Location: Zrce Beach, Island of Pag, Croatia
Capacity: 4,000
Once famous for its distinctive cheese, the Croatian Island of Pag is now considered a genuine party paradise, with clubbers from across Europe flocking to its picturesque shores during the three-month summer season. While a sharp rise in the number of festivals taking place on Pag has caught the headlines, the roots of the island’s ongoing love affair with dance music stretch back 17 years to the launch of Aquarius, a now famed open-air club just off Zrce Beach.
From the start, Aquarius gained a reputation for being not only a great place to hang out during the day — it boasts a popular restaurant and beach bar — but also the perfect place to dance all night under a blanket of twinkling stars. It’s this latter aspect that now draws in dancers, with the club’s two dancefloors and pool packed out almost every night it’s open.
It’s perhaps unsurprising that many dance-focused music festivals utilize Aquarius to host after-parties each summer. Hideout, Black Sheep, Hard Island, Fresh Island and Barrakud all made the 4,000-capacity venue home in the summer of 2018. In between, the club boasted all-night takeovers from some of the leading lights of the global EDM scene, including Rave Radio, Wildstylez, Alan Walker and Salvatore Ganacci.