Gdańsk music festival given the green light for 2020

Gdańsk-based electronic music festival Wisłoujście has been permitted to go ahead this year and is currently the only remaining event in Poland’s 2020 festival calendar.

The second annual event will take place between 21–23 and 28–30 August in a historic seaside fortress, featuring domestic acts including Agim, Ricardo, Violent.

Wisłoujście promoter, Follow The Step, has made a number of changes to the event in order to comply with the government’s coronavirus restrictions.

This year, the 4,000-capacity event will take place across two weekends instead of one to make up the capacity lost to social distancing measures, while the festival area has been enlarged to allow for attendees to maintain space.

The organisers will also have to comply with measures including checking attendees’ temperatures and health documents on arrival, enforcing the use of masks and providing disinfectants throughout the event.

The promoter also announced that this year it would install a special sound system with a delay line so that festival-goers could enjoy the same quality of sound whilst maintaining a distance.

This year’s edition will take place across two weekends instead of one to make up the capacity lost to social distancing measures

Poland entered its fourth phase of lockdown easing on 30 May, giving the green light for public gatherings of up to 150 people – with a specific reference to outdoor concerts – as long as participants keep two metres apart, or cover their faces.

Live, open-air events are now permitted to take place in areas that are not engaged in a local lockdown, provided the number of attendees does not exceed one person per five square metres and coronavirus guidelines can be met.

Wisłoujście promoter Follow the Step has already capitalised on the new regulations with an outdoor concert series that took place in the Praga area of the Polish capital of Warsaw in July, in conjunction with venue Praga Centrum. However, other event organisers haven’t been so fortunate.

Poland’s Open’er Festival was among those forced to cancel its 2020 edition due to the Covid-19 crisis but recently confirmed that Twenty One Pilots, the Chemical Brothers, Thom Yorke Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes and FKA Twigs will appear at its 2021 festival, from 30 June to 2 July.

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