poniedziałek, 23 marca 2015

I'm back!!

Sorry for that long break, which I have done. Since January, I had so many things to do at University.

As long as I haven't write here (two months, shame on me!), I found many things to review.

So, there will be a lot of books, like:
- The Infernal Devices
- Tatiana and Alexander
- 50 Shades of Grey
- The Mortal Instruments
- P.S. I Love You

movies:
- Warm Bodies
- Robin Hood (verions '90s & '00s)
- Scary Movie
- Jackass
- American Pie

tv series:
- True Blood
- CSI (NY and LA)
- Got You
- Firemen

bands/artists:
- City Of Mirrors
- Toxic Mushrooms
- Bruno Mars
- Ed Sheeran
- Paramore
- Lindsey Stirling
- Pentatonix
- Christina Grimmie
- Kurt Hugo Schneider


Soo, keep calm and check the news! I will write maybe once in a week, maybe often, time will show.
Write your suggests in comment to show me, what should I listen/read/watch and review!

wtorek, 27 stycznia 2015

Carnival Youth

As you remember, I was writing about Opener Fest 2014 Edition. If you reading carefully, you know the name Carnival Youth.

About band:
This musical formation starts creating music in 2011. The band comes from Riga (Lativia, Europe).
There are four band members:Edgars Kaupers, Roberts Vanags, Aleksis Luriņš, Emīls Kaupers. 
Carnival Youth is a neofolk/indie type of music-makers.

They were recorded two EPs: Never Have Enough (2011-2012) and No Clouds Allowed (2014).
This short-plays includes songs:\
Never Have Enough EP
1. Never Have Enough:
2. Octopus
3. Brown Eyes And All The Rest
4.Words Like Birds
5. Akmentini
6. Seasons

and No Clouds Allowed EP:
1. Sometimes
2. Tree by Tree
3. Traffic Lights (Timmy)
4. See The World
5. Debesis  Par Zemu
6. Moonboy

As a band, they were playing on many of festivals. For example:
1. Opener Festival (4/07/2014 Poland)
2. Tel-Aviv Beach Festival (1/08/2014 Lativia)
3.  Summer Sound Fest (editions 2013 & 2014, Lativia)
4, The Great Escape Festival (2014, UK)
5. Positivus Festival (2013, 2014 and will be performing in 2015)

They release three music videos:

Never Have Enough (which is a first EP promo single)
Octopus (second single from first EP)
and Sometimes, which is promotin No Clouds Allowed EP


My personal contact with band was very nice. I saw them for the first (and by the while, the only one) time, when I have opportunity to listen to that band. They played opening-day show at Here&Now Stage on Opener Fest 2014. After the show, Emils, Alexis, Egdars and Roberts came to talk with us (people, who still standing near stage). They manager bring 3 of us to met the band personally, take pictures and some autographs. After that, the band came again and thank us to join their show.

I will follow the music, which Carnival Youth is creating, because, they are worth it. They are young, incredibly talended, connected with people and kind in music.

If you want to follow their career with me, please, like their  Facebook page and you can also follw them on Twitter.


czwartek, 1 stycznia 2015

OPENER FESTIVAL 2014

Before I'll start to talk about 14th edition of Opener Festival expieriences, I'll show you short history of it.

"From legends Pearl Jam and Faith No More, throughout the highlights of recent years: The Black Keys or Jack White, to bands still writing their musical history: Haim, Bastille, Banks or Royal Blood – that was the sound of this year's Open’er Festival. Once again, Open’er provided a full spectrum of musical- and artistic genres, and kept its status of one of Europe's key festivals.

Open'er 2014 in international press:
2013 was the year of "Kings and Queens”. It's the audience that made Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme drop the security and party with the fans backstage. Kings of Leon played for 60,000 fans, including Rihanna and her crew, who spent the entire concert dancing in the pit.  The Open'er stages also included the magnetic Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Arctic Monkeys, The National and Tame Impala. The audience could watch as many as four theatre plays: a premiere of Nowy Teatr's "Kabaret Warszawski", directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski, "Nancy. Interview" from the same "Courtney Love" by Teatr Polski in Wrocław, as well as "Paw Królowej" from Teatr Stary in Krakow. The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw also had its place at the festival with the "Projection Propaganda Machine" and the plane-inspired installation "Antek" by Paweł Althamer and Grupa Nowolipie. In addition, Open’er fans could enjoy all activities Open'er offered to date: Fashion Stage, Silent Disco, Kids Zone, Signing Tent, the Ferris Wheel and many more. The festival audience counted over 85,000 festival goers.

In 2012, the Main Stage featured what could have been the most eclectic line-up in the Open’er history:penderecki//greenwood, The Kills, Björk, New Order, Bon Iver, Justice. For the first time, arts became a part of the festival on such a large scale with the extremely popular theatre play "Angels in America" by Nowy Teatr in Warsaw, directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski, an exhibition by the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and the large-format installation "Totem" by Maury Gomulicki.

During the tenth festival edition in 2011, over 85,000 festival goers have enjoyed the festival in Babie Doły. The event was reviewed by about 500 journalists. Aside from concerts, new possibilities of spending time, such as the Ferris Wheel and Silent Disco, were created that year. Thousands of fans have enjoyed themselves watching the performance from Prince and the anniversary fireworks show that closed it. Music lovers could also see Coldplay, The Strokes, Pulp, M.I.A. or Primus.

2010 witnessed the performances from, among others, Pearl Jam, Kasabian, The Dead Weather and Pavement, and the appearance of even more new activities, e.g. Kids Zone and the environmentally friendly action.

In 2009, the festival was extended to four days. The Open'er stages featured Arctic Monkeys, Basement Jaxx, Gossip, Sex Pistols, Faith No More and plenty others.

In 2008, as many as seven stages: Main Stage, Tent Stage, World Stage, Young Talent Stage, Alter Space and two electronic spaces were created to accommodate the artists. The 50,000-strong audience witnessed performances from, among others, The Chemical Brothers, Jay – Z, Róisin Murphy and Editors.

2007 brought an even more impressive line-up, with concerts from Sonic Youth, Groove Armada, Beastie Boys, Muse and Björk. The festival also featured a fashion-dedicated space: Fashion’er/Fashion Stage.

The Kościuszko Square became too small for the crowd, so in 2006, the festival moved to Gdynia, Babie Doły – Kosakowo airfield. The festival was also extended to three days. Placebo, Pharrell Williams, Franz Ferdinand, Sigur Rós, Scissor Sisters, The Streets, Kanye West and Basement Jaxx all came to Gdynia.

In 2005, 25,000 festival goers got their chance to watch Snoop Dogg, Faithless, Fatboy Slim, Lauryn Hill, The White Stripes andUnderworld. On Day One, all day tickets sold out.

In 2004, all music lovers could enjoy the festival for as long as two days, to the music of Cypress Hill, Pink, Goldfrapp orMassive Attack, and filled all the Square to its brims.

In 2003, the festival moved to the Kościuszko Square in Gdynia. There, the fans could watch performances from Cassius, Kosheen, Layo & Bushwacka!

It all began in 2002 r. The one-day event featured, for the first time in Poland, The Chemical Brothers.

THE ARTISTS

The festival always features important artists who never visited Poland before, and often played there just once: Blur, Prince, Coldplay, The Strokes, Snoop Dogg, The White Stripes, Sigur Ros, Franz Ferdinand, Kanye West, Muse, Kings Of Leon, Arctic Monkeys, Justice, Mumford & Sons or Interpol.

The Open'er audience could also witness exceptional concerts, such as Faith No More, reunited after years of silence, punk's greatest legends - Sex Pistols or alternative giants Sonic Youth, also marking their first and only time in Poland.
The festival also showcases Polish artists, giving them a unique opportunity to perform in front of an audience of dozen thousands, often for the first time. There is no better place for publicity for local acts.

WE WERE THE FIRST

• Open’er Festival is not only a benchmark of scale, but also a pioneer of festival solutions, imitated by other events.
• We were the first to introduce the system of festival wristbands.
• In 2006, when the festival was moved to Babie Doły (Kosakowo) airfield, special free shuttle buses were provided to transport the festival goers from the main railway station to the festival area.
• Open’er was the first to introduce the festival coupons and Mastercard® PayPass™contactless ALTER kART, which are still used at the festival.
The already habitual announcements of artists in Polish Radio 3 are always greeted by the audiencewith strong emotions.
The festival’s reputation made it the single event to begin the ticket sale for the current edition before even announcing the first artist.

FACTS & FIGURES

During 10 years, we spent 210 days at the festival site. It is just as if Alter Art crew prepared the festival non-stop from January until end of July one year.

The festival site has grown from 3 hectares in 2002 to 75 ha in 2013.  During all these years combined, we took up approximately 463 ha , a surface of a small airport.

 During that time, we built a total of 42 stages of 319 meters (ca. 349 yards) of height, outnumbering the Eiffel Tower.

The total energy consumption of Open’er Festival in ten years accounted to 40,062,222 watts – enough to power 130.541 laptops

WE WERE AWARDED

2005

•Sztorm Roku (Gazeta Wyborcza)
•Nocne Marki (Aktivist)

2006

•Sztorm Roku (Gazeta Wyborcza)
•Nocne Marki (Aktivist)
•Machinery 2006 (Machina)
•Effie Awards 2006
• 2006's As Empiku 2006 for Event of the Year

2007

•Sztorm Roku (Gazeta Wyborcza)
•Effie Awards 2007
• Cultural Event of 2007 - by Trójkowy Dom Kultury listeners
•Miazga 2007 (PULP)
• First place in Event category in the competition for best promotion of tourism in Pomerania region in 2007
• Event of the Year (Press - Top Eventy 2007)

2008

•Sztorm Sztormów (Gazeta Wyborcza)
•Sztorm Roku (Gazeta Wyborcza)
• Cultural Event of 2008 - by Trójkowy Dom Kultury listeners
• Skrzydła Trójmiasta 2008 in Muzyczne Trójmiasto awards, granted by trojmiasto.pl readers
• BizTrendy 2008 in Events/places category

2009

• Best Major Festival - European Festival Awards
• Musical event of 2009 (ONET.PL)
• Cultural Event of 2009 - by Trójkowy Dom Kultury listeners
• One of European Top 20 festivals (The Times)
• OOH! AWARDS 2009 for COMPANY OF THE YEAR – Events
• BizTrendy 2008 Award for Events/Places
• Festival of the year (mmtrojmiasto.pl)
• Most important action/event that has built a positive image of cities and regions (20yearsofRP.PL –LET’S BE PROUD)
• Elle Magazine’s plebiscite for the ”reason to be proud of Poland”

2010

•The international Green’n’Clean Award, only granted to environmentally conscious festivals. The initiative includes the management of transport, production, energy and power, catering, and other important elements of festival life.
• Best Major Festival - European Festival Awards (won by Open'er two years in a row).

2011

• Open’er Festival elected one of the 100 symbols of Poland by Kocham Polskę (I Love Poland) foundation among Poland’s most important places, people, historical events and achievements (including, among others, the Solidarity movement, Copernicus, the relief of Vienna in 1683 or the Baltic Sea) collected in the album ”Polskie Symbole” (“The Polish Symbols”).

•PROJECT ALBUM’s Poland Style + Design Awards: SHOW, EVENT & PRODUCTION.

2012

•Nominated to European Festival Awards as Best Major Festival.
• NIPTEL Award for Art at Open'er.

2013

•Nominated to European Festival Awards as Best Major Festival
•Superbrands 2013/2014 - "Leisure" category leader, Created in Poland Superbrands
 
"There’s something about watching small planes land on one runway of Gdynia’s Babie Doły Military Airport while you’re watching The Black Keys headline a festival from the other which lets you know that Open’er is not like other festivals" NME Magazine
"Unbelievable, once again", Overall rating 9/10 - Virtual Festivals
“Now in its twelfth year, the event attracts an impressive array of talent, both from within the country and abroad” - Under the Radar
"Faith No More closed the festival – Poland’s largest – on Sunday night and it was simply wonderful."-The Independent
"Festivals aren't all mud, rain and carnage, they can also be beautiful, loved-up affairs, drenched in sunshine and good vibes - as anyone who went to Poland's Open'er festival this weekend can testify."Gigwise
2014
•„25/25 years: Brands for Poland” Brief magazine award
•Created in Poland Superbrands 2014/15" (source:http://opener.pl/en/About/The-Story)

The 2014 edition (which was 13th organized edition in Kosakowo) was my first time on festival like that ever. I spend there only one day (4th July) and honestly, I can say, that was one of the most amazing days in my whole life. It was Friday, and artist, who preform in that day were : on Open’er Stage: Foals, Lykke Li, Jack WhiteTent Stage: Misia Ff, Banks, Wild Beasts, Chromeo, Kamp!Here and Now Stage: Ben Howard, Carnival Youth, Bulbwires, Mela KotelukAlter Stage: Hello Mark, Hatti Vatti, Royal Blood, Rubber Dots, Robert Piotrowicz and on Beat Stage: Viadrina, Kixnare, Tourist.

Before enter to the place, where festival was, I meet Helen, one of the cutest and the kindes 15 years old girl I've pleasure to meet. I spend whole day with her, and after the first show, that we've seen, friends of mine joined us. We've met a lot of people, see a lot of arts (Greenpeace actions with drums was especially amazing to me), listen to incredible music (Jack White and Carnival Youth kicks asses!) and spending one day off work with friends.

If any of you are interested about music and culture festivals, Open'er is one of the best in Europe. 2015 edition will be badass with artists like Kasabian, St.Vincent, Alt- J and Jonny Greenwood. This 4 artist are know by while, but I'm still waiting for the rest of announcements about 14th edition.

I think, I will be there and enjoy all the music around, and also connecting with people.


wtorek, 30 grudnia 2014

Welcome!

Hello!

Welcome on "Colors of culture"! If you see this page, it means, that you're looking for some culture things!
But before we'll start, let me introduce myself...

My name is Natalia.
 I'm 21 and I'm from Poland (Middle Europe). I'm on managment studies in University of Gdansk. I'm interested about culture, which means, that I'm kinda music freak, book lover and person, who goes on probably every event in town (and I don't mean my town, where I live since I was born).

This blog/page/site was made because of two reasons.
First one? To practise writing in English, being creative in that part.
Second one? To share with you, dear Readers, events, which have been happen in my country.

This will not be a site with only Polish culture. It will include reviews about international bands, books and events (so, if you are in small band or you're a beggining writer, send your works to me, and after that I will write review of that here!).

I hope, that you all will like/enjoy this!

With love,

Nat.