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Intensive bluest tones of the band Graveyard roll over the Mrežnica river in Croatia. It is a trial period on the large Stone Stage. While the Swedes are their program for that “Bear Stone” Test, jump their fans into their cool floods. Or eggs on funny paddleboards towards Camp A or Camp B, the tent camps of this aspiring niche festival, not far from the PLITVICER LEEN reserve.
“With a current capacity of around 2,000 visitors, we are of course a mini format in a European comparison. The river valley here and the music color are special, so we only strive for moderate growth. But our audience is already very international. Year after year there are a few hundred more,” says organizer Marin Lalic, who has played the river as a music fan and activist since 2022. Nature conservation also plays an important role, which apparently works well in this capacity. No mountains of garbage as elsewhere, far and wide.
Bands and soloists come from the areas of Stoner, Psychedelic, Desert and Acid. An undogmatic handling of the subgenres is important to him, said Bear-Stone boss Lalic. Four days variety in the rocky subgenres. The Croatian tribal meeting is a separate spectrum in the dazzling annual season with the “Freak Valley” on the AWO site in the Siegerland, “Roadburn” in Tilburg in Dutch or the “Desertfest” with locations in Antwerp, London or Berlin.
A festival with its own rhythm
The Stoner community is a travel-loving peoples. In Croatia you can hear English, French, Italian and the Austrian idiom. The man/woman ratio is around 60 to 40 percent. A tribal gathering with a high tattoo rate. Depending on the booking mode, the festival ticket costs 90 euros, half a liter of beer 4 euros 50.
The four-day happening with 44 bands is grouped by two central evenings, on which the large “Stonestage” stage is open. In addition to Graveyard, the Norwegian traditional psychedelic Motor Psycho also lets it rose here. The Maidavale women’s quartet from Stockholm opens a lot of cheering on Friday with heavy psychic and gniedel schlenkern to the Krautrock. Stoner legend Brant Bjork serves the dust-dry game in the trio. After their appearances, the bands hang out on the beer benches with the fans without fear of contact.
In the River Aauenland you scoffed at Metallica’s T-shirt configuration to MISFITS to Zappa. But The Doors are also incorporated into this canon. So there is a happy to hear a Ray-Manzarek organs. At Marc Cidote’s Holy Crab from the Czech Republic, the flute and saxophone. Instead of stoner in a muscle shirt, more progress in the 1970s. Gentle Giant also seem to belong to the branched family atmospherically.
Three stages, a river, many nuances
On the “Jam Stage” in Monumental Indiana-Jones Tempeldeko from plaster, Wedge from Berlin also rely on the organ. Fudgerock with throat from the chief present singer Kiryk Drewinsk. Despite the early time, dancing was danced wildly. The day after, Karkara from Toulouse mills the loudspeakers at the same place with a severe psychedelic/mix.
In the river bend with terrace waterfall, the “millstage”, the smallest of the three stage with a funny wooden roof. The Croatian and Eastern European offspring is already warm here on the afternoons, with sounds between Hüsker Dü and Mosh Metal.
Attraction on the opening evening: The cramps-like women’s band The Darts from California and Seattle, published by Jello Biafras Label Alternative Tentacles and is determined in Quentin Tarantino’s notebook. The mix between the (sweet) Farfisa organ and the feedback gods by guitarist Rebecca Davidson proves to be a kick in front of the shin of the very top cabin.
Sound spectrum with community spirit
Of course, King Buffalo or Motor Psycho are among the “more well-known” formations of the class of 2025. Monolord, a sludge and stoner doom trio from the Swedish Gothenborg have a lot of cracking. But the headline character is no longer necessary with the “Bear Stone” in favor of the community groove. Migratory movements in the audience are not based on “prominence”, but rather individual. The terrain is organized in such a way that you can withdraw into the “quieter” (gastro) zone without crowds.
The rock wall above the festival zone becomes a symbolic large whole. In the dark, a huge LSD bear logo is projected on it, as is an important element of the “Bear Stone” at all. A light fire in the sign of tightened rock music.