Off-the-beaten-path festivals that conjoin all facets of creativity are hard to find. The OFF Festival is one of those events, making way for music and art exhibitions that draw thousands every year. If you are looking to hear the Top Beatport 100 in every performance scheduled, this is not the festival for you. The OFF Festival isn’t a place you go to if you want to see the usual festival headliners. You go to OFF Festival for vanguard musicians and to discover what is taking place under the mainstream radar.
OFF Festival’s birth can be traced back to the year 2006 and continues to be one of the premiere alternative music festivals in Europe. Its organizer and creative director, Artur Rojek, is the former leader of the bands Myslovitz and Lenny Valentino, so you can trust your ears to him. OFF Festival is a festival where genres don’t matter, only the quality of the music.
OFF Festival is a special boutique festival, fusing the visual arts, cinema, culture, and music. The lineup includes Polish favorites Komety Perform Partia, SBBP Plays New Horizon, 67,5 Minut Projekt, modern folk quartet Odpoczno, supergroup So Slow, and legendary Polish hip-hop band Kaliber 44 to name a few. One of the more familiar names you may recognize on the lineup is Derrick May, who will be playing on the T-Mobile Electronic Beats stage. All of the artists can be found here.
The OFF Festival prides itself on hosting artistic expression of all kinds and this year will once again harbor talent in a vibrant, green oasis known as Three Ponds Valle (Valley of Three Ponds). The large wooded area is in the southern part of the city of Katowice, a surging modern city in southwestern Poland.
For those that want to keep the party going after leaving the festival grounds, OFF Festival offers camping at Muchowiec Airport, 800 meters from the festival grounds. The campgrounds are composed of a whopping 2,000 campsites that will be divided into sectors. Only those with a valid three-day OFF pass will be be allowed to purchase a campsite and enter the campground with a wristband. Campground wristbands will allow repeated entry into the campground and can be picked up with the following forms of identification: a valid photo ID, a national ID card, passport, driver’s license, or student ID. A special wristband will be issued for children once a liability waiver is signed by the parent or legal guardian. Minors 15 to 17 years old will be allowed to camp on their own as long as they bring written permission from a parent or legal guardian. Some of the camping amenities for OFF Festival include showers, sanitary facilities with hot and cold water, sinks, toilets, a food court, free charging stations, and boiling water free of charge at the concession stands.
Fascinated yet? Intrigued? Wait, there’s more. If you have ever dreamed of pairing your music with your affinity for the written or spoken word, OFF Festival carves out an intellectual space for such activities. One of the nicer focal points of OFF Festival is the Literary Café, a laid back arena for writers, journalists, lecturers, and those who want to engage in intellectual discourse in an open atmosphere. The visual arts also have an important place in the festival, serving as a main ingredient in creating the aesthetic of the OFF Festival from its humble beginnings. In years past, art has been displayed throughout the festival grounds, where patrons of the arts can be treated to a festival-wide exhibition.
This bounty of art and music is available not only to adults, but to children as well, which the festival welcomes into its gates. OFF Festival is yet another festival that designates a special area for children where they can play games and participate in workshops under the watchful eye of caretkers and counselors. Children under 10 are granted free access to the campgrounds.
For ticket options, visit the festival’s information page at http://off-festival.pl/en/bilety. You can purchase a three-day pass, a one day ticket for your chosen day, and festival campground access that must be purchased with an OFF Pass. Please note that the three-day pass and the OFF One Day Ticket do not come with campground access.
You can find out more information about OFF Festival at the festival’s website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube. Catch OFF Festival’s snaps at off_festival. You can find the event page here.
I was listening to electronic dance music without even knowing it when I was listening to Jock Jams in the 90s. Fast forward to my senior year in high school and I had discovered Fatboy Slim. I have been listening to edm ever since and love writing about new sounds, good sounds, and the music that makes us move.
