28.10.2021.

Meat Me 2.0 Was a Several-Day Feast of Delicious Food with a Humanitarian Goal

Zadar Meat Festival, was held at the Old Market, in the centre of the Zadar Peninsula, from October 18 to 23. It was a gastronomic, tourist and entertainment event which consisted of six morning and two evening programmes. At the Festival, many traditional dishes based on meat presented part of the gastronomic heritage of Zadar, this part of Dalmatia and Croatia.

The organizer of "Meat Me 2.0" was the Tourist Board of Zadar, which realized the Festival in cooperation with numerous partners and donors. The best Zadar butchers donated all necessary meat; restaurants sent the top Zadar chefs; small and large producers of wine also provided other strong and soft drinks, and some retail chains from Zadar and beyond participated with cured meat products, cheeses, spices and sea salt.

"Meat Me 2.0" was a several-day Festival of good food, but also goodwill and positive energy. The event had an essential and specific humanitarian goal: to raise donations for the Pediatrics Ward of the Zadar General Hospital. All the proceeds from the sale of food and beverages will go to the Ward to purchase the necessary equipment. Eventually, from the sale of several thousand portions of food and drinks, 72,935 kunas (about € 9,720) were raised. The first Meat Me Festival in 2019 raised about 32,000 kunas (slightly more than 4,000 €) for the same purpose.

Each day of the Festival had its meat theme, so from Monday to Saturday, dishes were prepared from lamb, poultry, offal, veal, beef and pork. The idea of the morning programmes was marenda in a hundred ways.

In Dalmatia and Zadar, marenda is a late morning lunch or early lunch, the most important meal of the day that is usually eaten with a spoon and is a warm snack. The two evening programmes on Friday and Saturday were big parties with barbecues and large grills.

While the dishes were being cooked and tasted, the accompanying programmes were attended by Zadar DJs, moderators and live bands. Admission to the large tent at the Old Market in Zadar was not allowed without a COVID certificate. The Festival was also visited by many tourists who stayed in Zadar in October, enjoying the pleasant sunny weather, good local food and drinks.

"Meat Me 2.0" was also ecologically friendly: all the cutlery and crockery used at the Festival were made of recyclable materials, wood and paper.