Like Venus who floated on a shell, but also like the shell itself, ships and sailors hide the secret of their beauty in the spiral depths from which a breath of the universe flows.

This breath of acoustic miracle which flows form within shells also awaits you at this unique festival where the stage has been constructed in the shape of a shell. Instead of Venus, on the shell-shaped stage for four consecutive years now, the best quality klapa (acapello groups) in all their musical beauty from the Zadar and Šibenik-Knin Counties have been performing, together with the best klapa singers from all of Croatia.

The specific qualities of this festival lay in the fact that it represents the beginning of a type of educational centre for klapa singing. Heading down this path is the winter klapa school of singing, the only one in Croatia which is turning into a traditional gathering of klapa and their leaders.

It is difficult to reconstruct history. Dreamlike pictures jump out from the thick weave of history, from the dark partitions of time: the Templars, the Hospitallers, Turkish pasha, Papal messengers, the Vrana priors… are only a few of the characters from the long and layered Pakoštane history.

During the “KNIGHTLY DAYS IN VRANA ,” a historical spectacle that takes place the last weekend in August, there are re-enactments of scenes from times long past. Before you there will be a medieval camp, knight tournaments, old crafts, plays, knights-horsemen from all over Croatia and abroad, falcon trainers, commoners, jugglers and the poor… picturesque folk costumes, uniforms, war devices, and add to this a rich a culinary offer based on medieval recipes. You will be awed by everything you see, but when you are offered fruits of the land from the Vrana fields you will not know where the true throne of pleasure resides: in your eyes or on your taste buds.

Right next to Han Jusufpaše Maškovića, the last Turkish fortress on the edge of western civilisation, a historical spectacle will take you back to the time of great battles, and if you close your eyes for a moment, it will seem as if you are part of the heroic army, a protruding bulwark before the Turkish onslaught, the grand Vrana priors Ivan Paližna and Petar Berislavić.

Off the paths trod by armies, outside the routes sailed by ships armed with cannons, lived women, who history never noted because history has always been a story of wars, conquering armies, burning and plundering. These women also lived among all these famous and less famous pages of history; they are our mothers, wives, daughters. While noting the wondrous uniforms of conquerors, history never noted the folk clothing worn by women. While the armies fortified themselves with the blood of the defeated, history never noted the food the women prepared and laid forth to eat before the victors or the defeated. Their skills, crafts and beauty were never noted. Of all the women throughout history, only those women whose beauty caught the eye of rulers and soldiers of any kind were noted. That is why this event is the beginning of the story of a great history of the region – the history of women.

Come to MATERINE UŽANCE, to the stone streets of an old locality, among the walls of times long past and taste the food of our mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers: Čućke, gnocchi, boiled octopus, shellfish, pršut (smoked ham), cheese… salty and sweet: almonds in sugar, mimice, fritule and kroštule (traditional desserts) … Everything is prepared, mixed and cooked before you a number of times throughout the summer. Come and have a taste, the story has no end.

Carnivals have always been events through which ordinary folk have channelled their fun, frustrations and of course, all that is wild within us. This masked Pakoštane madness represents an act of true folk and tourist fun, and unlike those in many other localities throughout Croatia, this masked madness is held in the middle of summer, in the middle of the month of July.

In colourful costumes, shorts or bikinis, a mix of locals and tourists mingle under the hot sun with wine, music and homemade treats, and for years have been the source of the unforgettable excitement of real summer madness.