Tunalicious Festival brings together tuna lovers

In addition to the rich gastronomic offer and excellent music program, this year visitors will once again have the opportunity to experience TunIstra, an international sports competition in hunting large fish.

This fall, from September 9 to 15, a new edition of the Tunalicious Festival will be held, a traditional tuna event that brings diverse gastronomic trends and rich entertainment and sports content to the streets and waterfront of Poreč. Tunalicious comes this year with as many as four program categories: Tuna Restaurant Week, Spinnaker Gourmet Stage, Tunalicious Street Food Festival and TunIstra – a sports competition in hunting for big fish, i.e. "big game fishing".

TunIstra, the international sports competition in hunting big fish, is coming back

From September 11 to 14, competitive boats will arrive in Poreč and will test their limits in the hunt for the "queen of the Adriatic" in three fishing days. For this competition, a bluefin tuna catch quota of a minimum of 830 kilograms has been approved, so the biggest tuna caught will be weighed and scored daily on the Poreč waterfront, which gives visitors the opportunity to see them live. Other specimens of tuna and other fish will be released back into the sea according to the "catch & release" principle.

September was not chosen by chance as the date of this festival, namely that is when the capital specimens of tuna move in the Istrian waters. At the last edition of the TunIstra competition, held in 2019, a record tuna weighing 198.75 kg and 213 cm long was caught, and in these waters it is not uncommon to meet even grander specimens. That's why Poreč stands out as a logical choice for all adrenaline lovers who want to try this sport, and experience the uncertainty of the search for the queens of the Adriatic, as well as experience the excitement of fighting with them.

The gastronomic offer and entertainment content are richer every year

Tunalicious Festival will start on Monday, September 9, with Tuna Restaurant Week, which will last until Sunday. Over the course of seven days, numerous restaurants in Poreština will create special menus with innovative tuna dishes at promotional prices. The pinnacle of this gastronomic event will be the Spinnaker Gourmet Stage on September 12. It is a special gourmet dinner at Valamar's award-winning restaurant Spinnaker, signed by a famous guest chef, who prepares a real gastronomic spectacle with tuna in the main role.

For those who still prefer the street food variant and enjoying snacks "from the feet" accompanied by festival music, the Tunalicious Street Food Festival will offer interesting iterations of everyone's favorite tuna from September 12 to 14 on the Poreč waterfront at gastro houses and trailers – from specialties prepared Asian style to popular burgers or juicy steaks. As part of the event, well-known names from the Croatian and regional music scene will perform on the festival stage on the waterfront, and the organizers will soon reveal who we will have the opportunity to listen to live.