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Castle Party 2005


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Let me start by saying that this year I didn’t have the chance to spend the whole three days, just two, at the CP. As you probably realize, in everyone’s life there comes the time of hard work and so-called holidays. However, I’m not going to focus on holidays…. .

Thanks to the ‘communication horror’ we got there at 9 o’clock on Saturday morning. What struck me from the very beginning was that there was no one around in Bolków so you could probably assume that either there had been an outrageous party the day before so that everybody was still asleep suffering from fatigue or hang-over, or simply people hadn’t showed up yet. As it turned out later both assumptions were correct. This year at the CP one could hardly meet alternative music fans. Indeed, there was quite a big number of ‘black people’ hanging around Bolków but at the castle there were just few of them. Besides, a careful observer could easily notice that many people had either accreditation or bands just for one festival day. So with these unfortunate thoughts in my mind the festival started with the performance of Disharmony which I’d say was ‘so-so’. It wasn’t that bad as far as the music goes, however musicians seemed to have suffered in the scorching sun. Moreover, the audience wasn’t huge at all and I , quite frankly, began to wonder if there would be any people at all at the CP. After the brief break and DJ Bizarre’s intro our Polish embodiment of Diary of Dreams – that is – Agonised By Love turned up. More people came near the stage, then, although still far less than usual. I happened to be on the ABL concerts a few times so I can only say that they played decently and although they also suffered from the heat they did their best and played vigorously and I give them a BIG plus. Lahka Muza was the third band playing that day. I’m not trying to be malicious but I definitely prefer to hear them than to watch them, maybe because I think the lead singer should be aware of her age and she could wear more suitable outfit because the one she performed in made her look a bit disgusting. Again, music wasn’t really bad but after a few songs I decided to visit the courtyard since the sun and the overwhelming monotony prevailed. In doing so, I found the precise note about all the bands. I took a photo of it and that was the most important photo of all the festival – the most important and most useful at the same time. Thanks to this note, I found out that the next was going to be The Last Days of Jesus. I had heard about them a bit but I wasn’t familiar with the band. Their performance turned out to be a real surprise that day. The lead singer did his best both as far as the music and choreography go. The audience were grateful and they praised him with a big round of applause. To better understand what I mean it is noteworthy to visit our gallery. That was the first really good performance that day. That concert was an incentive for me to check all the recording history of this band. Next, the British band Attrition showed up on the stage which was the second and unfortunately the last nice surprise that day. The sounds and vocals accompanied by the intriguing dance of the lead singer made a good impression on me and the others. One more thing about the English band, I noticed that some people, standing closest to the stage, started to shout that they did not come here to listen to ‘The Passion of Christ’ soundtrack. Well, apparently, some of these guys were not familiar with the Attrition music. Luckily, the band did not understand those few bad words and continued their performance. In my opinion, it was one of the three best shows during the whole festival. The next band on stage was Epica. I managed to listen to two songs…then I left. Well, if I wanted to listen to some metal music I’d go for Metallmania. Strangely enough, the audience had great fun shaking furiously their heads. That arises the question: what sort of people come to the Castle Party and in which direction is the whole festival going? With this thought in my mind I went back to the courtyard to taste some lovely Russian dumplings. I had been dreaming about it all that day and now, motivated additionally by the band to get away from the stage, I realized my plan. So, with 5 zlotys less in my wallet I devoured the dumplings with sheer pleasure. I will only add that my friend was shocked to have seen eating. I must admit that this year the food was good, prices quite reasonable and finally the beer was up-to-the-standard, too (it wasn’t Hammer, at last). Having gained new energy and with the fresh wind blowing in my face I went back to the stage to see Cruxshadows show. I wasn’t surprised at the beginning by the fact that Rogue started the show sitting on the fence between the audience and the stage and singing and climbing scaffoldings supporting the stage. He does so every time but those who hadn’t seen that before were amazed by him. Due to this acrobatic performance the number of photographers was drastically reduced. Unfortunately, my turn never came because it started to pelt heavily and since I was afraid that my camera could get damaged I decided to return to my quarters. From what people were saying later on the gig was stopped several minutes later. It’s not difficult to imagine that the concert of Camouflage was cancelled due to the heavy rain and the power-cut in Bolków. Fans were bitterly disappointed for many of them were standing close to the stage encouraging the group to come out and play. That would be the end of day 1 of the festival. There is no point in mentioning the complete darkness and the streets flooded by wild streams of rain.
The next day started from huge rain, but fortunately the weather changed for better before concerts. Taking into account small appearance of fans on Saturday, I wondered whether the small flood frighten people, but as I supposed, near the evening the audience became bigger.
Forgotten Sunrise i Holodne Sonce I don’t really remember, they have just played and disappeared. Their music was nothing special and held no attracion for me, so it’s difficult to write anything about those two bands.
Although being „ coldwave” group, Cytadela had some humorous remarks, and the audience was mainly pleased, both with their words like” for this song we’ve sampled the steps of man walking down the bridge” and extraordinary music and image of the group
The next group was Stormmoussheld – I did not like their metal mood and as I’ve already mentioned, Metallmania is something different
As the next this day Final Selection had their show. I know their music quite well since I heard their last album. Men from Germany gave pretty nice show and presented the best part of their musicwork, however I prefer their album to show.
And right after them, the group I really wanted to see that day appeared on stage – Grendel – young powerful boy jumped on the stage and started the real performance, Energy, power and great music just carried away the whole audience. Everything was almost perfect, almost… since the sound volume was imperfect…generally speaking the sound system wasn’t sufficient for their energy. I hope no one from the audience took care of this fact. I may only say that this was the first and the last good show for me during this Festival. Another group Scream Silence gave average show, just like Renata Przemyk maybe because I don’t really like her music. Those two musicians gained a huge group of fans to the stage, so I only present my own private opinion about their shows.
During the break between Renata Przemyk and the star of night – Wolfsheim people joked about rain that might caused this year Castle Party without stars, but fortunately the rain didn’t fall and the group from Germany gave their 1.5 hrs show. It struck me that the singer read the lyrics, which was embarrassing when it comes to the “star” of the fest. It does not change the fact that many people really liked the show, although the weather became worse and worse. Right after the concerts fans dispersed to the clubs to dance till the dawn. It’s worth saying that in Sorrento ( previously called Blue Ice) Grendel had his dj set and as far as I know it was almost as hot as his afternoon live show
Instead of some kind of sum up, I’d like to ask one question. Where does Castle Party lead? This year the audience was much smaller than in previous years, the groups was not so popular as usual, there were no super stars and the ticket prices were really huge for many of us. As far as I’m concerned in a year or two years time the price of Castle Party will be similar to all western Festivals like Mera Luna or WGT, where you can listen to much more better music.
I finish my coverage about the biggest gothic festival in Eastern and Middle Europe with hope and wish that next year Castle Party will be better both in music and attendance aspects.
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Translator: Dobermann
Add date: 2005-10-09 / Live reports


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