission”, concludes Colgan, “is to unite people through shared experiences, which at A Winter Garden is from morning skiing to fireside conversations and late-night dancing. It’s about blending music, nature and connection and that’s where the magic of A Winter Garden lies; ski, dance, recharge and repeat.”
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