RetrOpatija 2026 turns Opatija into a three-day stage for retro culture
From Thursday, 25 June, to Saturday, 27 June 2026, Opatija will once again live to the rhythm of RetrOpatija, a three-day festival that brings music, dance, fashion, vintage vehicles, family programmes and urban content together into a grand scenography of past decades. According to the programme of the Opatija Tourist Board, the festival takes place at more than fifteen locations, from city streets, harbours and promenades to the Gervais Centre, the Open Air Theatre, Opatija hotels and cultural spaces. The organisers are announcing concerts, dance performances, retro karaoke, a vinyl fair, a skate programme, vintage tennis, programmes for children, themed gastronomic offers and content that does not place visitors only in the role of the audience, but invites them to become part of the event through clothing, dancing and participation. In this way, the festival builds on Opatija’s recognisable identity as a city on the northern Adriatic where summer events often rely on public spaces, historic architecture and seaside promenades. For visitors planning to follow several festival days, accommodation offers in Opatija may also be useful, especially because of the evening and night programmes and Saturday’s traffic regulation.
The city as a twentieth-century scenography
RetrOpatija is conceived as a musical and visual time machine through the popular culture of the 20th century. In its announcement of the final programme, Festival Opatija states that the event combines swing, rockabilly, rock, jazz and disco, while city spaces are transformed into a scenography featuring musicians, dancers, street performers, hairdressers, make-up artists, pin-up models, vintage cars and motorcycles. Such a concept comes especially to the fore because the programme does not take place on a single stage, but spreads through the city centre, the coast, terraces and cultural points. Shop windows, hospitality venues and public areas become part of the atmosphere, while visitors are expected to experience the festival actively, through retro outfits, dance workshops, photography and participation in the content. Admission to the central Saturday programme at the Open Air Theatre has been announced as free, further expanding the accessibility of the event to a broad audience of different generations.
Dress Up Corner at Gervais as the fashion centre of the festival
One of the most visible segments of this year’s RetrOpatija will be the Dress Up Corner at the Gervais Centre. According to the official programme, it is a special retro fashion zone with vintage and second-hand clothing, fashion accessories, antiques, hairdressing and make-up services, and a space for styling and complete fashion transformation. The organisers have announced that the exhibition and sales programme will be open on Thursday and Friday from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., and on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and again from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. On Thursday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., the Hidden Speakeasy Bar is scheduled there, a programme dedicated to preparing retro cocktails and stories about the origins of cocktails, while on Friday evening Retro Talks discussions on fashion, style, sustainability and trends have been announced. According to the announcements for the Dress Up Corner programme, more than 20 exhibitors will gather at Gervais, and the zone will connect fashion, design, beauty content, photography, music and socialising, with an emphasis on sustainable fashion and the creative use of the aesthetics of past periods.
For many visitors, Dress Up Corner will be the starting point of the festival because they can find clothing, a hairstyle, make-up or fashion advice there before heading out onto the city streets. The announcements also mention a Mirror photo booth, face painting, a DJ programme, stylistic advice by Nika Širola, and hairdressing and make-up services intended to help visitors build their own retro identity. This part of the programme is also important because of the wider context: a retro festival is not only nostalgia for music, but also a visual culture in which clothing, hairstyles, make-up, furniture, photography and design create a recognisable festival language. Dress Up Corner therefore functions as a kind of preparation for the rest of RetrOpatija, but also as an independent fashion and creative event. Alongside the vintage and second-hand offer, the programme also recalls the current topic of more sustainable consumption in fashion, because old items of clothing and objects are reintroduced into everyday use through a new interpretation.
Oldtimers, Vespas, Tomoses and a Saturday open-air museum
Saturday, 27 June, will bring one of the festival’s most attractive scenes: Opatija’s main road will be transformed into an exhibition space for vintage cars and motorcycles. According to the announcement by the Opatija Tourist Board, lovers of automotive history will be able to view more than one hundred cars and motorcycles, including American classics, sports models, Fićos, Vespas and Tomoses. Such a programme connects RetrOpatija with the culture of design and mobility, because vintage vehicles are not only exhibition objects, but moving symbols of the periods from which they originate. A special prelude will be brought the day before by members of the Liburnija Klasik club, who will parade through the centre of Opatija in their preserved vehicles. In combination with costumes, music and the street programme, the oldtimers create the impression of a city that, for a few days, has stepped out of everyday life and been transformed into an open film set.
Tennis in white, skate programme and vinyl fair
The sports part of this year’s programme is being expanded in particular through the Opatija Tennis Classic, a retro tennis event that will be held on Saturday, 27 June, at the Opatija Tennis Club. According to the official information of the Opatija Tennis Classic, the event is dedicated to the aesthetics of the 1930s, with play using wooden rackets, a mandatory white dress code, vintage music, doubles and a social programme by the courts. The organisers state that the format is intended for 32 teams, or 64 competitors, with matches in the form of a tie-break up to 10 points, giving the event a fast and recreational-competitive character. The Croatian Tennis Association has also announced the tournament as a return to the golden age of tennis, with an emphasis on wooden rackets and the elegance of white clothing. Such a programme fits well into RetrOpatija because it treats sport as part of social and stylistic history, not only as a competition.
A different rhythm is brought by Slatina, where the Retro Fair and Skate Session have been announced as part of the programme. According to the Tourist Board’s schedule, the Retro Fair on the Slatina promenade will be held from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., while the Skate Session includes skateboard tricks, DJ performances and a vinyl fair. This combination of older and newer urban expression shows that RetrOpatija does not reproduce the past literally, but uses it as inspiration for programmes that can attract different generations. For some, antiques, vinyl records and collectors’ items will be the most interesting, while for others it will be the energy of the skate programme and open-air music. It is precisely in such combinations that the festival gains breadth: retro aesthetics becomes a framework for the meeting of family content, sport, music, dance and urban socialising.
Retro karaoke, dance groups and the final disco party
Opatija’s harbour becomes one of the festival’s liveliest locations on Friday, 26 June. According to the official programme, the evening begins with a performance by DJ Alex Sabattini, continues with children’s and adult dance performances by the Flame group, and is followed by the Retro Karaoke Show hosted by DJ Alex Sabattini and David Danijel. The programme also announces a performance by the Trinity&Co. dance studio, after which karaoke continues until midnight. The organisers’ announcements indicate that contestants can also expect prizes, including a spa retreat for two at the Keight Hotel Opatija – Curio Collection by Hilton, tickets for the Urban&4 and string orchestra concert at the Open Air Theatre, an Istrian Crafters product package, and tickets for exhibitions of the Croatian Museum of Tourism during 2026. The karaoke evening programme is important for the character of RetrOpatija because it erases the boundary between performers and the audience: visitors do not remain only in the audience, but take the microphone and become part of the festival stage.
Dance will be present throughout all three days. According to the announcements, Trinity & Co, Flame, Porto RI, RiS Dance Centre of Ivona Brnelić and Roxy Dance are participating in the programme, while rockabilly workshops at the Opatija market should further involve visitors regardless of their dance experience. The central culmination is planned for Saturday evening at the Open Air Theatre, where Festival Opatija announces the largest open-air disco party. In the finale of the programme, DJ Luca Montecchi and Trinity & Co will perform, while in the previous days the festival atmosphere will also spread to other locations, including Thursday with Beatles music performed by The Bestbeat – The Beatles Tribute Band. The organisers emphasise that RetrOpatija gathers thousands of visitors, and it is precisely the combination of street programmes and the large final party that makes it one of the most massive summer events in Opatija.
Children’s programme, museum and talks in Saint James’s Park
RetrOpatija also has a strong family layer. According to the Tourist Board’s programme, Retro Playground brings back games that marked childhoods before the digital age: sack jumping, hopscotch, hula hoop, Chinese jump rope, skipping rope, dominoes, marbles, bocce, making thread bracelets and decorating boats with watercolours. The original announcements also mention a retro fire station, designed as content in which children can learn about firefighting equipment and the role of firefighters through play. Such programmes are important because the festival is not built only by concerts and night entertainment, but also by daytime content that connects children, parents and older generations through shared memories of games and habits from earlier decades. In this context, the retro motif does not function as a museum exhibit, but as an invitation to participate and pass experiences between generations.
The cultural part of the programme continues at the Croatian Museum of Tourism, where the exhibition “Ljubo Kuntarić: Falat zemlje šteri ima dušu...” is ongoing. According to data from the Croatian Museum of Tourism and the Visit Opatija events calendar, it is a guest exhibition of the Museum of Međimurje Čakovec dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of composer Ljubo Kuntarić, born in Čakovec in 1925 and deceased in Volosko in 2016. The museum states that Kuntarić’s oeuvre included more than 2,000 compositions of popular and dance music, 160 songs for children and more than 680 sacred works, while the exhibition also presents his work as a hydroengineering engineer. He is known for compositions such as “Ta tvoja ruka mala”, “U nedilju”, “Ane” and “Autobus Calypso”, so the exhibition naturally fits into a festival dedicated to the musical and social memories of the 20th century. Saint James’s Park, according to the announcements, will once again be the location of the Retro Studio, the festival’s living room with guests, conversations and anecdotes, while part of the atmosphere should also be available to the audience following the events via the Novinet.TV broadcast.
Gastronomy, hotels and practical information for arrival
The festival programme has also been expanded to hospitality and hotel locations. According to the official schedule, Amadria Park includes retro specialities and desserts at the Continental hotel, a Retro Party with an open-air cocktail bar, a DJ and a spritz offer, chocolate programmes at Milenij Choco World, and retro cocktails and tapas at the Milenij hotel. Hotel Royal has been announced as the location of Saturday’s Retro Party with a dress code and retro cocktails, while Hotel Agava is preparing a cocktail show and a daily Retro Cocktail Hour. Liburnia Hotels & Villas are joining the programme with performances at the Imperial, Kvarner and Bellevue hotels, including Retro’s Duo, Mystic Rose Band, Tina Vukov & The Jazz Wulfs, Febra Band, Sabrina Hebiri & Soulstaff and DJ programmes with saxophone. Such a schedule shows that RetrOpatija does not remain only on public stages, but also spreads through hotel terraces, restaurants and cafés, which is especially important for Opatija because of its tourist and hotel tradition.
Because of the final day of the festival on Saturday, 27 June, temporary traffic regulation is being introduced. According to the official Visit Opatija announcement, Ulica Maršala Tita will be closed to all traffic from 5 p.m. on Saturday until 5 a.m. on Sunday, 28 June, on the section from the intersection with Radnička ulica and Ulica Viktora Cara Emina, that is, the turn towards Opatija harbour, to Slatina near the former Hotel Zagreb. On the same section, a parking ban will apply to all vehicles from 3 p.m. on Saturday until the reopening of traffic on Sunday morning. The Opatija Tourist Board recommends that visitors use free parking at the fenced car park of the company Opatija 21 at Preluk, and a taxi service has been announced for transport between Preluk and the turn for Hotel Ambasador. The price of a taxi car ride for four people will be 15 euros, while a taxi van ride for eight people will be 20 euros.
According to the organisers’ announcements, RetrOpatija is also supported this year by Zagrebačka banka, Obiteljska destilerija Aura and Dr. Vivian Estetic Medicine, and the programme confirms that the festival functions as a joint project of the tourism, cultural, hospitality and city sectors. Its appeal rests on a simple idea: for three days, Opatija becomes a place where past decades are not observed from a distance, but are performed again before the audience through music, clothing, cars, dance and everyday city spaces. Visitors coming to the final evening should especially take into account the changed traffic regime, earlier arrival and the possibility of using the recommended parking at Preluk. Those staying throughout the entire festival can plan the programme by locations and combine daytime content, exhibitions, the fashion programme, the gastronomic offer and evening concerts, with accommodation close to the festival locations as a practical choice for a multi-day stay.
Sources:
- Opatija Tourist Board / Visit Opatija – official RetrOpatija 2026 programme, locations, schedule, parking and traffic regulation (link)
- Visit Opatija – announcement of RetrOpatija 2026 with a description of the programme, oldtimers, Dress Up Corner and festival locations (link)
- Festival Opatija – announcement of the final programme at the Open Air Theatre and description of the festival concept (link)
- City of Opatija – event announcement and organisational information about RetrOpatija (link)
- Opatija Tennis Classic – official information about the retro tennis programme, rules and tournament format (link)
- Croatian Tennis Association – announcement of the Opatija Tennis Classic and context of retro tennis (link)
- Croatian Museum of Tourism – information about the exhibition “Ljubo Kuntarić: Falat zemlje šteri ima dušu...” (link)
- PodUčkun – supplementary information about the Dress Up Corner programme at the Gervais Centre (link)
- Jutarnji list / Promo – organisers’ announcement of additional festival content, prizes and broadcast (link)