Our series, “We are the night” presents artists, promoters, production managers, label owners and others who are bringing the music world of the Czech Republic forward, from the past to the present and the present to the future. This week we take a look at the Rosnička Festival, which is taking place in Svitavy for the 12th time from 30 June to 1 July. Photo credit: Rosnička.
Every year, like pilgrims, music addicts and wider audiences, veterans and novices, gather outdoor for summer festivals. This phenomena has developed a lot in the last 20 years, making these events – large scale gigs, days of fun, tribes sharing experiences – a juicy business, for the biggest ones.
Festivals help bands get out of their local comfort zone, and are usually a great chance to discover new names on the scene, or to finally see bands which you wouldn’t normally get a chance to see.
The Rosnička Festival takes place in Svitavy, 70 kilometres from Brno on the train route to Prague. Like the surrounding region, it has a particular context, not really widely discussed or promoted.
It is an area which has seen much of its history erased, and people removed, a long social silence left to follow it.
But the past is not as important as the vital energy of new dynamism. The music scene has grown in the last decades to become, certainly in the case of that region, one possible way to express, show, or simply to entertain and appreciate, an awakening and rebirth of the scene.
Starting as a festival in 2011, and based on a core of passionate music fans who before that started organizing techno and house music events in the 2000s, the festival is now reaching its 12th year.
Organized over three days, with an attendance of about 800 people and a direct message about promoting the freshest music, pop, rap, house, electro, techno and experimental music. With local acts mixing with artists from Germany, UK, Italy, Austria, Slovakia, and Lithuania, the program is a rich cocktail with exploding elements, DJs, emerging bands and possible surprise newcomers to enjoy to the fullest.
The program shows risks taken and tremendous curiosity (full artist list below) but here are five of my highlights to discover there:
Anki, alternative rap with an energy that places it outside of any stereotypes, gravitating out of the Czech hip hop scene, offering a taste of reality, simple but efficient production, and a lot of other qualitative compliments to be confirmed on stage.
Waterbased, a Slovak trip hop band, with slight dark shades of atmospheric notes, English lyrics, a waterbased world where we are invited to let the beat float high, with expressive drops of creativity.
Tokyo Drift, coming to defend the Scorpion season released earlier this year, an interesting mixture of ambient electro, rap and pop, illustrating the borderless possibilities of modern self-production, interesting melodic risks assumed and taken, with more to be discovered on stage.
Fleika, a DJ well know on the Prague club scene (Ankali, Altenburg 1964 etc.), will have an outdoor dancefloor to shake, a bit outside of his usual bases. Let’s see how the bodies will move to follow his techno core tracks.
Blue Uandi, the artist I was waiting for the most: it’s not easy to describe.. ambient? Chill out? Downtempo pop? Well, is it really necessary to put a label on sounds? Probably not.
To discover everything, and try to get a taste of the avant-garde in a place hidden from mainstream audiences, a place to find out and to remember, because when the past is forgotten, the present has to become ultra visible…
You can also follow Rosnička on Facebook or Instagram. To buy tickets for Rosnička Festival 2023, you can buy tickets here. Do not worry about the system of ticket presales. All parts of the frog are the same full-festival ticket.
