The festival Pohoda, held every July at Trenčín airport, will not take place in 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic. (source: Michal Augustini/Pohoda)
The biggest summer music festival in Slovakia, Pohoda, will not take place this summer. Its organisers have decided to cancel after a long consideration and recommendations made by experts over the coronavirus pandemic.
“It is a very strange feeling to take this step, but it is an inevitable decision under current circumstances,” Pohoda Festival founder Michal Kaščák told the public-service Rádio_FM station on April 15.
Organisers say they are not cancelling the 24th edition, but postponing it to 2021. Next year’s Pohoda will take place from July 8 to 10 in Trenčín, with a pre-sale of tickets having already been launched. The festival is, hence, set to start off a day earlier compared to the initially planned 2020 edition.
“Even after the Spanish flu, there was literally an explosion of art, dance houses were created and people enjoyed coming together,” Kaščák said.
Pohoda 2021
Date: July 8-10, 2021
Venue: Trenčín airport
Website:pohodafestival.sk
Hashtag: #KeepPohodaAndCarryOn
All Pohoda tickets bought for 2020 will remain valid, organisers confirmed, but festival goers may still apply for a refund by October 15, 2020. If they decide to receive their money back, they can either ask for a full refund or support Pohoda by giving up a portion of the refunded ticket price.
Reconfirmed artists for Pohoda 2021
“Before we announced the postponement, we communicated with other promoters, band agents, suppliers, partners and our external colleagues,” Pohoda organisers said.
Following these discussions, organisers had already confirmed that the more than 20 artists who were to play this year at Trenčín airport will hold their gigs in 2021. This includes The Libertines, Wolf Alice, Metronomy, and Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, to name a few.
“We cannot guarantee the same programme for 2021, but we will do our best to make it even more powerful,” organisers noted.
They will announce new artists who will be joining next year’s line-up after April 20. It is not yet known if Stormzy, FKA twigs and Lykke Li, who were to perform this summer, will return next year. It is the second time Lykke Li will not perform at Pohoda after last year’s cancellation due to the weather.
Pohoda in the Air
Even after the Spanish flu, there was literally an explosion of art, dance houses were created and people enjoyed coming together.“
Instead of the traditional Pohoda Festival, the organisers plan to hold another event, titled Pohoda in the Air, in early July.
“We are putting together events that will continue throughout Pohoda weekend [July 9-11],” organisers told Rádio_FM.
Although organisers did not want to reveal details about this free-of-charge online event, it is clear that several concerts will be streamed as some of the 2020 acts have agreed to take part. Various forms of the visual arts, the premiere of the Pohoda 2019 film, and a stream of unpublished archive footage will also be on the programme.
Pohoda founder Michal Kaščák (left) and Pohoda PR Manager Anton Repka (right) announced the cancellation of Pohoda 2020 live on Rádio_FM on the morning of April 15. (source: TASR)
“We do not want it to be regular streaming but more fun,” organisers said, adding that more details will be revealed by May 15.
Pohoda organisers are also working on an online series of discussions, to be held in Slovak music clubs, to help Slovak culture.
Kaščák revealed to Rádio_FM that Donny Benét, who played his set at Pohoda in the past, will return to Slovakia in November of this year to play a show.
