Another summer rolls by, which can only mean one thing: another Punk Rock Holiday in Slovenia! We sadly couldn’t make it last year because, well… moving house, life admin and all that boring grown-up stuff. But this year was finally our year to return to PRH – and we couldn’t have been more excited.

We first discovered the festival back in 2017, when we were living and working in Slovenia, and we’ve tried to make it back to Punk Rock Holiday every year since. Honestly, there is no festival that beats it.

For starters, there’s the location. PRH takes place in Tolmin, surrounded by mountains and, most importantly, the absolutely magical Soča River. Then there’s the fact that you’re within easy reach of three supermarkets – something you’d absolutely never get at a UK festival! It’s a small, friendly festival where you can wander around without feeling like you’re trekking across an entire city, and everywhere you look there’s another beautiful view.

Float, drink, repeat

PRH has two stages: the Beach Stage and the Main Stage. The Beach Stage kicks off around 1pm, which gives you the perfect excuse to spend your afternoons doing what everyone else is doing: floating down the freezing-but-refreshing Soča River with a few beers in hand.

And obviously, when in Slovenia, you need a Laško. My personal favourite Slovenian drink is the grapefruit radler. SO GOOD.

You float down the river with hundreds of other festival-goers, eventually reaching the beach stage, where the smaller and lesser-known bands play. It’s such a brilliant atmosphere — you’re literally watching live punk rock next to a turquoise river with mountains in the background. What’s not to love?

My highlights from the Beach Stage this year were The Meffs and Ballyhoo!. The Meffs in particular absolutely smashed it. Their stage presence was brilliant, and I’d be very surprised if we don’t see them on the Main Stage next year.

Vegan food at a punk festival?

One of the things that made us especially happy this year was the amount of vegan food available. Our absolute favourite was Crusty Kitchen, a 100% vegan food stall serving things like deep-fried oyster mushroom burgers and pulled mushroom burgers.

The fried mushroom burger was incredible. Crispy, juicy and ridiculously satisfying, it genuinely reminded me of KFC – but vegan! It came in a delicious brioche bun and was exactly the sort of filthy festival food you want after a day of swimming, drinking and watching bands.

Obviously, we also had to get the famous Veni Vegi Vici seitan kebab, which was still every bit as good as we remembered. Their fries deserve a special mention too, especially with the huge dollop of vegan mayo on the side. 🤤

There was also a pizza stand that always seemed to have a massive queue, so we didn’t actually manage to try it. They had a vegan truffle pizza, though, and everyone we spoke to said it was delicious – so that’s definitely going on the list for next time!

And if you’re a breakfast person, Veri’s Catering had amazing scrambled tofu. Because apparently even punks need protein.

Starting the day with yoga

One of my favourite additions to the festival was the Beach Yoga class, run by Saskia and Lorea every day.

It’s such a lovely idea to have yoga outside, right beside the river, before the festival gets busy in the afternoon. You get incredible views of the Soča while everything is still peaceful and quiet.

The two teachers have different styles, but both classes were fantastic and I felt so good afterwards. It was definitely a much nicer way to start the day than immediately reaching for a beer. Although there was plenty of time for that later.

Will 2027 be the last Punk Rock Holiday in Tolmin?

Sadly, next year could potentially be the final Punk Rock Holiday at the Sotočje festival site.

The Tolmin municipality has decided that it wants to move away from hosting festivals in the area because of environmental concerns. I have to admit, I find this pretty frustrating when it comes to PRH, as the festival seems to make a genuine effort to keep the site clean and minimise waste.

There are bin deposits, reusable cups and plenty of measures in place to encourage people to look after the area. Compared with other festivals I’ve been to, I think PRH does a pretty good job of being environmentally conscious. And it’s not just the festival itself that benefits from all those visitors. I’m sure the local cafés, restaurants, bars and supermarkets get a huge boost from the influx of people during both the MetalDays festival a couple of weeks before PRH and Punk Rock Holiday itself.

Hopefully there will be a way for the festival to continue in Tolmin – because it’s hard to imagine PRH anywhere else.

Make 2027 your year!

So, if you’ve ever thought about going to Punk Rock Holiday but haven’t quite made it happen, make 2027 the year you go. It could potentially be the last one at this incredible location and I’d hate for anyone to miss out.

We drove over 1,000 km to get there this year, and honestly? Worth every kilometre. We’ll be keeping everything crossed that it’s not the final Punk Rock Holiday at Sotočje. But just in case it is, we’ll be there.

Presale tickets go on sale on 1st September.

See you by the Soča! 🤘🌊🌱