The Great Indoors

It may seem a little crazy to stage a camping festival in central Europe at the end of November, but organisers of Slovakia’s annual Pohoda Festival have overcome any potential weather problems by staging their effort indoors.

The inaugural Pohoda Indoor Camping Festival will be Nov. 25-26 in the Expo Centre in Trenÿín, the town where the annual 30,000-capacity outdoor event is held.

A maximum of 2,500 festivalgoers will be able to camp in the heated exhibition halls, where they’ll be provided with spaces for pitching their own self-supporting tents.

It’s not possible to accommodate structures that require ropes for support, as the Expo Centre is understandably reticent about having stakes driven into its floors. However, there will also be room at the Tent Hotel Kempingski.

“We’ve played with the idea of transmitting the charm of the summer Baÿant Pohoda to its fall edition,” says Pohoda chief Michal Kašÿák. “For this reason we’re offering indoor camping.

“We haven’t seen this anywhere in the world. We’re so excited about how our festival-goers will take to this idea,” Kašÿák said.

Jana Polnischová from the organising team reckons a few agents will come “just out of curiosity.”

The music will be on four stages in the Expo Centre and international acts will include Hadouken!, New Young Pony Club, Esben and the Witch, Polar Bear, and former Zero 7 vocalist Sophie Barker.

Local talent will headed by Got Blue Balls, Gwerkova, Talkshow, Jelly Belly and Dynamo Team.

The programme will be based on the summer version of Pohoda, which is a mix of music, theatre, film, literature and debates.