Jesen u Lici 2026, Gospić, 2 to 4 October: exhibitors, breeds, Lika Fest

Jesen u Lici is the largest exhibition and sales fair in the Lika-Senj county and one of the few in Croatia where the rule is strict: exhibitors may sell only their own produce. The 28th edition runs from Friday 2 to Sunday 4 October 2026 on Trg Stjepana Radića, the main square of Gospić, and on the livestock ground (Stočno sajmište) in Smiljanska street. The organiser, the Lika-Senj county with the town of Gospić as co-organiser, expects more than 350 exhibitors of farm, food, craft and decorative products and more than 250 breeders of native breeds.

What you will find

• The food of the region on the stalls: Lika potatoes, lamb, škripavac and other cheeses, honey, plum brandy, smoked meat and dried fruit, from the people who made them. A quality assessment of the products is part of the programme.
• Native breeds on the livestock ground: Lika pramenka sheep, buša cattle, the Croatian cold-blood horse and the Croatian Posavina horse, shown by more than 250 breeders, next to a display of agricultural machinery.
• Lika Fest 2026, the fourth edition of the music festival that opens the fair, on Friday 2 October at 20:00 on Trg Stjepana Radića. The performers had not been announced by 12 September.
• Accompanying events for all ages across the three days. Opening hours and the full programme are published by the organiser on jesenulici.hr as the date approaches; the organiser lists no admission fee, the fair is on the open square.

Getting to Gospić

Gospić sits in the middle of the Lika plateau, a few kilometres off the A1 motorway (exit Gospić): about 200 km and two hours from Zagreb, about 100 km and an hour from Zadar, and 60 km south of the Plitvice Lakes. The town has a station on the Zagreb to Split railway, but the line through Lika is slow and the train takes far longer than the motorway. Expect a cold morning and a warm afternoon: Lika in early October averages daytime highs around 16 degrees and nights near 9, so bring a jacket for the Lika Fest evening.

Six kilometres away in Smiljan stands the Nikola Tesla memorial centre at the inventor's birthplace, the obvious stop before or after the fair. With a car, Plitvice on the Saturday and the fair on the Sunday make a good weekend; the park is on its mid-season price of 23 euros in October.

Gospić in short

Gospić is the seat of the Lika-Senj county and the only town of any size on the Lika plateau, about 560 m above sea level on the Lika river, with around 6,000 people. It grew in the 18th century as a garrison town of the Habsburg Military Frontier after the Ottomans left Lika in 1689, and the grid of streets around the main square dates from that period. Between 1991 and 1995 the town stood on the front line and much of the centre was rebuilt afterwards. The Museum of Lika covers the region from prehistory to the 20th century, and the cathedral of the Annunciation has been the seat of a diocese since 2000. Lika-Senj is the least densely populated county in Croatia, so the fair is the one weekend when the producers of the whole plateau stand in one place.

Where to stay

Gospić has few beds: a couple of hotels in the centre, family guesthouses and private rooms in the town and in the villages towards Smiljan and Perušić. On the fair weekend exhibitors and breeders take many of them, so book as soon as your dates are fixed. For a wider choice stay outside the town. The Plitvice area, 60 km north, has hundreds of rooms and is quiet in October once the summer crowds have gone. Karlobag, 40 km away on the coast over the Velebit pass, and Zadar, an hour down the A1, are in their off season with lower prices, and from either you can drive up in the morning and be back at the sea for dinner. Coaches connect Gospić with Zagreb, Zadar and Rijeka but are infrequent, so with a concert at 20:00 on the Friday a car is the practical choice.

What to eat and how it is served

Lika cooking is built on the potato, the sheep and the long winter. Lički krumpir, the Lika potato, carries the European protected geographical indication and is the base of most dishes: baked in its skin, boiled with sour cabbage, or roasted under a lamb. Lamb from the pramenka sheep is turned whole on a spit and sold by weight, eaten with bread and spring onion and without cutlery. The cheeses are young: škripavac is a fresh cow's milk cheese that squeaks between the teeth and is made to be eaten within days, and basa is a soft cheese beaten with cream and spread on warm potatoes. Plum brandy is poured in small glasses at the start of the meal. Prices are written on the stalls and you pay the producer directly.

• Police: potatoes baked whole in the skin, split in half, salted and eaten with lard or basa, the everyday dish of the plateau.
• Lička juha: a thick soup of lamb or beef with potatoes and root vegetables, the dish to look for in the restaurants around the square.
• Škripavac: buy it on the day you eat it or warm a slice in a dry pan, it keeps only a few days even in the fridge.
• Spit lamb: ask for a mix of crust and meat, it comes on paper with bread and salt, and a portion with bread is a meal.
• Smoked meat and sausages: dried in the bura wind of the plateau, sold whole or vacuum-packed for the journey.
• Šljivovica and other fruit brandies: taste before you buy, strength and sweetness differ from stall to stall.

What else to see nearby

Gospić sits where the roads of Lika cross, so most of the region is within an hour by car. The nearest stop after Smiljan is Veliki Žitnik, 5 km away, with the memorial house of Ante Starčević, the 19th century politician, at his birthplace. To the south-west the road climbs over the Velebit pass at Baške Oštarije and drops to Karlobag on the coast, the quickest way from the fair to the sea. North of the town the Gacka river rises in karst springs at Sinac near Otočac, with old mills at the source, and beyond Otočac the refuge at Kuterevo takes in orphaned brown bears. Paklenica and the Northern Velebit are national parks that need a full day each.

Practical notes

The streets around Trg Stjepana Radića are closed to traffic for the fair, so park in the side streets and walk in. The livestock ground in Smiljanska street lies on the road out towards Smiljan, on the edge of the town, within walking distance of the square. Bring cash: many producers are family farms without a card terminal, and there are cash machines in the centre. A cool bag with an ice pack earns its space if you buy cheese or lamb, because a parked car warms up in the afternoon sun even in October. English is spoken less than on the coast, but prices are written up and pointing works.

Think about customs before you fill the boot. Honey, dried fruit, jam and a bottle of šljivovica in checked luggage travel anywhere within your duty-free allowance. Meat and dairy do not: the US and Australia bar most meat and fresh cheese carried by travellers, Canada sets its own limits, and the UK has barred meat and dairy from the EU in personal luggage since April 2025, so check the rule in force before you pack a smoked ham. The sensible plan is to eat what you buy in Croatia: vacuum-packed smoked meat and a škripavac keep for the rest of the trip in a cool bag or a hotel fridge.