OFF Festival brought a mix of big names and discoveries – from the energetic Kneecap and futuristic Kraftwerk to intimate concerts in the jazz tent. Although organisational problems appeared, the festival managed to surprise with unique moments and, after many years, its programme is heading in a better direction.
Everyone on the train is talking about OFF. They are arranging the lineup, wondering if Fontaines D.C. will be the most significant event. Someone is happy to be going to the festival for the first time, while someone else throws out the name Os Mutantes, claiming they are an Italian band. This is quickly corrected: they are not from Italy, but from Brazil, and have been active since the 1970s.
I arrive in the not-so-hot Katowice area after a break of almost a decade – before that, I used to visit there regularly every year. I still remember Mysłowice – the forest scene, which was really in the forest, the arduous commute to Katowice, and the late-night returns on PKP trains. A lot has changed over the years – both in the event itself and in my approach to attending concerts. Back then, we used to spend the night in squalid tenement houses in Katowice, a situation that has not changed over time.
The pandemic editions of OFF and the last few years have increasingly fallen short of my expectations. Individual names may have caught my attention, but it was challenging to find artists with international appeal, such as Tune-Yards or Shining in 2010, Konono No. 1 in 2011, Shangaan Electro in 2012, Oneida in 2011, or Nisennenmondai in 2014. This was the time when I switched to indoor festivals, such as Le Guess Who?, Rewire, and Supersonic, because the diverse programme had a coherent whole and was really searching. OFF lost its way then.
This year’s programme may not have been ‘mine’, but it was certainly intriguing. It attracted big names, including Kneecap, Kraftwerk, and James Blake. I make no secret – I was most looking forward to the former. Kneecap is a band that captivates crowds with its simplicity and intensity—party rap, committed and sincere. From the stage, they immediately gained the audience’s sympathy, commenting on the situation of not being allowed into Hungary, and expressed happiness that their presence in Poland was resonating. The number one star of the festival, and at the same time, an unpretentious lineup that doesn’t star at all.
I still remember James Blake from a decade ago at Primavera Sound in Barcelona. He seemed rather bland to me, so I wasn’t expecting anything special. I got halfway through his concert and was met with surprise – especially as he based the set on early material: the danceable ‘Voyeur’, the acidic ‘Retrograde’ or ‘The Wilhelm Scream’ had unexpected power.
Kraftwerk played like no one else – totally futuristic, even though the material was written decades ago. Does this work at a festival? I have my doubts. I saw their concert once in Dolina Charlotty, and it defended itself better than Kraftwerk creates its own closed world where image and sound work equally. It’s an experience you have to switch to. Their timeless tale of technology and communication remains impressive, but it requires the proper context. The Lambrini Girls played feisty and fresh, although at times there was too much lecturing from the stage in their performance.
Out of tradition, I took a look at the experimental stage – always a favourite of mine. Os Mutantes disappointed – reheated material from years ago, played internationally but blandly. Mong Tong, unfortunately, didn’t play concisely, circling aimlessly. On the other hand, they positively surprised Envy – guitar jazz, wall of sound – and Hypnosis Therapy, who closed the second day with a great party.
From Os Mutantes, I escaped to Nilüfer Yanya and regret not having been there from the start. The mesmerising, lyrical, immersive concert on the Forest stage was the only one that held my attention so firmly. I feel a bit of a veteran using the name, but it turns out I’m not the only one who prefers the traditional term to bank branding.
On the Blik stage, Ania Grrr and Paszka performed brilliantly – a performative, pulsating concert that engaged the audience, combining songwriting with jagged electronica. The Trinity stage, as usual, was too far away – hard to get to, and when it got crowded, entry bordered on the miraculous. I was hoping for Have a Nice Life – they sounded interesting, but too quiet, even standing close to the stage. The powerful sound, which was supposed to crush you into the ground, was muffled.
And speaking of accessibility, the Blik stage was sign language interpreted, but other than that, the logistics failed. The festival was supposedly accessible, with a ramp for people with disabilities only at the main stage. In Wellington, it was difficult to move through the mud on the Experimental or Trinity stage – let alone in a wheelchair. Standing in queues of several hundred metres, I couldn’t understand how, after so many editions, this still hadn’t been resolved sensibly. It would have been enough to send volunteers to sort people into day tickets and passes. The situation disastrously repeated itself on the third day.
The toilets were in a poor state, and at many other outdoor festivals, the standards are higher. Queues blocked the central aisle between stages, and the queue for water stretched on endlessly. OFF is associated with hot weather, but it was chilly in the evenings, and one tea and coffee outlet for the whole area was a scandal. Worst of all, I remember many of these shortcomings from a decade ago.
Finally, however, the pluses are the Off’n’Jazz stage. Omasta played a great concert, showcasing a pulsating, urban view of jazz, and at the same time disarming the formal layout of the room, reminiscent of Warsaw’s Jassmine: she asked the audience to stand up and put their chairs aside. Because young jazz is not listened to sitting down. Lumbago extended the definition of jazz so far that, at times, it resembled a dense electronic set, with booming bass, broken drums, walls of sound, and an atmosphere straight out of “Apocalypse Now.” Even the musicians’ costumes built up this sense of a heavy, tarry journey.
Raphael Roginski’s muted, Coltrane-inspired music, whose guitar rumblings entered into dialogue with the Fontaines D.C. concert, was also excellent. The two worlds overlapped – sometimes interfering, sometimes complementary. Roginski took us on an intimate, unpretentious journey. I could afford it, because I had already seen the Fontaines – a blasé band with little gusto – two months earlier in Porto.
The most interesting act on the jazz stage was the duo Deux Lynx, featuring bass and drums, reminiscent of Battles. Broken rhythms, electronic additions, and samples – everything was arranged in a lyrical journey, allowing us to escape reality for a moment. Between the mud, rain, and beer queues, their music sounded powerful, especially when they played the focused, quiet track ‘Stubiegunowa’ with Natalia Grosiak’s vocals sampled in—a unique moment of the festival.
The second such moment I will remember is from Alan Sparhawk’s concert. I had already seen him this year, so I knew what to expect. It was interesting to see people’s reactions – some talking about the heavily electronic set they left halfway through, while others discussed the calm, low-spirited atmosphere when they came on later. And that was the point – the concert was conceptual. The first half was based on the White Roses album, “My God,” recorded a year after his wife’s death (with autotune, as the artist didn’t want to hear his own voice). The second half was based on this year’s album – closer to the classic Low sound (with help from Trampled by Turtles).
How frivolously and loosely he danced to electronic beats, experiencing something like catharsis, was absolutely outstanding. And how quickly he changed moods, showing human duality, only underlined the sincerity. Not as ‘stubborn’ as Deux Lynx’s, but showing a range of moods as if through a lens. And it captured the spirit of this year’s OFF well.
