Sporting Events for Workers in Printing, Communications, Publishing and Media have been held every year since 1975 with rare interruptions (1992-1994 due to the war, 2014-2015 during the acute economic crisis, and 2020 and 2021 due to restrictive measures for public gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic).
The first event was sports-related and held in Zagreb in 1975. It was sponsored by “Školska knjiga” and organised by “Vjesnik” from Zagreb. Eight companies took part, with a total of about 60 participants. The competitions were held on the Svetice sports fields. The following year the number of participants already doubled and it kept growing year after year. Many times it exceeded 1000 people, while the record gathering was in Umag in 1989 with 1800 participants. From 1981 to 1989, in addition to sports competitions, the event also included work-related competitions. It started with contests in making posters for the event, but then also manual typesetters, mechanical typesetters, letterpress printers, bookbinders, proofreaders and typists got involved.
Of the 40 events that took place so far, most of them were held in Umag – up to 19 times, 5 times in Mali Lošinj and 5 times in Šibenik, 4 times in Rovinj, 3 times in Zagreb, 2 times in Zaton and once in Poreč and Rabac.
Since the very beginning the events have been and will always be a combination of sports and entertainment, competition and fellowship, rivalry and solidarity. Despite everyday problems, in good times and in bad, workers look forward to participating again.
