Letters Have No Arms have packed their bags, put their travel hats on, and moved to a new land!

You should be automatically redirected to the post you were looking for (yes, the same one!) in 5 seconds. If not, visit
http://www.lettershavenoarms.com
and please don't forget to update your bookmarks.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Festival Preview: Off Festival 2009 (Poland)


Festival season has once again walked into our thoughts, dreams and desires; scantily dressed, heavily perfumed, and looking pretty damn good; walked by our desk wearing nothing but a backstage pass and an inflatable hat, smiled provocatively (Hmpf, Dour!), shaken its ass in our faces (damn you Primavera!), tempted us to part with large sums of cash (leave me alone Reading!), sleep (For the last time, NO! Benicassim!) and sanity (Grrr, Glastonbury!). 
 
And, like sandwiches (sandwiches? is that really the best metaphor you can come up with!? ed.), festivals come in all shapes and sizes. Some tiny, some huge, some just plain weird (but you know we love you anyway, right, Standon Calling?). Line-ups too, vary hugely. Actually choosing from one of these however can prove rather tricky, a bit like standing in front of the counter at Subway (Ah, now I see where that was going. But still, sandwiches? ed.). This year LHNA simply decided to follow the best line-ups...
   
Pitchfork, the website everyone loves to hate and hates to love, recently published its annual Guide to Summer Festivals 2009 article to assist in this choice. LHNA, already planning a journey up, though, and across Europe this summer, and therefore already armed with a vague itinerary and before mentioned line-up criteria, chanced upon the festival we're featuring today: 
  
OFF Festival 2009
 
Held in what for many people may well be considered the middle of nowhere, this little brother of indie festivals has only been around for a few years, yet has already hosted the likes of Architecture in Helsinki, Of Montreal, Electrelane, Clinic, British Sea Power, Menomena and Iron & Wine on its stages. This year's lineup looks even more impressive:
 
The National, Final Fantasy, Spiritualized, El Perro del Mar, The Thermals, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Frightened Rabbit,These New Puritans, Maria Peszek, Marissa Nadler, The Field, Ólafur Arnalds, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, High Places,Handsome Furs, HEALTH, Fucked Up, Mark Kozelek, Crystal Stilts, Wavves, Karl Blau, Wooden Shjips, and many more  !

To be honest, we don't really know much else about it. The website is somewhat 'enigmatic', while everyone writing on its LastFM page is Polish. From what I've seen, it appears to be held in something of a park, and camping is available. For us, the not really knowing what to expect (at all!) is part of the fun. Anyway, here's a map:
     
     Follow the rabbit to Off!

     
    Four-day tickets are already sold out, but 2-day tickets are still available and cost only 85 Polish Zloty, which is €19.50 (or $27), i.e. insanely cheap.
      
    For flights, I suggest having a look at Ryanair or Easyjet. If you book now you'll probably be able to find something decent.
    Off Festival 2009 playlist on Spotify


    -> and for those of you from Hype Machine or Elbo.ws, yes, we have a few songs for your listening pleasure:
      
    The National - Mistaken for Strangers
    The Thermals - No Culture Icons
    Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Killers
    Final Fantasy - This Lamb Sells Condos

    1 comments:

    A.Rosenberg said...

    hiya
    just found your post about OFF fest..
    its funny as i flew over there from Ireland, but im still polish but i was kinda stuck in a void between 2 situations: 1 like yours and another one like the polish kids.
    On 1 hand it was easier for me as im polish and still understand everything but on the other i havent live there for years so everythin was oh so new for me and it was like goin to country that doesnt speak your language and cultural barriers are huge..

    anyway i made it and hope you guys got there alright.
    But if ppl were speakin polish on one of the forums then you were welcome to join the discussions as im sure everyone would reply in english :PP

    generally OFF Festival sucked but there was alot of good things bout it as well :))
    cheers!