Peter Pete Radovich, who has Dalmatian roots and is the creative director of American television channel CBS Sports, will take part in the Sunset Sports Festival in Zadar from June 4 to 6. He is one of the initiators and founders, along with celebrated NBA basketball player and Croatian national team player Damjan Rudež…
The architectural installations known as the Sea Organ and Greetings to the Sun by engineer Nikola Bašić are unique sights of the city of Zadar, where visitors from all over the world enjoy magical sunsets. It seems that these architectural installations have created an ambiental stage where a unique media story was born five years ago, in the sports industry and sports tourism commercial niche. Namely, the jubilee fifth edition of the SunsetSports Festival, whose first edition came to life in 2022 based on the vision and idea of the most famous living American Dalmatian, Peter Radovich, who has won 45 Emmies in 18 categories. The multi-award-winning producer and director, the son of Croatian emigrants, was raised in New York and began working in television as a marketing economist more than a quarter of a century ago, amassing unprecedented successes in the United States sports media industry. During his career, he worked on all major sports events on television, such as the Olympic Games, the Super Bowl, Wimbledon, and the NBA finals. The best sports producer in the world is adorned with endless innovation and Dalmatian modesty, claiming that anyone can succeed in America if they try. He loves Dalmatia. Radovich and his wife Nancy and three sons regularly “recharge their batteries” in Neviđane on the Adriatic Sea for four weeks during summer. His mother is from the island of Pašman, and his father is from Kaprije – who, in his search for a job, ended up in New York, where Peter and his sister shared the joys of childhood – having experienced the true American Dream with his university education and significant effort. Despite his busy lifestyle, Radovich does not miss the performances of Croatian athletes. He had the opportunity to be with the Olympic gold-winning handball players in Atlanta, with Goran Ivanišević at Wimbledon, in Salt Lake City with our Olympic gold medalist Janica Kostelić, as well as with the silver football team at the World Cup led by national team captain Luka Modrić, about whom Pete made a film with the vistas of Luka’s native area, from where you can beautifully see the panorama of the Adriatic waters dominated by his native Zadar, whose premiere screening was aired on America’s prestigious CBS on the eve of the World Cup in Qatar.
For the Zadar festival story, i.e., Sunset Sports Festival – Radovich, as the initiator, engaged for the director of the festival program an agile citizen of Zagreb, Damjan Rudež, a famous NBA basketball player and a Croatian national team player with Olympic experience.
From the beginning, the Zadar Sunset Sports Festival attracted visitors with interesting panels questioning The Future of Serie A, which featured the famous Italian journalist Diletta Leotta, Ughetta Ercolano and Michele Ciccarese, while one panel was moderated by the talented Cindy Marina, former Miss Universe Albania, who works for Serie A and the AC Milan Channel. In other words, the organizers of the Sunset Sports Festival launched a real revolution in the sports industry in Croatia, gathering planetary sports stars, sports workers and representatives of sports media in one place for the first time in our country. At the same time, the festival is a tribute to famous Zadar athletes such as basketball player and diplomat Krešo Ćosić, football virtuoso Luka Modrić, the Fantela brothers, Zoran Primorac…
In the past, sports were just fun and games, while in the digital age, sports have made it to the top 15 most successful industries globally. Experts for strategic projects in sports and tourism of the Republic of Croatia have confirmed the exceptional role of Croatian athletes in the promotion of the Republic of Croatia, adding that this sports project of Radovich’s and Rudež’s team has put Zadar on the map of sports, media and tourist attractions of Europe and the world in golden letters. It can undoubtedly be considered that the Sunset Sports Festival from year to year addresses all relevant trends in various branches of sports, but also contributes to the education of our part of the world, to networking and to the exchange of positive practices in the profitable business niche of sports tourism, where sports, tourism and the media intertwine. It was really useful over the past four festivals to hear from participants so that we, in the Republic of Croatia, could manage a complex sports economy system in the future with the aim of innovation and faster recognition of key players in the Croatian and international sports arena – which was brought to us by the American sports producer of Croatian descent, Peter Radovich in the entertaining format of Sunset Sports Festival. As a reminder, the humorous presentation by mega Super Bowl stars Julian Edelman and Ray Lewis was closely watched in Zadar. The panel featured Debola Adebanjo from BBC Sport Africa and Marco Messina, a Serie A analyst for CBS Sports, opening the topic of live sports TV broadcasts, which are competing ruthlesslywith young sports content creators on YouTube channels and social networks. Experiences in martial arts were shared by the genius Stephen Espinoza, Showtime Sports President. For us in the homeland of Croatia, the crown of the festival each time is Radovich’s presentation, who familiarizes us with The Power of Story, revealing to participants and visitors how it shapes an authentic sports story in a four-minute format, which reflects the values of modern society such as simplicity, beauty, elegance, combativeness, risk, excitement, prestige and wealth.
Those are only some of the reasons to join us if you are close to the Mediterranean for the fifth jubilee edition of this Festival, which takes place in Zadar from June 4 to 6, 2026. This festival of the sports industry is today characterized by the synergy of sports, technology and business, which came to life based on the idea of the aforementioned American Dalmatian. Over the past four years, legends such as Alessandro Del Piero, Peter Schmeichel, Stipe Miočić, Ivica Kostelić, Matt Barnes and Julian Edelman and many others have visited Zadar, while the media and business side of the industry was covered in panel discussions by renowned experts such as Pete Radovich, creative director of CBS Sports.
Therefore, it can be said that the festival encourages interesting connections between the diaspora and the homeland, as well as return initiatives. Last year, on the occasion of the fourth Zadar sports festival, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković presented the Croatian-American mixed martial arts fighter Stipe Miočić, his wife and children with Croatian citizenship, thereby officially making them citizens of the Republic of Croatia, since Stipe, during his 15-year career at the top, highlighted so often that he is proud of his Croatian heritage. Prime Minister Plenković expressed great respect for him because he continued his job as a firefighter throughout his impressive career, and Miočić sincerely thanked Prime Minister Plenković for the citizenship on behalf of the entire family, which is thrilled to come to Croatia and maintain ties with the ancestral homeland.
Recently, understandably, great attention has been drawn to topics such as the evolution of digital platforms, new models of investing in sports and the application of artificial intelligence in sports broadcasts, which have dominated and dominate these days on panels organized by strategic festival partners such as Sofascore, a leading planetary technology company based in Zagreb that has established itself in the development of a global sports platform and mobile application for following live sports results and sports statistics. The festival has proven itself to be a specialized commercial sporting event for industry leaders seeking relevant and innovative sports ideas from practice.
The jubilee edition brings three traditional specialized stages: Main Stage, Esports Stage and Performance Lab, which opens a dialogue space for all experts and sports players of this attractive industry, in which talent and competition are turned into a global product through media rights, sponsorship, branding, as well as audience experience management. In addition, Marco Messina, an analyst and sports journalist from CBS Sports, returned to Zadar and, in a series of podcasts from the festival, continued to bring inventive conversations with award-winning athletes and sports fans… This year’s edition of the festival will be enhanced by legendary chess player Judit Polgár, Callum Williams from The Economist and Alan Goh from Sport Singapore, along with several leading names in European basketball and volleyball. The guest appearance of chess player Judit Polgár is also interesting outside the sports context and is intended for anyone interested in strategic thinking, decision-making and leadership, skills that are a must in any industry.
In addition to the educational and business part of the program, the fifth Sunset Sports Festival also focuses on its social component through a commendable initiative to renovate basketball courts and return young people to the sports fields of Zadar, thus leaving a positive mark on the local community and encouraging the sporting spirit among young people. Thus, the newly renovated playground at Kapetanski park was ceremoniously opened. This is one of the recognizable spaces on the Zadar Peninsula, located on the Citadel bastion, which, as part of the UNESCO heritage, after years of neglect, has just received a new attire, which is due to the organizers of the Sunset Sports Festival and local partners, including the leading individuals in KK Diadora and the City of Zadar. The central part of the design is a new basketball court, painted as part of the festival project Play in Color by the renowned American artist Shelton Hawkins, giving Kapetanski park a new visual identity and freshness. As part of the festival project, the stands were renovated, the surrounding green areas and utility infrastructure were landscaped, and the space was further enhanced by the installation of new baskets. Kapetanski park has once again become a desirable gathering place for Zadar’s children, athletes and recreationists!
Text: Vesna Kukavica / Photo: Zadar County and Sunset Sports Festival, photos provided
