Panaitescu To Book South Pole

Sziget festival booker Dan Panaitescu is looking for acts to play the new two-day South Pole Festival at Chorzow’s Slaski Stadium, which has hosted shows by major international acts including U2 and Iron Maiden.

The event, which is funded by the city and the Silesia regional authority, takes place August 24-25 and is targeted to become the country’s major festival within five years.

It will start with two stages and two electronic music arenas that will be set up in the stadium itself and the surrounding Silesian Recreational Park, giving the festival an overall capacity of 66,000.

Chorzow is only four miles from Katowice, the capital of Silesia Region, and has close to 11 million people living within an 80-mile radius.

The city’s easily accessible by motorway and is close to Katowice International Airport, which has flights to and from 23 international destinations – mainly run by budget airlines.

The city’s about 70 miles from Czech Republic, 120 from Slovakia, about 280 from Germany and Austria and 320 from Hungary.

Panaitescu, who was approached to help book the event, said it’s aiming to have seven leading international and two top Polish national acts per day.

As a break from the music, the neighbouring recreational park has several of its own attractions including an amusement park, a zoo, a planetarium, skating arena and water sports centre.