2012-08-07   

Trutnov Woodstock will be different this year: the dramaturgy of extreme diversity, repeated concerts, mass ministered by Auxiliary Bishop of Prague and for the first time without our Chief. It will still be held “on the Battlefield,” but also “on the Bui

At the beginning of the month of ripening grain and grass, ten days before opening the gates of the festival site Na Bojišti (On the Battlefield), the oldest Czech Open Air Festival in Trutnov is drumming out new names of the various bands and performers that are part of this exciting festival program. This year's twenty-fifth anniversary of Trutnov Open Air Festival will be held from 16th to 19th of August. The festival has achieved an impressive quarter of a century (this year could have therefore been dedicated to the festival alone) and it will be different from previous years in many ways. There will be even greater diversity of styles, non-musical activities, debates, double concerts, masses ministered by the bishop Father Václav Malý, but above all, unfortunately, it will be the first time without two of the major figures of its history - the Chief and Magor. Both died at the end of last year and the festival is dedicated to them In Memoriam. Also, for the first time it will take place not only on the Battlefield, but almost “on the building site”. The work on meadows that were selected to be built up by the local councillors has already started and they are actually building close to one of the scenes. There are already underground excavators biting into the red soil near the tent and the existing sacred nature is being transformed into a commercial zone. Anyone will be able to see with their own eyes that our feared visions of the coming end were no chimeras, as the local mayor remarked, but, unfortunately, they are starting to take shape. There will be some warehouses and a logistics centre for packages. The ones gaining in this battle will be especially a councillor and the owner of the design studio Vokatý - who was involved, among other things, in the infamous Sazka hall, the construction company and hence the investor. We will have to move the fence and seek new paths to our tee pees and tents. The festival will get even more conspiracy and Indian spirit.

Dear squaw and co-warriors, hurry up to confess in your parishes!

Masses and worshiping...

The beginning of the festival itself will be unusual; the first two days of programme, along with spiritual shepherds, will honour the memory of the Chief Havel and Martin “Magor” Jirous. The festival will be unofficially opened on Thursday with ecumenical service, which will be served by a traditional “festival cleric”, a Catholic priest Ladislav Heryán, who buried Martin Jirous. The service will be served together with the parish priest of Slovak origin of the Czechoslovak Hussite Church Juraj Doval. A day later, at the beginning of Friday's festival day there will be a regular Mass served by the Bishop of Prague, Father Václav Malý. Friday's service will be quite extraordinary. It will be a Mass for the Chief and Martin Magor with the liturgy, as people know it from the temples in regular length, including Holy Communion. “We call all the squaws and co-warriors to hurry and go to a confession in their parishes, so that they could attend the Open Air Mass with everything!” Václav Malý was one of the first signatories of Charter 77 and later also its spokesman. He was active in the Committee of Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted, and in 1979 he spent six months in prison without trial for alleged subversion of the Republic. The fate and civic attitude of Václav Malý naturally connect him with Trutnov festival, which originated in the 80s on underground bases after a wave of repression.

Friday will be started off with a Mass and concert of paraplegics.

Friday's Mass will follow the opening concert of the Prague band The Tap Tap, who will play a concert against the end of the world. Disabled artists from Jedlička Institute in Prague will stand before the rough Trutnov downstage for the first time. We need to create a special wheelchair ramps for them. The Tap Tap is a band that will perfectly blend in with the spirit of the festival, and enter its turbulent waters. Like John Cale, The Tap Tap is one to those bands that should have performed here a long time. The unusual band has been playing since 1998, and the core band consisting of disabled musicians is complemented by visiting professionals. The band has had hundreds of performances and they even have two live recordings of special concerts at the Prague State Opera.

Double concerts in various environments.

Some of the well established bands that arealready well known in Trutnov are coming with a novelty. Many will perform two concerts during the festival, each in a different environment. As you know, there is not much time for similar experiments at festivals full of bands. We want you, dear co-warriors and squaw, to experience that band in may sound unlike or even completely differently in different environments. For example Garáž fits naturally into the Underground tent with its bar. The band remembers the origins of Trutnov Woodstock. You will be able to see the concert of Garage with Tony Ducháček in two versions – on the main stag and in the Underground tent. Avant-garde American Jessie Evans, discovery of the last year's star Iggy Pop, in turn, will perform a short set on the main stage and a regular concert of the second stage the following day.

Čankišou opens the festival on Thursday and closes on Sunday. The circle will close.

This year will be specific by the fact that the festival program will be opened and concluded by the same band. Čankišou will own the stage on Thursday after the opening ecumenical church service and then close it after midnight from Sunday to Monday, accompanied by a number of drummers, for example Pavel Fajt. KrchOff Band will experience its premiere in the Underground tent of I. M. Magor Jirous, and its member and the cult poet J. H. Krchovský accompanied by teammates will be singing his dark poems. Bissext band that remembers the very beginning of the festival will play here, too. The name of the back then not very well known group was on the poster for the first festival in 1987, which was, however, dispersed by the communist police before the beginning. Bissext arrived, unlike other bands that did not make it, and the band was actually physically present.

Return of Ondřej Havelka and the noble men.

Former old times of elegance and gentility will be reminded by Ondřej Havelka and his Melody Makers, who earned enthusiastic applause two years ago. The concert began by fanfares for the Chief that were sent toward his cottage at Hrádeček. Václav Havel, who was shooting his delayed directorial film debut and the only movie of his life Leaving, however, was held on Hrádeček by the exhaustion from filming.

You will hear the fanfares for the Chief and Martin Magor.

Dear co-warriors and squaw, as you know, chief Vaclav wanted to come to Bojiště, and he wished to receive the Trutnov Cultural Award here in front of you. However, the local government representatives did not find the rock festival, which is famous across the country, as a dignified enough place to receive the prize. Councilman simply did not want. They purposefully planned to hand over the medal during the opening of the controversial building of local cultural centre. They described the festival as undignified. But at the festival there was an Orchestra with men in tuxedos who earned such a success that the next band Arch Enemy from Sweden had to try really hard to at least equalise. Ondřej Havelka was sorry when could not play the Chief at the occasion of receiving the award. This year, the fanfares for the Chief and Magor will be transported into heaven via astral paths.
We are looking forward...

Czech Woodstock breaks established pigeonholes.

Open Air is a meeting nicknamed the Czech Woodstock, which has been taking place in the foothills of the Krkonoše Mountains for twenty-five years. It is known for its atmosphere and specific dramaturgical diversity, breaking established clichés, music boxes and myths. This is confirmed by this year's show of a popular singer Marta Kubišová with the Petr Malásek band, who will perform after the hard Hawk Eyes and before the alternative Belgian band dEUS. In 2007, the festival Chief Václav Havel wrote: “Trutnov Woodstock is the best example of honest pluralism: musicians of completely different kind that would normally not be met at one event often perform side by side or in succession, which can not be seen anywhere else.”