Festival tourism, predominantly selective form of tourism for young people is expanding year by year along with the entire music scene in Croatia. Its offer is increasing in quality, diversification and content attracting worldwide media attention and a multitude of young tourists. In addition to its economic benefits festival tourism in Pula has brought an important element of culture that is subcultural capital. Subcultural capital represents tangible and intangible cultural heritage of individual subcultures and this paper describes the significant role of subcultural capital in the construction of urban cultural identity and the development of an independent cultural scene as exemplified by the ten-year British music festivals held at the City of Pula. The impact of certain music festivals was analyzed through the economic viability, ecological sustainability and democratization of the cultural core of society. Author describes the history of socio-culturally engaged music festivals around the world followed by an in-depth look into the history of alternative music festivals in Pula and the region and the history of tourist movements and events. Key points of this paper refer to promotion of thinking behind potential cultural hegemony of the dominant festival subculture and rethinking current cultural policy of the City.