Lastovska Fešta

On the first Saturday of August, the medieval stone village of Gornja Lastva — perched on the hillside above Tivat — comes alive for Lastovska Fešta, one of the oldest village festivals in the Boka. The 2024 edition marked its 50th anniversary, organised by the local heritage society "Napredak" and the Tivat Cultural Centre.

Gornja Lastva is a place the coast forgot in the best way: a cluster of stone houses, narrow lanes and old threshing floors on the green slopes above the bay, reached by a winding road or footpaths through olive terraces. For most of the year it is nearly silent. On fešta night the lanes fill with voices, lanterns and music, and the village becomes what it once was — a living community celebrating itself.

The fešta is a celebration of Lastva's own traditions: the Boka Navy dances its kolo among the stone houses, and villagers perform original Lastva songs along with the Lastovsko and Škaljarsko circle dances that belong to this hillside alone. It is folklore performed at its source rather than on a distant stage.

That specificity is the point. Songs and dances like these survive only where they are still danced by the people who inherited them, and the fešta is the night the inheritance is renewed — children learning the steps beside grandparents who learned them the same way.

Tables fill with local food and wine, and the music and dancing carry on late into the night, with the lights of Tivat and the bay glittering below. The setting — a quiet cluster of medieval stone architecture under the summer stars — is half the magic.

Entry is free. Gornja Lastva is a short drive or a rewarding uphill walk from Tivat — set out before sunset and arrive as the light turns golden over the bay. The fešta is the one night of the year when the village is at its fullest and most joyful, and worth planning an early-August evening around.