On the way: Heineken Open'er Festival 2009

It takes several good reasons to travel that far just for the music festival. Fortunately the organisers provided a couple of great reasons to book those plane tickets and pack my bags.

Open'er Festival was substantially smaller than Sziget with ~~only~~ about 60.000 visitors. But the nice surroundings, summer weather, great music and good organisation, made it equally unforgetable.

First surpise was the coupon/card payment method. At first it seemed quite weird to have to go to some boot to buy coupons or add money to your card, but later on, especially after few beers, it turned out to be a mighty good idea. If only I would be able to keep track on the amount of money I still have on the card.

Free bus to from the festival area at Babie Doly airport to the center of Gdynia was much appreciated. Need for proper coffee, cuttlery and a flushing toilet should never be underestimated.

And after years of visiting festivals I finally learned I can enjoy the concerts without being 10 meters away from the stage. Priceless.

Highlights of the festival

Arctic Monkeys:
I was really looking foward to this concert, trying not to expect too much after hearing their live performance is pretty much dissapointing. For me it wasn't. Even though they didn't connect much with the audience, they did connect a lot with the music.

The only real dissapointment were the technical problems. The sound went out in the middle of the song. Twice. So the concert was briefly interrupted to fix this problem and the guy explained that such things can happen also on the festival. I understand. But they really shouldn't.

Gossip:
Since I wasn't a fan of the bend and new only one of their songs, I didn't know what to expect. But when Beth Ditto came on stage in her black hot pants and corset, screaming: "We are so fucking happy to be here!", it was just getting better and better. Great concert great communication with the audience and excellent performance. Not to mention the drummer was illeagally cute. Worth seeing again.

The Kooks:
The band was mindblowing. Absolutely great performance, excellent communication with the audience and amazing energy. Don't remember when was the last time I danced so much. Love it, loved it, loved it! Maybe the security guys didn't love it so much as the singer spent a lot of time playing and singing off the stage. Bummer. Well done Kooks!

White Lies
I didn't manage to see much of the concert cause the tent where it was taking place kinda sucked, if you weren't in the front. Still I did enjoy the soothing music of White Lies. Didn't notice much of a performance, still the audience went wild everytime they started or finished a song. Lovely concert but I wish I would have seen more.

Kings of Leon
Least but not last - KOL. It was by far one of the best concerts I've ever seen. Not just because practicly everyone at the festival was attending it, but also because of the amazing honesty, energy and dedication of the band. They were amazed by the crowd, singing their songs, screaming, jumping, dancing.

"This is our first time here." they announced at the begining. Later on Caleb Followil said they didn't know what to expect and they though nobody will know who the hell they are.
"But this is amazing!" They promissed to come back to the festival every time we would want them and played an extra song too. It was an audio orgasm without competition.

Discoveries

Mass kotki
Cool Polish feminist electro punk band. Too bad I didn't understand any of the lyrics.

The Calog
Decent music but too few english songs to understand what the sing about. Hopefully not about beer, chicks and bohemian life of a rock star.

Trivia

Poland has their own simbols for toilets. I discovered that ▼ is not a sign for women's toilet. Apparently a circle is more of a female simbol. Go figure.

It is good time to visit Poland during the strawberry season. Got a bag of these beauties for only 1 EUR.