THE OWNER of the Noa club where the BSH Island festival was to be held this year decided to speak up on the government's decision on banning all festivals on Zrce.

"Over the last 5-6 days, there has been an opinionated discussion about the holding of different events in Croatia, more precisely in popular clubs on Zrce beach. When we started planning the BSH Island Festival, we spoke to government officials and, given that Noa is an outdoor club, we received their permission to organize the festival as long as we reduce the number of attendees.

However, things changed due to an increase in the number of infected people, especially after the recent tennis tournament in Zadar, which resulted in famous tennis players such as Novak Djokovic, Borna Coric, and Grigor Dimitrov getting infected. The tennis tournament and its organizer Djokovic were harshly criticized, and since then, there has been more pressure on the government than ever to ban large events," the Noa club owner explained.

"An even bigger issue arose when the Slovenian government informed the Croatian Prime Minister that if the government does not ban festivals on the island of Pag, namely on Zrce, while the number of infected continues to increase, they will put Croatia on their red list. This means that all Slovenes going to Croatia would have to go into a 14-day self-isolation upon their return. That would result in Slovenes not visiting Croatia and Croats not being able to visit Slovenia. We tried to talk to government officials and figure out a way for the BSH Island festival to be held, but they made it clear to us that we could get in a lot of trouble if we proceed with the organization of the festival," the owner adds.

"The official BSH Island Festival has been postponed to July 2021, and we will soon provide more information and a schedule for next year. Our customers have the option to use their ticket next year with some special benefits if they choose to do so, or to get a full refund," they said.

Although the organizers of large festivals on Zrce have canceled them as early as in May, Novalja has officially banned festivals only a few days ago, and so did the Municipality of Kolan, where the Noa club is located.

Clubs on Zrce will stay open, but without the festivals that attracted the largest number of visitors, it is safe to say there will be no crowds on the most popular Croatian beach.