In the heart of Dalmatia, around 40 kilometers north of Split, on the shores of the Cetina River lies a town called Trilj. Apart from the natural beauties and rich cuisine, Trilj will become famous worldwide for the blues.

Q&A with Boris Hrepić Hrepa, art director of Thrill Blues Festival.

How started the thought of Thrill Blues Festival? What is the hardest part of make a blues festival in Europe?

At November of 2017 I got a call from Darko, a guy from Trilj who is popular Croatian musician and also in music business. He had just read my book "I found a very good band", a book about my passion for music, and there was so much about the blues in it. He came up to idea of organizing a music festival in his hometown and he asked me about a blues festival. My grandmother was from Trilj, so I know the place, the park, the river and the bridge, and I said this was a great idea, and I was sure it would work. It is not easy to make a blues festival anywhere in Europe, but here in Croatia is especially hard. It is easier in Norway, the Nederlands, France, they have a lot of blues clubs and strong blues scene, and Croatia is also at crossroads of western and eastern culture. The blues is here, but on the margins. The Thrill Blues Festival has a strong team of fighters, so we made a surprisingly good festival.

How do you describe Thrill Blues Festival's philosophy? How do you want it to affect people?

I did my best to color Thrill Blues Festival with the vibe of blues that I felt when I fell in love for blues when I was around 17. For me blues is pure deep essence of Mother Earth, like playful little child, simple, opened, sincere, direct. And it worked, every year during festival days a thousands people come to Trilj and we all together are a big happy family.

Which meetings in Thrill Blues Festival have been the most important experiences for you?

Every year is bundle of new experience, with lot of new friendships with blues brothers and sisters from all over the world, and all that makes my heart fuller. Last year special and precious new friendship was with British famous blues producer Mike Vernon, such a good, humble and dear man. One memory I always telling around, after 3rd Thrill Blues Festival finished, sometime around 3am, a huge guy approach me, a local one, looks like hillbilly, without few teeth. First, I get little scared, he looks to dangerously, he must be a troublemaker, but then he made a big smile, he shook my hand and told me: Thank you, I never heard in my life about that music called blues, but this is a best music in the world. Blues woke up child in him, and he was so cool and happy.

Photo: Boris Hrepić Hrepa, art director of Thrill Blues Festival