Jurek after Woodstock

Rain forced the audience away from the stage and in its slightly monotonous streams we were saying goodbye after XV Przystanek Woodstock. However the rain was very pleasant even longed for as this year’s Przystanek was unusually hot and fantastic.

Everything started with a little weather related stress. Continuous rains, storms and heavy clouds didn’t improve our moods, because everyone knows that weather may build or bury this kind of festival undertaking. At Woodstock field, huge stage was built in record breaking time and then there was only waiting for further, more and more detailed elements. There appeared the most beautiful stage design, lights designed in a totally different way, more delay – lines and for the first time – a campsite and showers. And when it all was being erected we saw Woodstockians coming to Kostrzyn. This in turn, let us think very optimistically about each following day. At some point our optimism changed into slight concerns – all trains fully packed and roads full of thousands of people who are coming to us non stop. After literally a moment all the stage “adjoining” areas were full of tents, and then a massive crowd of the audience “flooded” around the surrounding area. We are starting to widen the campsite, and all toi tois are starting to work in full swing. And then finally beautiful weather is coming to us, and we see, how people are starting to create unbelievable performance of being with one another, which we can already call the festival, although it hasn’t been formally started yet. Przystanek Woodstock’s atmosphere is about being together. The concerts are beginning in a few days, however the roads marked out by us are full of people, cash points are already working, all the Pokojowy Patrol points are also working in full swing, people are starting to have their own affairs, they visit each other, start to beat out the specific rhythm of multi thousand town, which in a dozen or so days has been created in the middle of nowhere. Then we can hear the sounds of the radio, ASP and Peaceful Krishna Village. The music is heard from Beer Village and people praise the possibility of its change, because such exists. The Woodstock’s town is alive.

Formally the festival starts on Thursday at 22:00. On large outdoor screens, we are showing a film which tells the story of 14 previous festival editions. The massive crowd is sitting on the meadow and on 3 huge screens is watching a story which is not only about music. The plot of the film begins in 1969, that is from the legendary American Woodstock and lasts up till now, reminding – against the music background - the archives telling the story of the world in a nutshell – wars, military conflicts, assassinations, and also establishing Microsoft, European Union creation, introducing common currency… In front of our eyes there flow the events from the world and also our historical races from 1980, or winter climates of Civil War. Against that background there are also 17 Orchestra finals, consequent and giving very real benefits, and of course 15 editions of Przystanek Woodstock.

Various music, changing places, tough beginnings of erecting constructions pretending to be the stage and festival, which has been “custom-tailored” for several years. Cultic “Beetle” is appearing, climbing  a field in Czymanowo on Żarnowieckie Lake in search of a place to put up a tent, and then hundreds or thousands of cars in which young people are coming to the last Przystanek. This is already a great, professional, world-scale undertaking. However there is something that has not changed during these 15 years – the people! From the very beginning – colorful, smiling, accepting our idea without changes, having the same optimistic and positive attitude towards us. Their not the same people, part of the Woodstockians from Czymanowo probably comes to us with their kids, however everyone is feeling good with us all the time; by being here they fantastically co-create the idea of Przystanek Woodstock. All this time for all those 15 years we have heard one statement – I am not really sure who is going to play. I am coming for the atmosphere.

This year we had very important guests – Lech Wałęsa, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Stanisław Tym, Janusz Kochanowski, Michael Lang – who with their own eyes could see what XV Przystanek Woodstock looks like and could have their own opinion about it. Without exceptions, everyone was charmed, shaken, surprised but also boosted by the emotions, welcome, applause and the order at Przystanek. The past 3 festival days were extremely intensive for me – in the morning a guest of ASP, then running the concert which ended at dawn. Fortunately, there were very few tough episodes, or even there were none. And very few standard cases of breaking Woodstock rules (dealers or thieves) only confirm the effectiveness of all festival services. So there was time to listen to music which many times moved and arouse strong emotions. I am going to write about this further because I believe that for the first time all the performers presented absolutely top level. Their variety, so moving from hard core to jazz shows how Przystanek Woodstock has taught people to receive music. And there happened an unusual thing when during the Dżem concert someone fainted and people themselves moved away and created the safest in the world situation for coming with immediate help. Not arrivals of big Firefighters engines in the crowd are indicators of difference as well as safety at Przystanek, but this fantastic reaction showing how Woodstockians have learnt to take care of each other, and the huge number of festival participants also brought on some difficulties – water pressure went down, there were moments when queues for food were up to several dozen minutes long; people were waiting patiently for two hours in the queue to the showers and everyone was waiting patiently in queue for their beer.

However all the time Woodstockians were traditionally kind to each other and also to over one hundred thousand foreigners who came to us from all around Europe. People brought wallets and documents to the Lost Property Office, someone even brought a Sony cd player and someone else a telephoto lens. Children find their mummies and one of the parents is even trying to locate his son in the blue tent via telephone. The internet is going mad and I every now and then read from the stage the most beautiful e-mails and messages about total envy because the person who is writing is either in Canada or in England or just behind the baulk and is tasting Przystanek only from the computer. After one day of slight media hic-ups, editors and central editorial offices receive the work of those journalists who came to Przystanek and in a very reliable and colorful way reflected the real atmosphere of those days as well as important news. Today we know that this huge unprecedented crowd created something very historic which did not come out suddenly like a bullet from a cannon mouth, but again as a result of determination, consequence and not walking through side paths, XV Przystanek Woodstock went just the way we planned – with fantastic guests, fantastic artists, a wonderful concert to commemorate 40 years of American Woodstock, with beautiful stage design and the whole festival setting. This picture was sent to the world. Which does not change the fact that again no journalist from an all – Polish music magazine and no music journalist from big daily papers accredited themselves – apart from several, we can say friends, who constantly for years have been watching Przystanek Woodstock. There were no editors in chief of daily, weekly papers or monthly magazines who aptly raise in their papers topics concerning the future of young Poles, generation tolerance, relationships between us and the young from other countries, society, politics, authorities being created, or history. It’s exactly at Przystanek Woodstock where these problems are incredibly tangible and even I am afraid to report and call them so explicitly. But I assure you that there is a lot to pay attention to.

As usually those who say about us that we are a coarse festival and of little artistic value were missing. As usually there was no one who would try, due to their job, to present it in a cultural or social way. But these are just my after thoughts which were finally calmed down and ended by this year’s Przystanek Woodstock as it showed that we will not reinvent the wheel with them. So with the whole strength and another tone of determination we will still be telling the whole world that there is a place in Poland where the most beautiful festival takes place. For me in fact, this was the most beautiful one to date and we are already starting to design the next year’s festival.

I want to thank all of those who created it, co-created and helped. I want to thank the whole crew of Foundation, Pokojowy Patrol, the town of Kostrzyn on Oder and its most important representatives – Mayor Andrzej Kunt and Zdzichu Garczarek the chief of Kostrzyńskie Centrum Kultury. I want to thank the sponsors. Many thanks to all professional services. We appreciate the work with doctors, remaining medical personnel, police, firefighters and boarder guards. No obstacles from SANEPID, water supply, electricians and so on. It is well known that such an undertaking is associated with hiring various firms but apart from that, among the people working here there must be excellent relationships, so that the stage, sound system and lighting work really well. I can say more – we must really like each other so that a tired technical crew, for 3 days serving all the bands still wanted and played a happening on stage as BAND STAFF. I want to thank the whole crew of OTV (Owsiak Television) which in as uncomfortable way spent their time in the field and among you. I wish to thank all NGOs who were present here. Thanks for the military zone, Police Village and also for the fact that toi tois took the risk and managed to offer something new. And most of all I wish to thank all those journalists who came to us to report this absolutely historical Przystanek Woodstock. We want to thank for additional trains – we have mutually learnt how to use them in the best way which taking into consideration transport of a lot more than 100 thousand passengers is a thing worth noticing. Thanks for happenings, meetings, thanks for the weather. Simply thanks a lot!!!

Jurek Owsiak