Country Profile: Poland

2022 in Poland was a year of big noises. Open’er – the country’s biggest festival, staged by its largest independent promoter Alter Art – drew a record-breaking 150,000 people to Gdynia this year, with a bill featuring Dua Lipa, Imagine Dragons, and Twenty One Pilots.

50,000 more fans hit the third edition of FEST in Park Śląski in Chorzów to catch Stromae, The Chainsmokers, and James Arthur, courtesy of major promoters Follow The Step, who also launched a new city festival in Warsaw called On Air this year. Alter Art’s Orange Warsaw and Krakow live festivals were similarly popular, while Polish promoters such as Prestige MJM and the metal-focussed Knock Out Productions – as well as international names including Live Nation and FKP Scorpio – have enjoyed success in catering to the music hungry masses.

“The market is recovering from the pandemic and is trying to make up for the losses, so there is a desire to organise a large number of events on the part of both artists and promoters,”

“The market is recovering from the pandemic and is trying to make up for the losses, so there is a desire to organise a large number of events on the part of both artists and promoters,” says Maciej Korczak, co-owner of Follow The Step. At the same time, Poland’s musical growth has been overshadowed by a bigger noise from the east.

“When the market was rebuilding after a string of lockdowns, we were hit by another European crisis,” Alter Art’s CEO Mikolaj Ziółkowski explains.

“The Russian aggression in Ukraine, which started a whole new economic situation. We quickly went from recovering from the pandemic to fighting galloping inflation and an enormous rise in costs. The main issue that needs to be taken into consideration is similar to the rest of Europe and relates to a big increase of production costs in almost every aspect – including workforce, prices of PA and lights, equipment, energy, etc.”

“Electricity is six times more expensive. Hence, high inflation and the war on our eastern border make it much more difficult.”

“Electricity is six times more expensive,” says Korczak, who cites a major televised charity concert, broadcast to 150 countries and raising €2m for Ukraine relief, as one of Follow The Step’s greatest achievements of 2022. “Hence, high inflation and the war on our eastern border make it much more difficult. People get poorer due to huge inflation and high prices on the market, so they give up on music events or choose one or two shows instead of five to cut their expenses.

You can see a lot of interest in the events, but often it does not transfer into the number of tickets purchased. In addition, there are plenty of events on the market, which forces you to choose a few.” Korczak imagines these economic difficulties may give rise to “cheap, mass spectacles or concerts organised by large corporations as part of advertising.”

Global perception of the troubled region has impacted bookings, too. “Touring conditions are healthy,” says Giedrius Klimašauskas of Stay Live. “Unfortunately, some agents and artists mistakenly think that we are part of the Ukraine war and hence tend to hold back from scheduling shows in our region. Sad, because they miss the opportunity to service our healthy crowds.”

“Unfortunately, some agents and artists mistakenly think that we are part of the Ukraine war and hence tend to hold back from scheduling shows in our region.”

Despite all these issues, and a drop in sales for some smaller shows, 2022 has been a successful year for the Polish market virtually across the stylistic board. “What we observe is that the young audience buys tickets for their idols well in advance, not afraid of cancelling or Covid issues, while concerts targeted at the older age group sell out in the last weeks before the concert or even a few days before,” says Korczak.

“Poles, especially young people, always willingly go to the concerts by their idols from abroad – this is shown by concerts by acts like Louis Tomlinson, sold-out concerts on the electronic scene, and the elegant, expensive gigs of top jazz artists.”

With its healthy festival circuit helping to break local talent (“the festivals are the driving force for building your name,” says Ziółkowski, “with big attendance at our festivals and audience hungry for new music, it’s always a very good first step in the market”) and international acts increasingly collaborating with the rising wave of high-profile Polish rappers that are leading the way in the territory, Poland’s promoters envision less turbulent, more prosperous times ahead.

“The situation concerning the upcoming winter or spring is complicated,” says Ziółkowski, “but we have absolutely no doubt about next year’s summer.”

“The situation concerning the upcoming winter or spring is complicated,” says Ziółkowski, “but we have absolutely no doubt about next year’s summer. Many of the Polish promoters got through the pandemic and managed to keep most of their employees. Now we’re getting ready to fight the upcoming challenges together.

We are sure that the summer of 2023 will be another record-breaking season for festivals, with a record number of fans willing to experience great, live emotions. And we’re confident that after a difficult 2022 and 2023 – which is still likely to be a transitional, post-covid and mid-crisis year – the situation will start getting better, and Poland will be back on course to once again be one of the fastest growing markets in Europe, just like before the pandemic.”