Pohoda is an open-air summer music festival in Slovakia, first organized in 1997 in Trenčín. It is the biggest Slovak music event organized annually. The current venue is Trenčín Airport.
The festival features alternative music, rock, pop, dance music, world music, house, techno, drum and bass, hip hop, but also theatre, discussions, chamber music, dance and literature workshops.
The actual record-high attendance is 33,000 people/day from 2009. Since 2010 the festival capacity is limited to 30,000 visitors.[1]
History
1990s
1997
The first festival organized on 29 June 1997 was called "Kráľovská Pohoda". It took place at the Trenčín town stadium. About 2,000 people attended the event but only 140 tickets were sold. Four Slovak, three Czech and one Russian bands played there.
1998
The festival called "Dobre zvolená Pohoda" was organized on 5 September. The new location was Pod Sokolicami again in Trenčín, which hosted the event until 2003. The festival had two stages - main and dance. Musicians from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Austria and Finland attracted about 3,000 people.
1999
The event was significantly larger than the previous ones. It was held on 16 and 17 July, contained two stages and accompanying activities, such as tattooing and balloon rides. The first American band, Skulpey, performed at Pohoda. 8,000 people attended the festival each day.
2000s
2000
The festival organized on 21 and 22 July was significantly larger again. The venue was enlarged by the adjacent expo area. It contained four stages - main, dance 1 and 2 and rock and many accompanying activities and events. Notable performers included Bomfunk MC's and Propellerheads' Will White. 20,000 visitors were present each day.
2001
Organized on 20 and 21 July, the festival hosted 5 stages - main, rock/hip-hop, rock open-air, and three dance stages. Notable musicians included Fun Lovin' Criminals, and the event attracted 18,000 people each day.
2002
Seven stages offered a vast array of music genres on 19 and 20 July. Stereo MCs, Sneaker Pimps and Task Force were presented as headliners. Attendance was 20,000/day.
Organized on 15 and 16 July, the event contained sitwo stages and 2 arena theatres. Headliners included The Prodigy, Garbage, Asian Dub Foundation, Little Louie Vega, Klezmatics, Roots Manuva, and Macka B. The festival attracted a record number of visitors - 25,000/day.
Saturday afternoon concerts of classical music at the main stage have become a tradition. After arias and choruses the Festival have prepared the symbolic fusion of two ensembles this year. A selection of Slavonic Dances (Dvořák), Hungarian Dances (J. Brahms) or Strauss's waltzes was performed by orchestras of the Opera of Slovak National Theatre and Hungarian State Opera.
Travis, the Klaxons and Lamb were scheduled to play, but did not, after the festival was cancelled on Saturday, 18 July after the O2 Aréna tent collapsed due to heavy winds during a thunderstorm. The tent fell on hundreds of people, who took refuge from the rain, killing two and severely injuring dozens.[3][4]
The organizers of Pohoda Festival decided that despite the 2009 tragedy, the festival would still return in 2010.[5][6]
The twenty-fourth edition of Pohoda was postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Pohoda 2020 was replaced with Pohoda in the Air, a series of concerts and discussions streamed live from Trenčín Airport on 9–11 July 2020.
2021
Pohoda 2021 was originally supposed to take place from Thursday 8 July 2021 to Saturday 10 July 2021. Most notable acts confirmed for 2020 included FKA Twigs, The Libertines, Wolf Alice, Metronomy, Archive, Black Midi, Shame and Kokoroko. However, due to the ongoing pandemic and attendance limits on mass events, the event was replaced with a series of five one-day festivals titled Pohoda on the Ground, with the same headliners performing each day. The most notable acts included Dry Cleaning and Altın Gün.
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