Colours of Ostrava Festival is one of the most important festivals in the Czech Republic. It is Czech Republic’s festival with the most international artists. As already last year, NOTHING BUT HOPE AND PASSION also went to this year’s event. Again the festival had amazing headliners, like ROBERT PLANT, MGMT, TRENTEMØLLER, BASTILLE, ZAZ, JOHN NEWMAN, and many more. One of the many reasons why the festival is one of the best European festivals, and why there were as many visitors as never before.
Let’s talk about C-O-L-O-U-R-S.
The crowd in front of the festivals’ main stage
Czech festival crowd
Music festivals are about music. But somehow music seems pretty subsidiary at a lot of festivals these days. Often festival areas are swamped with lots of hipsters, lots of people who want to party hard, who just want to look cool or want to get as drunk at possible. Not at Colours of Ostrava. This festival is about what it should be about: music. Visitors mainly come from Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, but also from Austria, Germany, the UK. Though the beer prices are low – at least from a more western perspective – you hardly see really drunk people. People come to see and enjoy concerts, discover new music and dance. Can it be any better? If you are looking for a big festival that is calm, peaceful and awesome in aspects, you should definitely consider attending Colours of Ostrava 2015.
Production halls are still accessible
Ostrava – the city of tomorrow?
Ostrava is a special city. Located in the East of Czech Republic, it is the third biggest city of the country. The city used to be the city of iron, steel and coal production. Dolni Vitkovice used to be one of Europe’s biggest production areas. The area was opened around 1830 and was massively involved in the industrial revolution. In 1994 the area was shut down, and many people lost their jobs. But Ostrava’s face keeps changing since already twenty years now. The city that used to me an industrial city for more than 150 years it grew to one with a massive potential in other fields. Over the years Ostrava got a stunning infrastructure and pretty much all Western companies are their. No matter if banks, insurance companies, fashion & jewelry shops, cafes, etc: Ostrava has it all. What the city is still lacking of: jobs & industry. But the city is ready and is waiting. Though people told us that ‘everything is getting darker and darker in Ostrava’, we felt that things slowly get better. There are so many empty spaces in that special city that we are seriously thinking about going there. At least more than just once a year.
If you run a company or are an investor: check out Ostrava. Its potential is amazingly huge.
Dolni Vitkovice’s Gasometer is a philharmonic hall now
Location – one of the most impressive Festival grounds
As already said: the lower are of Vitkovice, Dolni Vitkovice, used to be on of the biggest iron, steel and coal production places in Europe. After the area was shut down it was named ‘European Cultural Heritage’ and since them it is used as cultural place. One of the buildings is now used as an industrial museum, and the areas’ Gasometer got converted into a philharmonic hall with more than 1200 seats. The Colours of Ostrava Festival takes place on the grounds of Dolni Vitkovice. Seriously, we have never seen as impressive festival grounds like this. It’s hard to put this in words, so we let photos speak:
Dolni Vikovice from above
The impressive grounds of Dolni Vitkovice
One of Europe’s most stunning festival areas
Silent places everywhere
Organisation par excellence
The bigger a festival is the more problems can come up. At Colours of Ostrava we faced – literally – no problems at all. 15 stages, 40.000 people and everything went perfect. No matter if stage times, live sound, food and drink stands, or security: everything was just perfect. Hats off to the Colours team!
Uncompromisingly low prices
OK, the price discussion is always one that depends on the perspective. Tickets for Colours of Ostrava cost under 60€ (early bird price) and under 85€ (regular price). Sure, this is not cheap for visitors from Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. But compared to other European Festivals with an international line-up like Colours’ it’s really cheap.
Beer prices are under 1.50€ per beer, which actually is the standard price in Czech bars, too. So prices are standard for the area. But if you come from Germany, Austria, the UK, or Scandinavia then you won’t believe it. 1.50€ seems like no price at all. Again we have to mention that it feels good that there are no massively drunk people, even if the prices are so low.
Same goes with food. There are tons of food options. No matter if Eastern European food, Asian food or vegetarian/vegan burgers (or even goulash): you’ll find it at Colours – ‘almost for free’.
ROBERT PLANT & lots of other great headliners
Just to name some of the international top acts from year’s festival: MGMT, SEASICK STEVE, TRENTEMØLLER, ZAZ, CHARLES BRADLEY, EMILIANA TORRINI, MØ, JAMIE WOON, ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO, ROBERT PLANT, BASTILLE, DARKSIDE, GOAT, JOHN BUTLER TRIO, THE NATIONAL, and JOHN NEWMAN. Of course lots of great acts played too. Of all acts we never heard about before our highlights were LAKE MALAWI and FANFARAII. But the REAL festival winners were SKIP’N’DIE.
One of the side stages
Skip’n’Die’ – the winners of Colours of Ostrava 2014
SKIP’N’DIE played Saturday night as the last act on the Agrofert Fresh Stage. When Cata Pirata and her band started about 2.000 people were in front of the stage and instantly started freaking out. When the Dutch band with the South African singer finished about 10.000 people were dancing and partying. And even after the third extra song people didn’t want to stop yelling ‘one more song, one more song’. A concert that is worth a break-through award.
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All Photos by Agentura likeit
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