Pop Messe came back strong in its new home at the Brno Velodrome. There were five stages this year. The main stage hosted acts such as dance legends Leftfield, and Belgian duo Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul, who were delightfully upbeat and very open to cheeky interactions with the audience.
The Future Is Now Stage hosted, among many others, Gus Gus and electro post-punks Sleaford Mods, whose unique performance style is to do away with the pretence of their producer standing at a rack of knobs behind the MC, and instead have him dancing around in the background.
The Kabinet Muz stage was in the adjacent Enter Club; it was great to be able to get up close to the acts here. I particularly enjoyed Alabaster DePlume, as well as the Istanbul Ghetto Club – unfortunately appropriately named, as the hot weather outside and lack of ventilation made the room feel like a Turkish bath. I had to feel for them as they perform in full face masks. Anyway, if you didn’t catch Istanbul Ghetto Club’s carnival-like mix of synth-based techno with analogue instruments, here’s a sample:
The atmospheric industrial feel of the Fleda Stage was a particular favourite of mine, and provided a welcome cavern-like escape from the heat. Here my favourite act was Nivva, an anonymous Czech band fronted in their media by a digital avatar. I was shocked to discover they (as yet) have only a modest following online given the incredible quality of the production of both the music and videos. Their opening song ‘Low’ was a real knockout for the crowd and I highly recommend checking them out:
If you couldn’t find something to suit you on the other stages, there was always a great DJ and enthusiastic bouncing crowd waiting for you at the open-air Brno stage.
Food-wise, the Indonesian food truck was so good I went several times, and the Neapolitan pizza was pretty decent too. Brno Mexican restaurant Hermanos was also represented. All beer was provided by Pilsner or sub-brands of the brewing giant (even the craft beer tent, which was rarely without a long queue). It was pretty pricey at 75kc a pop, and seemed to be the only thing some of the festival-goers I met were mildly displeased about, but concessions have to be made somewhere. Cocktails provided by 4 Rooms were also expensive, but high enough quality to justify the price, even when they disappeared worryingly fast in the sweltering heat.
Overall, the organisers deserve a lot of credit for their attention to detail (the sound design was, as always, better than it has any right to be) and the curation was outstanding as always, providing musical delights both expected and not. I hope the festival can really find its feet in this new location.
