The tiny Polish city of Katowice – about 70km from Krakow in Upper Silesia – used to be best known for a Soviet stadium that looked like the centerpiece at the end of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but recent years (and the sort of government art subsidies Berlin no longer enjoys) have turned its Augusts into a musical mecca, with two of Europe’s finest festivals taking place, the alt-rock oriented oFF Festival has been receiving a lot of press, but the more electronically oriented TAURON NOWA MUZYKA FESTIVAL may finally be getting its due, thanks to canny programming and a setting that takes good advantage of that artificial spaceship.
Running from Thu, August 25 through Sun, August 28, a few German based biggies – Matias Aguayo, Modeselektor, Apparat’s live band – are on the bill but, of course, you can see them at home easily enough. But the eclectic totality of the acts, from Mount Kimbie to Little Dragon to Pearson Sound to Spoek Mathambo, underlines not just the eclecticism of the Polish taste, which is astoundingly wide-ranging when one considers what is actually available in the country for purchase, but also provides a pretty solid snapshot of the state of the club in 2011.
In addition, there will be workshops and the Clip On Festival, a video production contest. And, of course, that spaceship: it can’t fly you to Katowice, but we are offering two three-day passes for two to the festival, covering the days Thursday through Saturday. To win, be the first two folks to email [email protected] with the names of three Polish musical acts. And no, Pole doesn’t count.
For the rest of the festival info, click here: www.festiwalnowamuzyka.pl
And we have our winners! Thanks to everyone who replied. Exberliner has plenty of great stuff to give away, so keep watching the site.
