The forth edition of Audioriver recently came to a close. A record, since the event became a ticketed affair, 12 thousand punters from all parts of Poland came out on each of the days.
“It’s difficult to say which performances were the best, as the proceeding spanned across four stages, but after a quick look at Internet message boards, it looks as if Moderat, Richie Hawtin, Dirtyphonics, Dub FX, DJ Hell and James Holden, who rocked the crowed with a four hour set in the wee morning hours, made the biggest impression on the Audioriver faithful. Holden played for an hour and a half longer than we was slated to, only to go on to give a couple of encores, and ended the beach portion of the festival in style. Feedback regarding the festival is very positive, although there were a few hitches along the way, the biggest of which was the lack of free space on the tent field, despite the fact that it was twice the size compared to last year. This means that for next year we will have to find a bigger location for the tent field, as the beach itself can’t accommodate such a high number of tents. And we can’t simply make the festival grounds smaller, because this year’s edition took up the whole of the beach’s capacity”, says Audioriver spokesperson, Lukasz Napora.
And what did the headliners have to say about the festival? On Sunday, Richie Hawtin wrote on Twitter: “thank you POLAND… hope it doesn‘t take another 5 years to come back…”. The guys from Moderat, on the other hand, said that they had never played on such a good soundsystem, while Lee Jones, one half of MyMy, was very surprised by the reaction the duo received from Polish clubbers. “They’re amazing! They go crazy every 16th bar!”, said Jones.
Audioriver’s newest attractions, such as the Festival Cinema and Street Theaters, were also very well received, but the biggest success of all in this respect was without a doubt the Muzzo Stage, which during the daytime was surrounded by punters dancing in the Old Market Square and… in the fountain to be found in the Square. Several dozen people dancing in water up to their knees was definitely a priceless scene.
Unfortunately, for the first time in the festival’s history not all the artists that were booked performed. On the Friday, the organizers received a message from Rusko’s manager stating that the artist missed a total of three flights! The situation surrounding the absence of Chase, on the other hand, was a little more complicated. “A few weeks after we booked the duo, it turned out that only Status will be able to come to Plock, as on the same day the group had another engagement in London. We wanted very much for the performance to take place, so we refrained from renouncing the contract. However, it must be clearly stated that the contract included a paragraph which required the show to be promoted as a performance from both members of Chase & Status, which is why we did not inform the general public about this state of affairs beforehand. Needless to say, we are not fully content with such a turn of events, even though Status together with MC Rage literally tore the roof off”, says Lukasz Napora. Also, Polish DJ Poziom-X didn’t manage to play his morning set, which was supposed to commence at 6:30 on the Sunday. However, the reason for this was James Holden’s out of this world performance, which, as mentioned already, took up an hour and a half more than was originally planned. “We would like to thank Marcin for understanding the situation and giving his time to James. In short, the Sunday morning in question was without a doubt one of the festival’s best moments”, adds Napora.
“All in all, we would like to thank everyone who came out to Audioriver this year. Thanks to such a turn out, we are motivated to more with each edition, as such high numbers confirm that there is a place for quality underground dance music in our scene. Sure, not everything was perfect, but be hope that punters appreciate our efforts to make each edition even better than the last”.
