Mediaboss Marketing

SAMANTHA BAKER

PARTY TIME: Thousands gather at the amphitheatre in Pula, Croatia, for a concert.

The yellow light illuminating the 2000-year-old faade of Pula's Roman amphitheatre suddenly shut off.

The three-storey-high arched windows disappeared and the stage's lighting rigs went dark, leaving a 5000-strong crowd to sway in blissful darkness with nothing but their glowing spliffs to light the way.

Thankfully, the music continued unabated. Only the faint outline of ancient stone walls against the moonlight served to distinguish the ancient Croatian gladiator pit from a power-starved Jamaican dance-hall.

The languid reggae beat rang out even louder than before, quickly silencing ironic cheers from the audience as it became clear a power outage had plunged the arena back into pre-electric antiquity.

It's the kind of glitch that can turn a hedonistic voyage to one of Europe's most-heralded music festivals into an expensive stumble in the silent, stony dark.

But one thing that sets Outlook Festival apart is the acts on the bill.

The Original Wailers are carrying the crowd through the lighting lull. It's the contemporary version of Bob Marley's backing band as assembled by Al Anderson, the lead guitarist on Marley's breakthrough 1974 US tour.

The amphitheatre's rustic masonry has already absorbed the bass-heavy DJ talents of New York hip-hop pioneer Grandmaster Flash - blasting everything from Snoop Dogg to Nirvana and mixing his seminal 1982 hit The Message straight into The BeeGees' How Deep Is Your Love.

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Getting in the European groove