A concert feels different when you have walked through the landscape to reach it. There is the anticipation along the way, the pleasure of arriving and the particular closeness of an audience that has already shared something before the first note. Later, that same group might find itself dancing together, with a little more energy left in its legs than anyone expected.

At Love Trails Croatia, these are the moments Ollie Baxter has in mind when he builds the music programme. The setting matters. So does the time of day, what you have just done and what you might need next. Across the week, the music makes space for exhilaration and for quieter, more attentive listening.

“When I start scouting artists for Love Trails Croatia, I start by thinking about the Love Trails audience.”

A programme shaped by its audience

Ollie describes that audience as “curious and adventure-seeking”.

“They’re full of positive energy and they are, above all, welcoming. And that DNA is something I try to weave into the music line-up.”

That welcome gives him room to be adventurous. Alongside the names you already know, there are artists you may be hearing for the first time. The hope is that the same curiosity that takes you down an unfamiliar trail will bring you in front of an unfamiliar musician, ready to listen.

“We don't always book artists you’ll have heard of, but all the performers that grace our stage mirror the energy that they get back from the Love Trails crowd,” he says. “I think we reward the adventurous and the curious.”

It is a relationship he has watched develop over years of programming at Love Trails in Wales. People arrive willing to give an artist their attention, and musicians respond to the feeling in front of them. For an emerging act, that can be a remarkable audience to play to.

It also makes possible a programme with real changes of pace. Across a week of running, hiking and movement, your appetite for music will shift. Some evenings invite a long dance. Other moments call for somewhere to settle and take in the view.

“That positive energy, it doesn't just have to be high energy,” Ollie explains.

His aim is to meet people in those different states, supplying “high-tempo euphoria they can move to” while also making room for “the more contemplative and restorative moments”. Both have a place here.

Auntie Flo and the pleasure of listening

Tuesday’s welcome at Club Porto brings together Rich Wills, Auntie Flo and Girlcar.

Brian d’Souza, the DJ and producer behind Auntie Flo, brings a wide-ranging musical curiosity to that opening night. His selections connect rhythms from across the world, inviting you to follow the music somewhere you might not have expected.

You can also spend time with Brian outdoors: Wednesday brings a biosonification workshop and hike, turning electrical signals from plants and fungi into sound; Thursday offers a field recordings hike.

There is something revealing about encountering an artist in these different settings. You might first meet their musical imagination through a dancefloor, then spend the following day exploring how they listen. It gives the week a sense of continuity, with room to get to know the people behind the performances.

GUTS at the end of the trail

Wednesday’s afternoon on Jablanova Beach belongs to GUTS, an artist Ollie has wanted to bring to Love Trails Croatia for a long time.

“GUTS is a proper crate-digger. Expect everything from Latin rhythms, reggae, funk, soul, jazz and everything in between. He loves doing long, journeying DJ sets that take you on a bit of an adventure.”

That appetite for discovery makes him a particularly good companion for the first full afternoon of the week. After the opening party, there is time to find your feet, get out into the landscape and begin to feel at home with the people around you. His music gives that afternoon somewhere to go.

Ollie talks about the sheer pleasure in GUTS’ productions, the way they seem unable to help making you smile. On the beach, that generosity has space to stretch out: a familiar rhythm might lead to a record you have never heard, and a moment spent listening might become a dance.

“He's basically the soundtrack to the audience’s first full afternoon and early evening on the beach with us, and I think that's absolutely his forte.”

Falle Nioke among the vines

For Thursday’s performance by Falle Nioke, Ollie began with an invitation that was hard to refuse: a mountainside, a vineyard and a concert as the sun goes down.

Falle had already performed on the main stage at Love Trails in Wales this year. When Ollie described the Croatian setting afterwards, he jumped at the chance.

Originally from Guinea and now based in Margate, Falle is a singer and multi-instrumentalist whose collaborators include Ghost Culture, sir Was, Congo Natty and United Freedom Collective. Ollie first encountered his music through the recordings with Ghost Culture; more recently, he watched Falle’s band Pigeon deliver what he calls a “roof-tearer of a set” at London’s George Tavern.

In Croatia, the plan is much more intimate. Falle will bring his gongoma for a performance with only a little amplification, allowing the character of his voice to fill the space.

The setting is Estate Winery Katunar, reached on a hike with Mindful Miles and Clapham Yoga Club.

“I think it's going to be unlike any concert that most people in the audience have ever seen (including me),” Ollie says.

The excitement comes partly from how much a setting like this asks of a performer. With very little between musician and audience, every detail becomes more apparent. Choosing artists who can hold that attention is central to Ollie’s approach.

“You can't do some of the mad things that we do, and expect them to flourish unless they’re just really bloody good musicians.”

He points to how exposed a performance can feel with an amp and a microphone in a remote clearing or beside the sea. For Falle, whose voice can command a room entirely on its own, that closeness is precisely the attraction.

Adjua and a connection to Wales

Later on Thursday, Adjua and her band bring another kind of warmth to the evening.

The Welsh-Ghanaian artist from Cardiff blends soul, alternative R&B and jazz with Afro-influenced rhythms. Her music has already taken her to Glastonbury and SXSW, and Love Trails audiences in Wales have had the chance to hear her before.

Bringing her to Croatia is something Ollie describes as a cultural exchange between the two events. It creates a connection to the musicians playing closer to home, while giving more people the opportunity to discover them.

He is particularly excited about hearing her with the band: the quality of the players, the funk in the arrangements and, at the centre of it all, her voice.

The timing is deliberate. By Thursday evening, you have begun to settle into the week, with Timed Out™ still ahead of you the next morning. Ollie wanted a live performance that could meet that feeling of contentment and anticipation, with music that would “make you feel good and nourish the soul”.

Adjua also embodies something he values about this audience. Recognition is welcome, but curiosity can generate its own excitement. As he puts it, people will bring their “trademark runner's high and high stamina to any dance floor or concert”.

“And if you're giving them what they need, then they'll let you know about that.”

The celebration after Timed Out

Friday’s post-race party at Club Porto moves from Love Trails DJs through United Freedom Collective and Maribou State, with Mia Lily taking over after midnight into Saturday.

By then, there will be plenty to celebrate. The effort of the day is behind you, the stories are beginning to circulate and the people you have been sharing the trails with are gathering again.

United Freedom Collective’s Robbie Redway brings a musical world that moves through psychedelia, disco, house and global grooves. He is also a yoga teacher, connecting the music and movement programmes through his own practice.

Maribou State’s DJ set follows. Their sound brings soul and organic warmth to electronic music, with a feel for both intimacy and the collective release of a festival crowd. In the context of this week, those qualities offer a fitting way to celebrate a day spent outdoors together.

Mia Lily then carries the party into its late hours. A classically trained pianist with jazz roots, she is a DJ and producer whose range particularly excites Ollie. He hears two complementary sides in her work: house, UK garage and breakbeat with an immediate urge to move, alongside something more spacious.

“But you can also expect the more sort of ethereal, dreamy, dubby stuff.”

It is that breadth that makes her such an intriguing choice for this point in the night. There is scope to lift the energy and to let the music drift into a different atmosphere, following the people still on the dancefloor.

“I think she'll definitely take us on a bit of a journey,” Ollie says. “And I think you should be expecting to see her in a lot more places, if you haven't already.”

Room for one more discovery

Saturday offers Adjua solo and Tom Colville’s Deep Listening Session at Crkva Majka Božja, plus a boat party with M’Lover and Rich Wills. Ben Cipolla plays at Lighthouse Škuljica at sunset; Love Trails DJs, Batki b2b Ob-server and M’Lover round off the evening at Club Porto.

Those choices bring us back to the variety Ollie sees in the landscape itself. Baška sits between the sea and the mountains, with expansive beaches and dramatic changes of terrain. He wants the music to allow for a similar range of experiences, with performances that suit the place and the people arriving there.

Some will catch you full of adrenaline, ready to celebrate what you have done. Others will give you time to look around and appreciate where you are. The quieter moments matter just as much to him: a chance to feel replenished before the next hike, movement session or afternoon with friends.

“We celebrate curiosity,” Ollie says. “We celebrate influences from all over the world.”

You can bring that curiosity with you. Give an unfamiliar artist some time. Follow a sound that catches your attention. You may arrive knowing exactly which set you want to see, and leave with a favourite you could never have planned for.