interview with the man behind OPEN HARDCORE FEST
again big thanks to Maciek Kossowski fot the translation
This year we celebrate Open Hardcore Fest's 10th birthday. Tell us about its beginnings and its metamorphosis during Fest's existence.
Beginnings of the Fest would be dated for 1999. It was back then, when we first thought of making a huge event, which would unite hc/punk community and move our scene into 'the next dimension'. We were really inspired by Belgian scene, h8000 and the likes. We really wanted to make an event similar to Ieper Fest. Polish scene back then was rather in stagnation. Not too much was going on. There were not as many gigs back then as we have now, same about decent bands, not even mentioning getting your hands on albums: to get some we drove to Berlin a couple of times a year. Web was still far from what it is today, so to get an album you really had to run about a great deal. We badly wanted to change this situation. And so, after many discussions we've came with an idea of organizing this festival. Back then nobody inside Poland's HC/punk scene had any experience with organization of such huge, outdoor events. Including us :)
Actually, we were really into organization of gigs at venues, but none of us knew how to make a huge, outdoor event work. To get some experience we [as SCC (Strong Core Crew)] organized a punx' picnic in Piaseczno's city park, inviting local bands from Warsaw and nearby area. Effects were good enough to convince Piaseczno's Community Centre to help us plan and finance a huge, professionally organized festival. We'd invited Robert (Refuse Records) to work with us and in 2001 we made our first edition of Open Hardcore Fest. It was very successful so all of us wanted to continue with the project. Together, with Robert, we'd made 7 editions of Open Hardcore Fest, where we've had a ton of bands from around the world and Poland's finest hc/punk crews playing. Unfortunately, for a period of time - as it is in life - our paths went different ways at some point. In 2009 Open Hardcore Fest had been organized by a collective of CursedXX, This Is Warsaw, Rajinx and Rebelsnowman. Although we've had some troubles with the line-up (who was there may recall Forfeit's absence), it was an edition I will long remember because of Disfear's presence. Next edition was just Radek, Paweł and me (what an unforgettable performance by Vitamin X!). And that's how it was during these 10 years. Sometimes beautiful and majestic, and sometimes...
Looking from the perspective of the last 10 years, what do you think about changes inside Warsaw's/Poland's/world's hc/punk scene? (Well, you can't not mention that the line-up since the beginning of the Fest was very international)
In my opinion, scene in Poland and in the world as well, has changed dramatically. I believe that the 90's was the golden age of hardcore: a lot of exquisite bands with something to say, HC kids involved in diverse social, political and ecological initiatives. Straight edge movement was flourishing, message was the most important part: building interpersonal relations and an alternative to mainstream reality. Currently, I kind of can't see it. It's very difficult to find a band singing about something serious, rather than just boring you with some stuff about their depressions and broken hearts. Despite the fact, that we have quite a few bands coming alive now, little of them have anything to say, either in lyrics, or in music. I think they are made only for pleasuring their members' sick (read: vain) egos or to increase their popularity. In my opinion, hardcore slowly evolves and becomes just another musical niche centered only on music itself.
What do you think about the development of other "scene-centered" festivals in Poland? This year you can see a whole mountain of them and there seems to be one of these every second weekend.
I'm really glad that our scene is still developing and that there are people who put their time and spirit (and often money as well) to create, build and realize their dreams this way. I'm happy to see new events being made and people willingly commiting themselves to promotion of alternative culture. Still, being honest with you, I must say that in most cases these 'huge events [talking about Poland]' are just bigger concerts and only their organizers' megalomania makes them call these 'festivals'. Just compare a few European HC festivals like Fluff or Ieper or other, with Polish events, which use the word 'Fest' and you'll easily understand the difference between them.
Is there a key to festival's line-up? On the one hand, its cool that you've never got an idea to invite stars like Madball, but on the other hand, in this year's edition most of the bands – except Final Prayer and some great Polish bands – are, at best, a question mark.
Our choice of bands for Open Hardcore Fest is pretty simple: it is defined by our musical tastes and ammount of money we can pay. From my point of view it would be great to invite bands like Madball or Bad Religion, which are not strongly connected with the scene anymore, but were spearheading it some time ago. Anyway, financial limits make such plans unfulfillable. I remind you that this event is 100% free and based only on money we get from the Community Centre. Practically, budget of our festival has not changed in last 10 years and it's on the contrary with prices and bands' financial expectations. In my opinion, it's the biggest blockade on Open Hardcore Fest's growth. Another thing is the will to divide hardcore bands into ranks based on their importance and all the shit like this. I believe that what's important about a band is not its 'rank', but if their music is on the level and if they have something to say in their lyrics. It aggravates me when someone tries to grade bands on the basis of their popularity, and I'm really mad when someone does this publicly. Hardcore is not a fucking pop chart or other kind of (in this case musical) rat race.
Which of the bands (playing on OHFest) have you remembered as the biggest positive or negative surprises? I recall how much of a positive surprise DEFDUMP's concert turned out to be for me.
I'm glad you remembered Defdump in good light, because, in my opinion, it was a very good band. When it comes to gigs of certain bands, I'm the last person to judge their performance or talk about them :)
Due to a bunch of obligations during the Fest I'm not given a chance to see bands' performances. In the meantime, I'm busy with coordinating everything and making sure the whole event will work correctly and I have absolutely no time to see bands playing. From what I had seen, while in a rush I really enjoyed Confronto's set, A Traitor Like Judas' gig was amazing, besides that Archway and of course, Endstand. I was a bit let down by Narziss, which were the ones I was most counting on :)
To celebrate festival's 10th birthday you have prepared anniversary T-shirts, and firstly, a music compilation on CD. How did you come up with such an idea and what bands are on the album?
CD's and shirts are a sign of gratitude to all those who have created Open Hardcore Fest, to all those who helped in its organization during these last 10 editions and finally, and maybe most importantly, all those who've participated in it in past years. I'd like to thank Robert (Refuse Records) a great deal, for years or cooperation and commitment in organization of Open Hardcore Fest. Others who deserve respect are: SSC, Rajinx, Rebelsnowman, TIW, Jacek Fidura (for everlasting and unselfish help from the very beginning – I really appreciate this, buddy!), Marian-supply guy. Sincere thanks to all the people who've helped with the creation of shirts and CD's. These people are: Raf Wechter, Jacek Sokólski, Adam (Fonia studio), Hanys (Ebola).
When it comes to the CD, choice of artists to appear on it was quite difficult. From more than 90 bands, which played in Piaseczno we've chosen 26, creating compilation titled 'Open Hardcore Fest – The Way It Was'. Choice of bands and songs is purely subjective and reflects its selectors tastes: mine and Matys's (formerly playing in Only Way Out). We've tried to picture the musical diversity of Open Hardcore Fest, so on the CD you'll be able to hear such different bands like Endstand, Sunrise, Nine Eleven, Vitamin X, Złodzieje Rowerów, Archway, The Tangled Lines and many more; we've also wanted to share with you some real, meaningful stuff, so the choice of songs is not random. As I've written above, 'Open Hardcore Fest – The Way It Was' is 26 songs, which are joy to hear put together and they really kick ass!
What about some plans for the future? Some time ago I've heard rumours about expanding festivals' boundaries, making something in shape of Fluff Fest. Is it true?
Actually, there was such an idea. With this aim in mind, I'd invited boys from This is Warsaw and Radek and Paweł from Drip Of Lies to cooperate with us. In this crew we'd organized 8th edition of this festival. I really wanted for boys to get some experience in organizing huge outdoor events, so nextly we could move on to organize even bigger festival, lasting few days and with tickets to pay for. Unfortunately, in the meantime This Is Warsaw disintegrated and others have lost interest in making the Fest and were unable to get involved in making a one-day event, not talking about festival to last for a few days. We discarded the idea because of lack of people to make it work. Pity ;(
Open Hardcore Fest is a spectacle with a lot of potential and possibilities for development. Sadly, we lack people willing to use this potential.
Standard questions for the end:
Favourite Warsaw-based band/album/gig/zine...
Bands: Sunrise and Afraid Of That Day were good bands on European level without scent of coarseness and bad taste, which are unfortunately, part of most of Polish bands. Additionally, I really like: Coalition and Only Way Out, but with the latter case it's rather about personal and sentimental stuff.
Album: Post Regiment – Czar Zły. Breathtaking album, fucking amazing lyrics and killer music. Number one without eye blink!
Gig: Nomeansno in Stodoła, when they played with two sets of drums. Shocking! Cool as well were “staniki” organized by Robert Brylewski in Remont, but for most people it's rather prehistory, because it was back in the beginning of the 90's :)
Zine: QQRYQ
OPEN HARDCORE FEST 2011
