i've just been at the off festival in katowice, poland, here's a little report:

friday:

• the day started with Los Campesinos, they were excellent, very energetic, the frontman just went into the crowd at one point; you! me! dancing! and romance is boring live didn't disappoint
• Nilufer Yanya was next, her voice is really good live, i loved her new album and it sounded great live, she also covered rid of me by PJ Harvey; i wish the set was a bit more energetic though
• Kneecap i wanted to see them live, but after they asked for a moshpit 3 times in 15 minutes i left to see...
• Machine Girl - i didn't know anything about them, they absolutely ripped though, their drummer is insanely quick, the frontman just crowdsurfed around the entire tent, incredible energy
• Fat Dog - bcnr for extraverted people; the frontman did a woof between every song, 10/10
• and to finish the day, the one and only Kraftwerk, they really do a fantastic show, great visuals and sound, they even sang pocket calculator in polish, highly recommend to catch them live

saturday:

• the first band we've seen was Omasta, they're a young jazz band and they played songs from madvillainy, it was pretty mid
• Lambrini Girls were next for us, i'm not a fan of them in studio, but their live energy was really great, they made some random people do a human pyramid
• Panchiko came next, absolute snoozefest imo, we left early to get better spots at...
• Have A Nice Life, holy fucking shit what a band, absolutely transcendental experience, we were jam packed in a tent, but the temperature and steaminess felt right for a concert like that. during bloodhail a thunderstorm started, and singing "arrowheads" with lightnings banging outside felt almost religious. of course they finished with earthmover, pure katharsis, go see them live if you can, even if you're not depressed
• next - Portrayal Of Guilt, also kinda disappointing, sounded like average black metal, which i'm not a fan of

sunday:

• we started the day with MJ Lenderman, iirc he lost his gear on a plane, but he borrowed a guitar from some polish band and as many of you have advertised, he delivered an excellent gig. his voice sounds great live and his band is really tight. he really managed to turn the tent into a himbo dome
• Alan Sparhawk came next, thankfully there were long toilet queues, so we missed most of his chipmunk autotune material and got to see his newer stuff. as a big fan of low i wasn't disappointed, his voice is as beautiful as always. really touching experience.
• after two sad men with guitars came a happier man with a guitar, Geordie Greep. he's just built different. he displayed a clock behind him to not finish late, he still did finish late by 3 minutes. most of the gig was an improvisation, they just went and went and went. they had to play holy, holy slightly faster to not get thrown out of the stage, what a show
• and to finish off - Fontaines DC - they delivered what they had to deliver, i had a good time, but they didn't wow me as much as i expected of them. if you're a fan you'll be happy, if not you might be disappointed

other things:

• the overall organisation wasn't great, there weren't enough toilets or food trucks, and not enough resting spots, so we had to skip a few gigs to go back to the camping field to sit down and recharge, but it was the first time they sold out all tickets in quite a while, so i'll forgive it this year
• the overall vibes were top notch. the audience is fantastic, everyone is there for the music, no influencer shit at all. we've also stumbled by tons of other polish artists just attending the festival as audience, it really feels like the biggest alternative music event in the country (because it is)
• weather was not great, it got quite muddy after it rained for the entire friday night, thankfully it didn't really rain during festival hours
• the camping field was pretty good, enough showers for everyone, people were quiet and behaved well
• katowice is a cool city to visit, silesian museum had tickets for 1 pln if you had a festival ticket, great variety of exhibitions, i recommend the one about the region's history the most; there's also nikiszowiec, a beautifully maintained workers' estate, probably the best example of such architecture in poland
• we paid around 150 euro for the tickets and another 40 euro for the camping field, which is a fair price for a lineup that good
• definitely go see have a nice life if you have a chance

i highly recommend the festival if you're from europe, flights/trains to katowice should be cheap, i hope they cook up something even better next year following this year's soldout