It’s no coincidence that Katowice was recently named a UNESCO Creative City in the field of music. Upper Silesia, and particularly its capital city, has been in love with music for generations.

Silesia boasts excellent festivals, splendid concert halls and a thriving club scene, but the local tradition of colliery brass bands, reaching back into the 19th century, is what brought music into people’s homes and onto the streets. Though there are fewer bands around today than there were a quarter century ago (just as there are fewer mines and miners), no traditional Silesian event is complete without an orchestra of black-clad men sporting red plumes in their hats.

Silesia is serious about classical music. This is the birthplace of Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, whose Symphony No. 3, the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, is among the most popular pieces of contemporary music, sampled by such artists as Lamb and, more recently, reinterpreted by Colin Stetson. Another Silesian composer, Wojciech Kilar, was a Leopoldian by birth but a Katowice native by choice. His rise to international fame came with a series of film scores, most famously the soundtrack to Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula.

Since 1945 Katowice has been home to the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, whose new building at Wojciech Kilar Square is considered by visiting musicians to be one of the best concert halls in Europe. Another band with a new building — and a new program, combining contemporary music with alternative guitar and electronics — is Aukso, the excellent Chamber Orchestra of the City of Tychy.

Silesian blues is a phenomenon in itself. It’s hard to say why the genre fell on fertile soil in this particular region and bore better fruit than anywhere else in Poland, but one interesting theory says that blues is a rugged kind of music for hard-working people, and there have always been plenty of them in Silesia. Today the local variety of blues is most commonly associated with the band Dżem, especially with films like Destined for Blues, but don’t forget about such noteworthy pioneers as SBB, a band that combined blues and progressive rock. And remember: on Saturday, August 6, the trio Józef Skrzek, Apostolis Anthimos and Jerzy Piotrowski will showcase their legendary 1975 album Nowy horyzont in its entirety at the OFF Festival.
Metal has always enjoyed an equally strong following in Silesia, home of the band Kat, which inspired the entire contemporary Polish death and black metal scene. The region also gave us the collective Let the World Burn, comprising such acts as MasseMord, Duszę Wypuścił and, most famously, Furia, who have performed at the OFF Festival in the past. And then there’s nearby Sosnowiec (which isn’t in Silesia proper, but in the Dąbrowa Basin), home to the popular metalcore group Frontside and the post-metal sensation Thaw.

The city of Mysłowice has long been the cradle of alternative music in the region. This was where the band Myslovitz was founded and wrote their music (Artur Rojek, the creator of the OFF Festival, was their singer up until 2012, and now records as a solo artist), and where our festival was born. The same city give us such acts as Delons, Negatyw and Iowa Super Soccer. The now-legendary Lenny Valentino — at least the part of the lineup that didn’t hail from Sopot — was also a local Mysłowice band. Today Silesia is giving us new and interesting electronic sounds: check out some recordings by The Dumpling and Coals and see for yourself.

Polish rap is a genre that blossomed in Silesia in parallel to Warsaw and Kielce. The lyrics of Kaliber 44 and later Paktofonika expressed the mood of an entire generation. The emotions they conveyed weren’t always optimistic, as you’ll find out from the now-legendary albums Księga tajemnicza. Prolog and Kinematografia, or the film You are God. But today a new generation of rappers is changing the scene, among them Sztigar Bonko with his Silesian vernacular and the enormously popular artist Miuosh, not to mention Kaliber 44 with this year’s excellent comeback LP Ułamek tarcia. Naturally, we just had to invite them to the OFF Festival. Kaliber 44 will perform at the City of Music stage on Sunday, August 7, at 9:55 pm. Clear your calendars: this is one show you really can’t miss.

Line-up
Anohni, The Kills, Devendra Banhart, Lush, Mudhoney, Sleaford Mods, GZA, Minor Victories, Derrick May, Brodka, GusGus, Masecki vs Sienkiewicz, Jaga Jazzist, Thundercat, Napalm Death, Kiasmos, Andrew Weatherall b2b Roman Flügel, Kaliber 44, Clutch, SBB plays Nowy Horyzont, TaxiWars, Yung Lean, DJ Koze, Ziołek / Zimpel, Lightning Bolt, Pantha Du Prince presents The Triad, Daniel Avery, Powell, Flatbush Zombies, Liima, Rysy, Księżyc, Komety perform Partia, Zomby, Mgła, Maestro Trytony, Willis Earl Beal, Basia Bulat, Fidlar, The Master Musicians Of Jajouka, Orlando Julius & the Heliocentrics, Rødhåd, William Basinski, Beach Slang, Machinedrum, Lotto, Jenny Hval, Ata Kak, The Feral Trees, So Slow, Adam Gołębiewski, Janusz Prusinowski Kompania, Syny, 67,5 Minut Projekt, Jambinai, Sotei, Islam Chipsy, Show Me The Body, Goat, Kero Kero Bonito, Żółte Kalendarze, Niemoc, JAAA!, Lauda, Rosa Vertov, Odpoczno, Jóga, Heroiny, and Jesień.

Tickets
3 Day festival Pass from £42 / 53 Euros + booking fee
Camping Pass from £12 / 15 Euros + booking fee
1 Day festival pass from 35 Euros + booking fee
Buy tickets here: https://www.festicket.com/packages/off-festival-2016
Buy tickets here: http://www.seetickets.com/event/off-festival-2016

About OFF
A truly unique boutique music festival, OFF Festival takes place in ‘Three Lake Valley’, Katowice – a beautiful green oasis in the heart of industrial Silesia. OFF Festival is a way of life, one that flies in the face of current trends and stays true to itself, and the ethos of organiser Artur Rojek is firmly aimed at supporting art and music with the festival bringing many acts to Poland for the first time. OFF Festival is growing in prominence year on year driven by the festivals forward–thinking, eclectic music policy. From the greatest alternative music stars from around the world to the increasingly strong Polish scene, OFF festival has inspiring music in abundance.

More info here: http://off-festival.pl/

CONTACT

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