SuncéBeat New Horizons

SuncéBeat New Horizons is the soul festival at The Garden, in Tisno, the one by the Southport Soul Weekender team. Adam Tiran, Jack Smith and Alex Rennie count 2015 as the sixth edition, so the first falls in 2010. The fishing village joins the Croatian coast to the island of Murter. From the centre to the grounds it is a twenty-minute walk. A pebble beach, blue water, three bars and a few food stalls. The daytime stage is a wooden platform that runs into the bay, with a Funktion One above it. Almost the whole bill plays two or three times, at different hours and in different places. The Garden Festival, the one that opened the circuit in 2006, closed its decade in July 2015. This week is not that one.

By day, Gavin Kendrick and Kev Beadle, both from Southport, move through jazz, soft electronica and soul, with no single title. Motor City Drum Ensemble plays only 45s, along the edge of bossa and rare groove, also with no title. The boat Argonaughty, two decks, goes out twice a day with about two hundred people. On the Disco Nights Picnic Boat are Souldynamic, Late Nite Tuff Guy and Rich Medina. Medina draws on First Choice, on Loose Joints and on Earth, Wind and Fire, with no song named. They stop to eat at a beach restaurant. On the way back, Late Nite Tuff Guy reaches the edits I Get Deeper and Hold Tight. They dock two hours late. The outing lasted seven.

The second boat is by day, in the sun. Osunlade brings people from Yoruba Records. Marlow, of the Rainer Trüby collective from Freiburg, goes up against Eddy Ramich and against Osunlade himself. Label hits, no title. On Saturday night, on the main stage, Roy Ayers Ubiquity. The night was muggy and the floor was full. He is 74. He arrives half an hour late. He opens with Running Away. He moves through Everybody Loves the Sunshine and We Live in Brooklyn Baby. The voice, at times, cannot be made out. He makes up for it with vibraphone solos. The next day, The Brand New Heavies, with no single title. On Friday afternoon, in The Soul Tent, Ladies On Rotation, from Edinburgh, lift the small tent. They leave no title either.

At night the light bounces off the still sea. Motor City Drum Ensemble comes back and goes from afrobeat to techno, no title. DJ Spen plays both times they see him, no title. The grounds close at two. Anyone who continues goes fifteen minutes by coach, by cab or by taxi-boat to Barbarellas. The founders of The Garden Festival found it in ruins, when they brought the event down from Petrčane to Tisno. An open-air floor, another Funktion One, futons, a barbecue and several bars.

Black Coffee, from South Africa, stamps loose vocals from Turn Me On and from Superman over tech and afro. Djeff Afrozilla plays an hour and a half, smiling. Among what sounds is DJ Spinna's rework of Days Like This, by Shaun Escoffery. Sandy Rivera closes Saturday in the early hours at Barbarellas. Before that, a polished 4x4, no title. At the end, I Can't Go For That, by Hall and Oates, and Nights Over Egypt, by The Jones Girls.

The two hundred people on the boat are an around. The seven hours are not the plan: they arrived two hours late. Roy's half hour is not the time on the dot. The voice that cannot be made out is not the vibraphone. Motor City's daytime 45s are not the night afrobeat. First Choice, Loose Joints and Earth, Wind and Fire are not songs. The Brand New Heavies, Kendrick, Beadle, Spen and Osunlade's boat leave no title. The Garden Festival's 2006 is not the start of this week. The sixth edition of 2015 is not another count.