The six Criteria being reviewed is as follows: -

1 Value for money

• How much was the price for a “full pass” when compared to other similar festivals and did this offer value for money? Summer sensual days full pass cost between 225 Euros (9 months in advance) to 280 Euros (on the door). Note there are many pass options available such as X-treme pass (which included CSSD and CSSF, CSSD Freak pass, CSSD Full party pass, CSSD Weekend pass and CSSD Weekend party pass which prices range from 125 Euros (9 months in advance) to 600 Euros (on the door).

With so many pass options available the best way to compare is to look at the CSSD weekend pass which includes all workshops and evening parties Friday to Sunday (pool parties and beach parties are all free regardless of whichever pass you purchase). CSSD weekend pass ranges from 180 Euros (9 months in advance) to 225 Euros (on the door). When compared to other 3-day weekend festivals this price does seem very high. Note Croatia summer sensual days have now built up a reputation of being one of the best festivals in the world this partly justifies the premium price being charged for CSSD passes compared to other “normal” weekend festivals.

• Did the “full pass” offer value for money when compared to the event offering as per the program/timetable? Friday and Saturday there were 5 lessons through the day with a choice of 7 different workshops happening simultaneously. Sunday there were 3 lessons through the day with a choice of 6 different workshops happening simultaneously. This seems to offer a good selection of workshops to chose from as per the timetable with a maximum of 5 workshops each participant can do each day.
• Any extra charges for “preparty” or “afterparty” and did these extra charges represent value for money? The Monday Preparty at Steel club was chargeable at 30 Euros, afterparty at the pier most days from 5.30am til 10am was free.

 

Overall value for moneys scores 6

 

2 Event Venue

• How was the Room temperature/air conditioning of the event venue? With so many dancers in the rooms for the evening party it would understandably get warm, most nights the dance halls were fairly warm with the large number of dancers and there was a good attempt to keep the rooms cool with the air conditioning which was present in all rooms.
• How was the quality of flooring at the event venue? The event venue had laminated flooring which was drilled down, there were no issues with the flooring coming lose etc at the event venue. Pool and beach parties were held outside on the concrete or tiled floor which is expected.
• How was the proximity to nearby hotels / shops / restaurants etc. from the event venue? The venue is in the heart of Rovinj and is within walking distance to other hotels, shops and restaurants so very good location.

 

Overall value for event venue scores 10

 

3 Music quality (during the party)

• Was a Fair mix of music played of what would be expected by an “average” dancer compared to the festival theme? The bachata room had 4 of the worlds best bachata Dj’s playing each night at the event venue and there was a very good mix of music played which would be expected by your average dancer.
• Any significant technical issues which resulted in long periods of waiting? There were no technical issues that I could see at the event venue which resulted in long periods of waiting. Occasionally at the pool beach parties organisers had to swap the speaks from time to time which is understandable and resulted in a few moments of quietness.

 

Overall value for Music quality score 10

 

4 Workshop offerings

• Did the classes start and finish on time? N/A
• Did the workshops on offer match to what was advertised from the main festival poster? N/A
• Did the workshops on offer off a fair balance of what would have been expected from the theme of the festival? N/A
• Were the dance instructors visible to most of the participants during the workshops? i.e. were there any raised platforms or large screens. N/A
• Language of the workshops delivered in. N/A

I am unable to comment on the Worksop offerings as I purchased a full party pass only, therefore didn’t attend any of the workshops to be able to give a mark on this area.

 

5 Balanced ratio of leaders to followers at the event

• Was there a balanced ratio of leaders to followers at the festival? N/A
• Were any there any monitoring of ticket sales to enable positive action (such as restricting numbers) to try and keep leaders and follower’s ratio balanced? N/A

On this rare occasion I am going to mark these criteria as not applicable, due to the enormous scale of the event. As there are so many activities happening simultaneously at any one time such as workshops, pool parties, beach parties, afterparties, boat parties, town centre parties it is impossible to judge which activities participants will chose to attend (if any). Generally, with such a large event number between leaders to followers will normally even themselves out over the course of the week.

Note smaller size festivals are especially vulnerable to large imbalances of leader to follower ratio due to the small number of participants attending compared to larger events where imbalances are not felt as significantly as extra leaders/followers are spread and distributed more evenly through the large number of attendees. 

 

6 Event Transparency

• Was all the information such as timetable/party theme advertised in a timely manner prior to the festival? Yes, there is an event program on what’s scheduled to take place during the week on the official CSSD website. Workshop timetables are published 1 week in advance of the festival. Of CSSD website is probably one of the most detailed festival websites I have come across!
• Was there any significant omission of event information that may have changed participant’s mind had this omission of information been know sooner prior to purchasing a festival ticket? There is no significant omission of event information that may have changed participant’s mind had this omission of information been know sooner prior to purchasing a festival ticket to the best of my knowledge.
• Were there any “hidden charges” an average person wouldn’t have been expected to have paid based on the information available at the time of purchasing a festival ticket. There were no hidden charges to the best of my knowledge. All information about costs is within the CSSD website and the festival program you can pick up on registration that explains all the necessary information a participant can expect to know. One of the highlights about CSSD is that there is very good transparency on this event which is published in advance on the festival website which is a rare sight when compared to other local weekend festivals who often have limited information available.
• Were there any advertised party rooms or advertised workshops withdrawn and did not run in accordance with the advertised festival timetable? All advertised evening party rooms ran in accordance with the advertised festival timetable. Open air dancing in the main town square information on the CSSD website differs to the event program booklet given at registration. There may have been a change of timings and dates after the booklets were printed.
• Were there any additional rooms party rooms or additional workshops that ran that was not listed on the advertised festival timetable. There were a few afterparties at the pier from 5.30am to 10am daily, the town church preparty night 3am to 6am and daily Mulini beach party which ran but not listed on the advertised festival timetable. As these parties are not organised by the festival organisers these aren’t listed on the official program and happen annual as it is spread by word of mouth and what’s app group chats.
• Were there any parts of the festival (other than workshops and evening parties) that didn’t take place but was advertised to take place as per the timetable/ festival program. I am not aware of any advertised workshop/party or anything else as per the festival timetable / festival program that didn’t take place.

 

Overall value for Event Transparency score 10

 

Overall average score is 9 ((6+10+10+10)/4) meaning this event Croatia summer sensual days festival is overall an exceptional event based on my above score on the six different criteria I have scored it with the premium price being the only factor that it doesn’t represent the best value for money being expensive.

 

Croatia summer sensual days is probably one of the biggest dance festivals in the world with dancers coming from all over the world to attend every year. Every dancer is unique in their own way and will form a different opinion on Croatia summer sensual days. From my personal viewpoint Croatia Summer sensual days is not a normal dance festival (when compared to a weekend festival in the UK). This because certain activities such as pool parties, beach parties, boat parties do happen at Croatia summer sensual days but don’t exist at a normal weekend Uk dance festival. We also have the point that Croatia summer sensual days festival attracts people from all over the world which gives participants an opportunity to meet to so many new people at the festival, so is a good chance to mingle and meet new people which isn’t as easy compared at a Uk Weekend dance festival as participants will generally see more familiar dancers within the Uk being their home dance country.

A few key highlights / Observations of the Croatia summer sensual days from myself are as follows

The most important thing to remember is that Croatia summer sensual days is not a normal dance festival!

The Croatian summer sensual days has a notoriously high rejection rate, being around the 40% mark from my experience. (If you ask someone to dance you will be turned down 2 of the 5 times you ask). But don’t let this remark put you off from attending, please remember Croatia summer sensual days is not a normal festival, it is almost a 24-hour party which never ends and all dancers will be at different energy levels at any given time during the festival.  I.e by 8am at the afterparty you have dancers which have just woken up and ready to party and there are dancers who have been dancing for 9 hours since 11pm the night before.

I have both experienced and observed very frequently some leaders and followers turn someone down when being invited to dance but then accepting a dance from another person during the same song. This is something I don’t see happening at a local dance event and there is probably a reasonable explanation for this, which I may not be aware of but the thing to remember is Croatia summer sensual days is not a normal dance festival and unwritten rules between close friends can be broke a lot easier compared with strangers who just met on the dancefloor.

All participants have their own personal reasons why they chose to attend Croatia summer sensual days and therefore will form their own view of the festival which may differ from my personal view point of the festival.

I observed many dancers may dance more then 1 bachata song with the same partner in a row, this doesn’t happen very often at your local bachata dance night or even at your local dance festival but I suppose if two dancers feel a connection during the dance, they want to explore it further with anther song and if it leads to anything more.

Croatia summer sensual days is almost a 24-hour party! Almost at any given time there is a party happening somewhere in the town and with afterparties, pool parties, beach parties, evening parties, boat parties, garden parties to chose from its no wonder you can party 24 hours a day!

The pool parties, beach parties and boat parties offer a very unique experience at Croatia summer sensual days. As these types of parties don’t take place within your home country weekend festival, you will see a different side to someone (especially dancers form your same home country) when attending the Croatian summer sensual days at the pool parties, beach parties and boat parties.

Croatia summer sensual days takes place in the heart of Rovinji which means its within walking distance to many apartments/ hotels which allows many dancers to do self-catering which can save significant money compared to eating out every day. Eating out every day for lunch, breakfast and dinner a day can cost up to 40 Euros a day. So 7 days is 280 Euros for a week eating out. Shopping for raw ingredients and doing self-catering can cost about 50 euros for 1 week’s food saving up to 230 Euros potentially.

As most participants of Croatia summer sensual festival book a apartment and share with friends (there is no accommodation based at the venue) it gives individual participants the option to select and tailor and design their own holiday experience in Croatia alongside the festival since the individual will be responsible for booking and arranging the entire holiday themselves, flights, entry pass, accommodation and food there is much better transparency with this option compared to going all-inclusive as you wouldn’t get the option to tailor an all-inclusive holiday to how an individual would like it to be.