Obonjan Island hosted the 4 days and 4 night 2017 edition of the Electric Elephant festival. This was our fourth visit to the festival, which in recent years was hosted from The Garden venue, just outside of Tisno.
To get to the island you can catch the slow boat from Šibenik, this will cost 150KN (£18 return per person) for the 50 minute crossing. If you prefer to arrive quicker you can hire a taxi boat for 6 people. This will get you there in about half the time and won't cost you much more when you split the bill. Whichever way you travel the scenery is beautiful as you weave your way between the mainland peninsulas and a handful of the thousand Croatian islands.
Upon arrival at the island, the staff took care of the luggage whilst the formalities of check-in were undertaken. The formalities consisted of a refreshing welcome drink which was traded for copies of passports. It soon became apparent that our pre-paid accommodation had been sold due to our late arrival, so we happily retired to the bar on a promise that someone would come and get us soon. After 90 minutes we took the matter back into our hands. We traded passport details again (as the first set of copies had been lost) and we were then taken to the canvas forest lodge situated amongst the pine trees, our luggage quickly followed. One snag... the lodge was minus the sea view for which we had booked and paid a supplement. However, it was well equipped with a mini fridge, air conditioning, comfortable bed and ensuite facilities. Overall the accommodation was excellent. [At the time of writing the promised refund for the absent sea view has not been received]
The music didn't disappoint and the highlights of the festival were the DJ performances in the Forest Bar, Amphitheatre and the East Harbour. Outstanding sets were delivered by Bill Brewster, Sean Johnston, Dicky Trisco & Pete Herbert aka Disco Deviance, Ray Mang and Justin Robertson - all veterans from previous Electric Elephant events. The Forest Bar was the focal point for our night time adventures. The pool party failed to serve up a DJ on Saturday afternoon - surprisingly the festival reps were unaware of this when we spoke to them. The climax was the Sunday evening boat party. All the vital ingredients were present which made for a fantastic party. The added bonus was the chance to jump into the cool Adriatic when the party was in full swing.
Choice of food is limited on the island and overpriced. There are 3 fast food outlets serving pizza, curry or burger. Portion sizes were inadequate, disappointment was compounded given the premium prices. The pictures on the website do not properly represent some of the fast food products. If you eat in the restaurants be prepared to pay around 900KN (£100) for a single course lunch for 4 people with a bottle of local wine and a couple of side dishes. At the the bars a 500ml beaker of Croatian beer will set you back 45KN (£5.40) - this is 3 to 4 times the price you pay on the mainland. If you choose to indulge in a gin and tonic (mine was served in a paper Redbull cup) it will cost around 90KN (£11) - very disappointing in what became a soggy cup. Needless to say none of the group suffered from hangovers during our stay.
The drink prices would be bearable if it was possible to stock up from the shop on the island. The shop carries a limited range and was low on stock when we were there (this renders the mini fridge less useful). It does sell a white and red wine for around 100KN (£12), avocados for 50KN and crisps for 25KN. If you can, stock up before you get to the island - unfortunately we didn't ! Breakfast was available until 11am at the Kichen restaurant which is by the pool, it's buffet style for 100KN which is good value if you make the most of it (Eggs, bacon, fruit, croissants, juices, cereals etc.)
Incidentally, a reliable source told us that the island staff have no choice but to eat using the same facilities as the guests and they don't receive a discount. If this is accurate they must spend most of their wages on food.
The island does not currently publish the menu, bar or shop prices openly on the website. Having been, enjoyed and been ripped off by Obonjan, we unanimously agreed that we won't be back. Other guests we spoke to felt equally ripped off and over charged. The festival experience in Tisno is superior and has all of the infrastructure and choice which is currently lacking on Obonjan.
The island sells a promise of peace, tranquility and beauty. Indeed it is beautiful like many other Croatia locations. Whether the other Elephants make a return visit clearly remains to be seen but Obonjan sadly fell short of our expectations primarily due to the lack of infrastructure and failure to cater for a reasonable budget.
The only thing that island can now do to possibly establish trust could be to revise the pricing policy and publish this openly on the web site. Without this I doubt this year's herd could place their trust in the island again.
