Featured image: Ston Salt Festival/Festival soli Ston
One of Pelješac’s most distinctive late-summer events returns at the end of August, with Ston celebrating the 10th edition of a festival built around something that has shaped the town for centuries: salt.
The main programme of the Ston Salt Festival runs from August 27 to 30, bringing guided tours, traditional salt harvesting, Pelješac wine tastings, exhibitions, workshops and live music to locations around the historic town. Special offers in local restaurants and wineries continue until September 13, while a two-day symposium in September completes this year’s anniversary programme.
All Ston Salt Festival events are free to attend.
A festival built around Ston’s centuries-old saltworks
Salt is much more than the theme of the festival. It is an important part of Ston’s history and one of the reasons the town developed into an important economic centre during the time of the Republic of Dubrovnik.
The Ston saltworks have remained largely unchanged since the 14th century. Salt is still harvested using traditional methods, making the site both a working saltworks and a unique cultural and tourist attraction.
The festival grew from this connection between salt, Ston and the former Dubrovnik Republic, combining the town’s heritage with food, wine, traditional products, art and music.
Visitors during the festival can see the saltworks in operation rather than simply learn about their history. Guided tours and demonstrations of harvesting fleur de sel are among the central events of the programme.
Ston Salt Festival begins with Eko Placa
From August 27 to 30, Trg kralja Tomislava will host the festival’s Eko Placa, a market featuring local and traditional products.
The market will be open each day from 9 am to 1 pm and again from 6 pm to 9 pm, giving visitors a chance to browse local products alongside the main evening programme.
The larger programme begins on Friday, August 28, at the Ston saltworks. At 6 pm, visitors can join the guided tour “Tell me… about salt and Ston”, followed at 7 pm by “Let’s harvest salt!”, during which the Ston saltworks team will demonstrate the traditional harvesting of fleur de sel.
The evening then moves to Kaštio Fortress. The exhibition “Salt of Wisdom” by Darija Jelinčić opens at 8 pm, followed at 8:30 pm by Wine, Jazz & Salt Night.
The event will include the presentation of the Ston Salt Festival anniversary booklet, a tasting of 10 selected Pelješac wines organised by EventLab Dubrovnik and a concert by Sara & Jappa.
Food, art and music take over Ston on Saturday
Saturday’s programme again begins at the saltworks with a guided tour at 6 pm.
At 6:30 pm, Jadranka Ničetić will lead a gastronomic workshop titled “Salt as a Traditional Preservative”, exploring one of salt’s most important historical roles in the kitchen.
Traditional salt harvesting follows at 7 pm.
At 8 pm, the exhibition “Trace in Salt” by Sandra Vuletić opens at Magazin soli, before the programme moves to Kaštio Fortress for Sol x Sonic at 9 pm, an evening event bringing music into one of Ston’s historic settings.
Klapa Cambi closes a family-focused Sunday programme
Sunday, August 30, brings some of the most family-oriented events of the Ston Salt Festival.
A Tinker STEAM workshop for children begins at the saltworks at 5:30 pm, followed by another guided tour of the saltworks and Ston at 6 pm. The children’s performance “Aster” starts at 6:30 pm, while visitors will have another opportunity to watch fleur de sel being harvested at 7 pm.
At 8 pm, the festival will hold the charity event “Let’s Light the Light of Kindness Together”, with illuminated lanterns being lit in support of the Djeca Pelješca association.
The main public programme concludes at 8:30 pm with a concert by Klapa Cambi at Arcimun Tower.
Special offers at Pelješac wineries and restaurants
The festival extends beyond the scheduled events in Ston itself.
From August 27 until September 13, participating restaurants and wineries across Ston and the Pelješac peninsula will offer special festival menus and selected wines, with discounts of 20 percent on participating offers.
It gives visitors travelling through Pelješac during this period an opportunity to experience another side of the festival even if they are not in Ston for the main weekend.
Wine is a particularly natural part of the programme. Pelješac is one of Croatia’s best-known wine regions, and the festival combines the story of Ston’s salt with other products and traditions closely associated with the peninsula.
10th Ston Salt Festival ends with Adriatic saltworks symposium
The anniversary programme will conclude on September 11 and 12 with the symposium “Cultural Landscapes of Adriatic Saltworks: Heritage, Community and the Future”.
The event is being organised in cooperation with Croatia’s Ministry of Culture and Media, Europa Nostra Croatia and Europa Nostra EU.
It broadens the festival’s focus beyond Ston itself, looking at Adriatic saltworks as cultural landscapes and examining their heritage, relationship with local communities and future.
After 10 editions, the festival has grown into more than a celebration of a single local product. It connects Ston’s still-active saltworks with the food, wine, history and people of Pelješac, while giving visitors a chance to experience traditions that remain part of everyday life in the town.
