Once a year in a small town Bolków for a few days "a source of darkness" is focused. It is proved how far it can reach by the fact that this inconspicuous place becomes a destination for dark souls not only from the whole Poland but also from many different places in Europe.
Yes, another edition of Castle Party is gone. What memories, what impressions and expectations have been evoked by this year festival? The last sound has not yet died away when thousand of comments appear. It’s hard to be objective, it’s hard to cover everything what was taking place, but still, once again, with the emotions calmed down, let’s try to take a look at what happened in Bolków at the last weekend of July.
This year festival began on Thursday with a warm-up events in clubs. The new one was the event organised in the building of former evangelical church.
When it comes to last few moments before the beginning of the festival they are always marked by anxiety, shall we say. With anxiety we check the weather, with anxiety we check delays of the trains. And finally, here we are, we hear the first sounds and relax. I got to Bolków on Friday and this was the day when the festival began in the full sense of the word. On Friday Bolków simply burned. The heat mercilessly flowed from the sky and it was really hard to find a shelter. In the early afternoon the streets were almost empty, some people were rushing to find some shade and those who succeeded stayed in there and didn’t move. About 2pm the performance of the Terminus A Quo theatre began on the main square. The actors appeared out of nowhere. Dressed in black suits unnoticeably mixed with a crowd and started their performance initially dismayed the people, then made them more and more interested. Terminus A Quo is an experimental theatre and in Bolków they performed spectacle entitled "GO!"



After this unusual introduction we might just go to the castle where at th 3 pm Polish dark/harsh electro project H.Exe appeared on the stage initiating festival’s concerts. Harsh and vulgar, H.Exe despite the heat managed to make the audience dance.



Vigilante, one of the most important representatives of industrial music in South America, was the next artist on the stage. Electrical and metal mixes lured fans from the shade. The audience liked the concert very much and wanted more, however, the schedule of the festival didn’t allow that.



It’s very tempting to say that Friday belonged to Polish women because the real queens of the genre appeared on the stage on that day. The first of them was Desdemona. Charming vocal of Agnieszka Leśna, power of music – in this way the tracks from the new album "Endorphines" sounded.



The performance of Digital Factor, the representative of German EBM scene, was dominated by strong pulsating beat. Just after that, another legend of Polish scene – Artrosis. Among the new songs there were also the most famous hits such as 'Nazgul', 'Pośród Kwiatów i Cieni' and 'Szmaragdowa Noc'. There were melodious and romatic moments as well as more harsh. The fans should be content.



Quite different sounds flowed from the stage thanks to Leather Strip who brought us back to electronic stuff. Rhythmical and danceable, the audience visibly was just moving. Ordo Rosalius Equilibrio a little bit calmed down this enthusiasm. Relatively monotonous performance of this band had a sleep-inducing effect. Among the songs there were 'Mercury Rising' with an interesting melody, 'Three is an Orgy', 'Four is Forever', 'Reaping The Fallen', 'The First Harvest'.



The headliner of the evening was Closterkeller. The concert was registered to make a concert dvd. We could listen to such songs as 'Nero', 'Patrząc jak toniesz', 'Tyziphone', 'Jak łzy w deszczu', 'Tu nie ma nic', 'Miraż', 'Matka' and 'Nocarz' as a encore. The choice of the songs was defined by the participants of the festival as courageous but for the band those were the really special and worth to register songs. There were some disturbances during the concert such as Anja’s real clothes tragedy, because of the weather we didn’t see lanterns, but we could admire firework display during the song Matka.

Saturday is another struggle with the heat. To start with there was electronic and aggressive Czech Depressive Disorder and after that very harsh and energetic Ambassador21 with a charismatic vocalist. Most suitable to the temperature was the track "Welcome to Hell". The following band on the stage was German Bloody Dead and Sexy. Unquestionably guitar sounds in the shape of such track as 'Liquid Grey', 'Hey to Armageddon', 'Never street ' and somehow more darkness flowed to the audience.



Then, the only Polish band on that day, The Cuts playing electro with indie-rock. What deserves to be mentioned are intriguing lyrics. The band increased the gloomy atmosphere even more than dark cloud wchich appeared on the sky. Italian Spiritual Front, although they describe themselves as "nihilistic suicide pop" when it comes to music they sounded pretty optimistically. Another band on the stage was German Pink Turns Blue which sounded much more dark and gothic. Even the weather turns, not exactly from pink to blue but from sunny to rainy. A lot of people sacrificed this concert to change their clothes.



Hocico performed with an unplanned special effects in the shape of lightening. Extremely energetic and electric concert. In the mixture of sounds we could hear tracks such as Bloodshed, Altered States, About a Dead or Bite me.



The headliner of Saturday evening was long-awaited Alien Sex Fiend, who presented a really nightmarish macabre. Our imagination was stimulated not only by the stage decoration but mostly by the deadly pale grotesque image of Nik Fiend and also by throwing different remains to the audience so that everybody could feel "zombified". Among the performed songs: specific danse macabre The Dance of the Dead, Ignore the Machine with a lot of smoke, I walk the Line or They all call me crazee. Great show and classic deathrock in its best.



On Sunday the weather became calmer. On the stage, as the first, Cold in May. They played in a dark, romantic and strong way. As the second one, At the Lake from Warsaw. Symphonic metal with the violin, classic idea, shall we say. The vocalist jumped in an uncoordinated way and to be honest the best song was the instrumental one. Songs with Polish lyrics were missing and the audience expressed that openly. Devilish Impressions appeared on the stage as the next one and although stylistically completely different than the whole festival convention they managed to evoke the enthusiasm in the audience.



And then, Śmiałek, whose concert should be described as the spectacle. There were 'Pogłoski o końcu', 'To miłość' and 'Vapyre' and the deep voice of Śmiałek made us shiver.



Then, the stage belonged to Deathcamp Project. They performed at the festival for the third time, this time promoting their new album "Paithings". They gathered a lot of people in front of the stage so that they were surprised themselves. One of the best concerts surely.



The concert of Merciful Nuns was full of nostalgic sounds flowing from the stage and then among the audience. Merciful Nuns’ music has a power to capture in a specific way. Among the tracks there were: 'Morphine Queen', 'Body of Light', 'Genesis Revealed' or 'Ancient Astronauts'.



A completely different show was made by Blutengel during which all the sounds were subordinated to performances taking place on the stage. A great show with fire, blood and naked bodies.



And finally the headliner – Combichrist. The innocent opener had not revealed in any way the total massacre which was a few minutes later taking place on the stage. The first song was a complete smashing into pieces of everything. The stage was full of jumping bears and flying parts of the instruments. Members of the crew were trying to repair the instruments somehow but the musicians destroyed them with a lot of satisfaction again and again. Extremely chaotic and unquestionably awesome. The concert ended up with throwing absolutely everything to the audience also clothes.



This year edition of the festival brought a lot of changes and new ideas, noticeably less people – but still some familiar faces in the crowd. In the black sea more and more colours. One may wonder whether the "source of darkness" becomes weaker. Straight after the end of the festival a lot of questions has appeared what is the future of Castle Party? what makes it change, or even is Castle Party going to die? It is impossible to answer. But one thing is sure. The festival is created by people and it depends on them. It depends on us. It depends on every single participant. And everyone of us becomes a part of the festival’s history. Well then, see you next year!