Wilsonic’s Hydro-Powered Return

Slovakia’s Wilsonic Festival is returning to the European festival calendar after missing out on the last three years.

Tibor Holoda’s event built quite a reputation for itself among techno fests between 2000 and 2009, until main sponsor Telefonica found other ways of spending its money.

In 2008 and 2009 Wilsonic Festival was awarded “the second best festival in month of June” by Resident Advisor, the prominent worldwide portal on electronic music.

Now Holoda and Jana Polnischova are re-launching the event at a parkland site at Bratislava’s hydro powerplant complex at Cunovo – a short cab ride from the city centre. Polnischova previously worked at the country’s 30,000-capacity Pohoda Festival.

During its early years, Wilsonic was staged in various locations such as the Slovak National Museum but organizers believe the whitewater area at the hydropower plant grounds is so far the closest to an ideal festival site.

Last year a smaller event was staged in an urban garden near a design factory near the centre of the Slovakian capital, which pulled around 1,500, but the new site and a beefier bill of international acts is expected to see Wilsonic’s crowd return to what was its usual 8,000 to 10,000.

This year’s Wilsonic (June 7-8) has already confirmed U.S. rapper Mykki Blanco, Danish electro duo Rangleklods, and Germany’s Modeselektor.