Weekend Media Festival: Rovinj's tobacco factory in September

Once a year, at the end of September, the old tobacco factory on Rovinj's waterfront fills with stages, bars and meeting rooms. The Weekend Media Festival, in Croatia simply called Weekend, runs three days of panels, talks, workshops and concerts there. One ticket opens all eight programmes, from media and advertising to tech, health and energy. The organiser, Pepermint from Zagreb, has announced the 20th edition for September 2027.

The first edition ran from 18 to 21 September 2008 in the same building, under the patronage of the Adris Group, with Tomislav Ricov as festival director, Lider reported at the time. It began as a meeting of media and advertising people. The organiser still calls media and communications the reason it all started in 2008 and the centre of the programme. Tobacco was made in the building from 1872. In 2007 production moved to a new factory in Kanfanar, and the waterfront building kept the company headquarters and the Adris gallery. The festival complex covers 30,000 square metres.

Weekend Media Festival 2027

The organiser has announced Weekend.20 for September 2027 at the Old Tobacco Factory, Obala Vladimira Nazora 1. The exact days are still to come; weekend.hr says they will be published soon. The last two editions ran from Thursday to Sunday in the second half of September: 18 to 21 September 2025 and 24 to 27 September 2026. In 2024 the 17th edition opened on Friday 20 September and ran until Sunday.

Ticket sales for Weekend.20 open on 28 October 2026. The first tier, First Call, costs 350 euros plus VAT and runs until sold out. Later tiers follow by date, from Black Friday at 400 euros (26 to 30 November 2026) to Last Minute at 800 euros (21 to 25 September 2027), each plus VAT. Members of six professional associations (HURA, HUOJ, IAB, IAA, SOZ and UGP) pay 550 euros plus VAT with proof of membership. Students up to 26 pay 100 euros plus VAT, on sale from 1 June 2027.

What one ticket covers

• All talks, panels, workshops and concerts on all three festival days, across all eight programmes.
• The opening and closing parties, the networking zone and the My.Weekend app, free with every ticket on the App Store and Google Play.
• Food and drinks, travel to Rovinj and hotel rooms are paid separately.
• Entry works with a personal QR code. It arrives by email at the start of September and also appears in the app. Visitors show it at the registration office on arrival.

Eight festivals in one building

Each programme has its own halls and its own line-up, and every visitor can move between them. The organiser lists the eight like this:

• Weekend, the main programme: media, advertising, creativity and journalism.
• HR.Weekend: people, talent and organisations.
• Tech.Weekend: startups, venture capital and AI infrastructure. It grew out of AI.Weekend in 2026.
• Finance.Weekend: corporate finance, controlling and treasury.
• Investment.Weekend: investments and capital markets.
• Energy.Weekend: the energy transition and renewables.
• Health.Weekend: healthcare, pharmaceuticals and wellness. First held in 2026.
• Education.Weekend: education and the future of learning. First held in 2026.

The day runs on panels, talks and workshops in the halls. The evenings belong to parties and concerts, which are part of the ticket. The detailed schedule, with registration hours, a venue map and the bus, appears on the official site before each edition. Inside the app, visitors build their own timetable by topic.

Getting to Rovinj

The festival address is Stara tvornica duhana, Obala Vladimira Nazora 1, Rovinj. By car from Zagreb, the organiser gives the route via Rijeka and the Učka tunnel to the Kanfanar junction, then Putini and Rovinj. From Slovenia and Italy the route runs via the Kaštel-Dragonja crossing and the Umag toll station to Kanfanar.

• By air: Pula airport is 40 km away, Rijeka 116 km, Trieste 147 km, Ljubljana 205 km, Venice 258 km and Zagreb 262 km.
• By train: the nearest stations are Kanfanar, 18 km away, and Pula, 32 km away.
• By bus: direct lines link Rovinj with the larger Croatian cities, and lines from Ljubljana and Koper also reach the town.
• By sea: seasonal passenger boats connect Rovinj with Venice and the Emilia-Romagna coast. Our Venice catamaran guide has the details.

Where to stay

Maistra Hospitality Group is the festival's hospitality partner, and the MeetMe agency handles room bookings for visitors at weekend@meetme.hr. The accommodation page on weekend.hr lists the partner hotels for each edition. For private rooms, beaches and parking around town, see our Rovinj holiday tips.

Between sessions, the old town is close by: the harbour, the Grisia lane with its galleries and the church of St Euphemia at the top of the hill. Our guide to what to see in Rovinj walks the route from the harbour up. Hotels, transport and the town overview are on the Rovinj city page.

Weekend Media Festival 2026 in review

Weekend.19 ran from 24 to 27 September 2026. For the first time, the programme began on Thursday morning, at the Grand Park Hotel Rovinj, and Thursday opened with the first Health.Weekend. Talks were spread over two venues, the Old Tobacco Factory and the Grand Park Hotel, where Energy.Weekend was held. Eight programmes ran in parallel, two of them new: Health.Weekend and Education.Weekend. More than 200 speakers were announced, and the organiser called it the largest edition so far.

The organiser's closing report picks out a few rooms. Gerard Baker, former editor-in-chief and now Editor at Large of The Wall Street Journal, spoke about keeping readers' trust as AI changes how news is made. British journalist James Bloodworth talked about online gurus who sell young men a whole view of the world. Creativity speaker Fredrik Härén closed with the story of a photographer looking for a new view of the same sunrise every morning. On the panel "Trumps all around us", Slobodan Georgiev of TV Nova in Serbia and TV editor Zoran Šprajc discussed how political rhetoric changes newsrooms.

Actress Milena Radulović spoke about her international career and the place of women in film. Radio marked its first century with singer Neda Ukraden, who sang "Zora je" in the hall. The team of the film "Svadba", director Igor Šeregi, producer Ivan Kelava and actors Rene Bitorajac and Anđelka Stević Žugić, told how the comedy reached 2.4 million viewers in Croatia and the neighbouring countries. The session ended with a wedding bouquet thrown into the audience. HR.Weekend gave out its awards: the Grand Prix went to Rijeka Gateway, and Andreja Gracin was named HR Manager of the Year.

The party programme announced before the festival ran from Thursday to Saturday: an MTV farewell party on Thursday, the ID Polo Party and a Studio 54 Party on Friday, and a Songkillers concert on the Expo Stage to close on Saturday. A new listening room, Slušaona, played records inside the factory for the first time. The organiser ended the report with a look ahead to next year's jubilee, the 20th Weekend.

Earlier editions

The 17th edition opened on Friday 20 September 2024 with more than 200 panellists on nine stages, Hina reported in Glas Istre. Four festivals shared the building that year: the Weekend Media Festival, HR.Weekend, AI.Weekend and Finance.Weekend. Guests included Melissa Bell of CNN and UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin. Weekend.18 followed from Thursday 18 to Sunday 21 September 2025 at the former tobacco factory, as listed by the Rovinj Tourist Board.