Przystanek Woodstock
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The Przystanek Woodstock (The Woodstock Stop) is a rock music festival with 400,000 people per year, the biggest European open-air rock music festival organised annually in Poland.
Starting from 1995, the Polish Woodstock Festival takes place in summer. The main tagline for it was "Love, Friendship, Music". This rock festival doesn't have anything in common with the charity state of the GOCC. It's a weekend, during which everyone in Poland can come to one of the cities where it takes place and have fun, absolutely for free. Many popular Polish and world-wide rock groups play every year, for example: IRA (Polish band), Myslovitz, Dżem, Hunter (band), Acid Drinkers and Pidżama Porno. Apart from that, the festival is a way of promotion for many upcoming artists, who can play in the eliminations before the festival. If they're chosen, they can play on scene during the party weekend.
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[edit] History
[edit] The First Woodstock Stop
The first Woodstock Stop festival took place in the days of 15th and 16th July in the town of Czymanowo, located near the Żarnowieckie Lake in 1995.
The list of bands included - among others - Carrantouhill, Skankan, Żuki, Myslovitz, Ira, and Urszula.
During the first of the Polish Woodstock festivals no alcohol was sold, which was similar to the Jarocin festivals.
[edit] The second Woodstock Stop
The second of the festivals was held in Szczecin-Dąbie in 1996.
This time the first Woodstock's "prohibition law" was partially lifted, and beer was sold.
[edit] Woodstocks in Żary
The third festival took place the next year, in the days of 16th and 17th of August in the town of Żary, which became the setting of the Przystanek Woodstock festivals till 2003.
Initially the festival was planned to be held in July, but because of the 1997 flood, which affected most of Poland, and was later named the "Flood of the century", the festival was postponed until August.
The 1998 Woodstock featured the performances of nearly 47 bands. The band list included Closterkeller, Akurat, Oddział Zamknięty, Kobranocka, and Acid Drinkers.
Almost 150 000 people attended the festival.
The 1999 Woodstock was held on August 6th, 7th, and 8th.
This time the attendance record was broken, because the audience reached almost 200 000 people.
[edit] "The Wild Stop"
The 2000 Woodstock Stop was planned to be held in Lębork, but due to permission uncertainities, and protest of local comitetes (Komitet obrony Moralności - The Committee for the Defense of Morality) it had to be cancelled.
Nevertheless over a 1000 people showed up, and organised a sort of a "rock`n roll picnic", without any professional music bands. This happenig was later referred to as the "Dziki Przystanek" ("The Wild Stop")
[edit] The Return to Żary
In 2001 Żary was again the setting for the festival.
The 2002 Woodstock was a significant one, because it was filmed, and the footage was used to produce "Przystanek Woodstock. Najgłośniejszy Film Polski" ("The Woodstock Stop. The Loudest Film In Poland"), a concert film, which was screened in movie theatres across the country the following year, and also took part in a number of international film festivals.
The 2003 Woodstock was the last one held in the town of Żary. Because of much medially intesified controversy surrounding some incidents during the festival, that Jerzy Owsiak was part of, it was decided that Żary won`t be a setting for the concerts anymore.
[edit] The Woodstocks in Kostrzyn
The 2004 Woodstock was organized in the town of Kostrzyn in the vicinity of the German border.
The same setting was used for the 2005 and 2006 Woodstock stop.
