A Party With Some Atmosphere

Pohoda Festival’s effort to stage a two-day winter equivalent in Slovakia pulled barely half of its 2,000 capacity but organisers are keen to try again next year.

Faced with the reality of not being able to stage an outdoor event in Slovakia at this time of year, they opted for an innovative indoor camping festival, or what amounted to a huge sleepover.

Fans pitched their tents indoors Nov. 25-26 in the Expo Centre in Trencín, the town where the outdoor event is held.

Only self-supporting tents were allowed as the venue took an understandable exception to having stakes driven into its floor.

“It was a crazy idea and a crazy event and everyone who came had a crazy time,” said Pohoda PR and media director Mário Gešvantner.

He said the fact it was so cold outside and people didn’t really know what to expect were the probable reasons for the poor showing, but the atmosphere generated within the Expo Centre was enough to indicate it’s worth having another go at it.

The 2012 version will likely happen a couple of weeks earlier and also act as a revival of the event that the Pohoda team used to organise to celebrate the anniversary of the “Velvet Revolution.”

That would put it close to Nov. 17, the date in 1989 when student unrest and other public demonstrations began the non-violent overthrow of Communism.

The acts playing this year’s indoor camping festival included Hadouken!, New Young Pony Club, Esben and the Witch, Polar Bear, and former Zero 7 vocalist Sophie Barker.

Next summer’s 30,000-capacity Pohoda Festival, one of the old Eastern Bloc’s most successful, will be July 5-7.