POHODA: a long weekend recap
Thursday, July 10th
Our last day of classes! These first two weeks really flew by. Emma and I woke up early to pack our weekend bags and head to class where we had a lecture about Brutalist architecture (so cool!) and then all gave mini presentations of our own. Then, we grabbed some coffee and went home to get our bags and make our way to the train station. We ate, ran to catch our train on time and commenced our ~6 hour journey to Trenčín, Slovakia. We just so happened to be sitting right next to a guy around our age also heading to the festival1. We chatted almost the whole way there, and it was so nice to feel like we already had a connection and someone in our corner.
Then, the horrors of traveling pretty much alone in a very foreign place began2. First the train barely stopped at our desired station, with the doors closing right in our face as we tried desperately to exit the now sinister-feeling vehicle. The train had begun its journey to the next town over and we had to enlist the help of a Czech and Slovak couple who—very kindly, very graciously—showed us how to use the Slovak transport app to buy tickets for a train at the next stop that would take us back to the one we missed. We got off the train and had about five minutes to navigate this station (now in the pitch dark, too), running around and desperately searching for the correct platform. Miraculously, we made it on with about 30 seconds to spare.
Crisis one was averted. Now, to deal with the rest. Check-in at our hotel ended at 10p and, by this point, it was nearing 9:30p. We called the hotel to ask about the possibility of a late check-in and were met with very little English but the assurance that someone would call us back. Meanwhile, I’m trying to figure out how to use the Uber equivalent Bolt to get us from the correct train station to our hotel. Finally the hotel calls us back and confirms that someone will still be at the front desk at 10:15 when we arrive. Thank goodness. And, I have ordered a car that will meet us at the train station pretty much exactly when our train will get there. Thank goodness, again.
Now, it is important to note here that an added layer of all the stress of this scenario is the fact that our hero and replacement headliner Damon Albarn will be performing at the main stage of this festival from 10:15 to midnight. So, things are really not looking good for us. We get off on this train station in what feels like the true middle-of-nowhere, greeted by very dark surroundings, no other souls and lots of train cars with stacks of cedar logs ready to be transported to wherever for whatever purpose. We run through this station as well, successfully exit and find our ride. Now, we’re sitting in the back of this car—still stressed but feeling a bit better about actually being in the right village—but as this man drives our arrival time keeps getting pushed back and I notice that we’re going the totally wrong direction. We worked it out (the driver had misunderstood and was taking us straight to the festival instead of the hotel), but the panic I had felt due to this mistake sure did linger for a while.
Finally, we made it to the hotel. We check in and the receptionist shows us how to use our keys, the three of us greatly struggling to overcome the staunch language barrier between us. She asks us if we need a cab to the festival and then calls one, which was so helpful… until she passed the phone over to us and the driver informed us he wouldn’t be free for an hour and then that it would take 30 more minutes to get to the festival grounds. We have to decline the offer. We get up to our room and start making use of the list of taxi services the festival website has posted for the convenience of its attendees, only to find that none of them speak English and most are confused when we ask if they’re working with the festival. It’s a dead end. We are defeated, exhausted and coming down from an incredibly intense period of adrenaline-fueled problem-solving. But at least we’re not sleeping on the streets of rural Slovakia.
We accept that there’s no way we’re making it to the fest on this first night, take showers—even though we had both already done so that morning—to wash ourselves clean of the day and then absolutely crash.
Friday, July 11th
A good night of sleep did wonders for us. Because we had arrived under the cover of night, we had no idea what our surroundings looked like. Imagine our surprise when we found that the patio outside of our room overlooked this view:
We got ourselves ready and headed down the road to find our shuttle stop where an 11a bus would take us up to the festival grounds. Spirits were becoming more lifted. The festival3 is set up on the tarmac and surrounding fields of an airport4 and many attendees camp in little “tent villages” that are on the outskirts of the festival area.
Walking through the festival and scoping out the scene felt so idyllic and energizing and kind of like how it feels to walk around the zoo or like a state fair or something. There were seemingly never-ending food stalls with cuisine of all kinds, and we gravitated toward a little fruit stand for our breakfast. I started my day with an incredibly juicy peach and a matcha orange juice. Things were really, really looking up.
The acts we most wanted to see didn’t start until later that evening, so we spent a lot of time just hanging around. We think that the people in charge of organizing this event deserve some kind of prize, because it seems like they’ve thought of absolutely everything. We spent a good chunk of the afternoon lounging about and sort of napping on these beanbag things in a phone-charging area.
We found some more food, then began camping out by the main stage to scope out the best spot for our first show, Fontaines D.C. It had begun to sprinkle a bit but we were able to just chill in the grass and drink wine from a wine stall—which, yes, they had—and have a pleasant period of waiting. About an hour before the show we moved to wait front and center by the stage. Here’s a photo of where we were:
And, as it turned out, here is what the crowd looked like once it had formed around us:
This show was so fantastic, maybe my favorite of the whole weekend. It was such a great way to kick things off: the band was ridiculously cool and sounded so great, the crowd had a great energy and it was so exciting to be finally starting the true festival experience.
Afterwards, we had about three hours to kill before our shuttle back to the hotel so we went to charge our phones and chat with two Ukrainian guys who had been near us in the crowd. We then followed them back to the main stage where we completely accidentally caught the full set of the next act, Ashnikko. Random but pretty fun! Finally, hunger struck once more and we found some delicious Indian food to scarf down before finding our shuttle and heading home to crash for the night.
Saturday, July 12th
We woke up absolutely wiped out from the night before. We rushed to get ready then ran to catch our shuttle which we nearly missed and I nearly died from the superhuman speed we reached to get there in time. Anyway, we made it and were on track for another glorious day in the utopian grounds of Pohoda. As soon as we arrived we grabbed water and made our way to a sort of tented chill area where I curled up on the ground and had another heavenly hour of sleep.
We spent this day eating and sitting and drinking coffee and water to prepare for the absolute marathon of the next 24 hours that awaited us. Finally, the night began around 7p with Iggy Pop. He still sounds great and the crowd was so excited for his set. We repeated our scouting strategy from the day before and were able to be pretty close which was neat. I am impressed that his stage presence is still so energetic and larger-than-life. Good for you, Iggy!
We then had one hour to get our wits about us and prepare for the next act, Queens of the Stone Age. Again, we waited it out front and center to secure a nice spot for ourselves. This band was also fantastic. They had such a dramatic presence about them and were so clearly very skilled technical musicians. We were pretty much right in front of the bass player who was just absolutely shredding on that thing. So cool and this was the rowdiest, most enthusiastic crowd yet I think.
Then we went across the festival grounds to catch some of something completely different: Geordie Greep. A lot of my pals over at the radio station may be disappointed to learn that I’m pretty unfamiliar with his music… but this experience has definitely motivated me to change that. We got to the stage and he and his band were just jamming out (and continued to do so for the full 20 minutes we were able to stay), also showing off their technical skills but in a way that so deeply contrasted the show we had come from. You could tell that they were just having a good time hanging out up there.
Next we stopped by the last couple songs of JPEGMAFIA. So fun, so cool—I wish we could have caught more because what we saw was really electric. We then made our way to another bigger stage to sit, rest our legs a bit and watch the end of Morcheeba’s5 set from afar.
After our strength was restored a bit more, we walked to a little tent to see yeule. This show really surprised me (in a good way!); I thought I knew what to expect from this artist but I was just so wrong. The lighting design made it so that we could just see their silhouette on stage, so even though it was a small venue and we were close there remained a kind of mysterious allure to the performance. It was also so much louder and more rock-heavy than I anticipated, which was fun!
Finally, we went to see the Japanese DJ ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U whose set was unfortunately delayed until 1:30a, meaning we really just caught the first 15-ish minutes of it (disappointing because we were once again in a prime position!). We made it to the shuttle right on time, arrived at the hotel and caught some Z’s which were really more like a two hour nap than a night of sleep.
Sunday, July 13th
We rose at 5:15a to call the taxi we had managed to reserve and confirm our ride. Then, we packed up and left at 6a for the train station, realized we had no more euros and spent some time working out how to digitally pay our poor driver and then double-, then triple-checked that we were waiting at the right platform. The train arrived, we made it on board and I had my most successful instance ever of public transportation sleep, conking out for a solid three hours.
We blissfully arrived back in Prague, feeling so proud of ourselves and fulfilled from the whole experience. Wow. Spent the rest of the day sleeping and doing a variety of menial things. Thank you, Pohoda, thank you, Slovakia. Yahoo!
Shoutout Jacob. It was so nice to befriend someone so quickly and easily!
Warning: these next couple of paragraphs will be a detailed and somewhat anxiety-inducing account of this travel saga. Go ahead and skip to the next day if you’d prefer to hear only about the very fun times we did end up having.
It’s called Pohoda, which I don’t actually think I’ve specified yet.
Which we can’t determine if other parts of it are in operation still during the festival or what. Very interesting but overall pretty smart setup.
They covered “Let’s Dance” by David Bowie which of course made me very happy.
reading this after hearing your voice memo is so full circle
This was my favorite episode yet!!! The twists and turns had me on the edge of my seat. I can not wait for Season 2 of POHODA to come out! ;)