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Pohoda Festival Forced To Cancel 24th Edition Again; Smaller ‘Pohoda on the Ground’ Fest Events Planned For Summer
Pohoda Vyber – Atmosphere at Pohoda Festival 2019.
There’s hardly any hope left that large-scale festivals will take place in mainland Europe this year.
One of mainland Europe’s most beloved festivals, Slovakia’s Pohoda Festival, can’t take place for a second year in a row. The 24th edition has been pushed to July 7-9, 2022.
“The decision was made based on discussions with experts. We truly feel sorry about this, but we consider this decision to be the right and inevitable one,” said promoter Michal Kašcák.
Pohoda Vyber – Scene from Pohoda Festival 2019.
The festival’s promoters are planning a small-capacity series of one-day events on the airfield where the festival takes place each year, dubbed “Pohoda on the Groud”.
“That said,” he continued, “we have started working on a series of smaller festival events titled ‘Pohoda on the Ground’ that we are planning to organize at Trencín Airport this summer.”
All festival passes purchased for the 24th edition of Pohoda Festival, both the 2020 and the 2021 batches, remain valid. As the promoters point out, “to keep the ticket for the next year is the best way to support the festival in these times.” Refunds are offered, too.
Pohoda’s bookers are trying to secure the same artists and bands that were confirmed for 2021 rescheduled to the next year, including FKA twigs, The Libertines, Glass Animals, Slowthai and many more.
The Pohoda team has been constantly collaborating with scientific experts throughout the past year. According to the press release announcing this year’s festival cancellation, “the decision to reschedule the event was made after discussions with epidemiologists Zuzana Krištúfková, Mária Štefkovicová, Alexandra Bražinová and mathematician Richard Kollár.
“They all confirmed that to organize an event with the capacity of 30,000 visitors in Slovakia this summer seemed unrealistic.”
The worldwide travel-situation is also a factor for festivals that pride themselves in displaying a varied, international lineup. “In the last couple of weeks, several artists canceled summer tours as well as festivals that fit in the schedule with Pohoda,” the announcement reads.
Boris Németh – Michal Kašcák
Founder and CEO of Pohoda Festival.
Said Kašcák, “We would like to ask those who have tickets for this year to keep them for 2022. It’s only thanks to our festival-goers’ support that we have been able to continue as a team. This support makes it possible for Pohoda to continue in the future and we are so grateful for it. We hope the situation will get better soon and this year’s ‘Pohoda on the Ground’ will be an exceptional get-together with the club scene to restart and follow in the fall and we also hope that 2022 will be the year when we will meet at Pohoda at full strength. We can’t wait to celebrate art, freedom and togetherness.”
The lineup for “Pohoda on the Ground” hasn’t been revealed yet. The series of one-day events currently plans to have a capacity of 1,000 people per day.
There’s hardly any hope left that large-scale festivals will take place in mainland Europe this year. Russia is a notable exception, where the authorities are currently aiming to allow 50% capacity at the UEFA Euros during June and Juli, which is a capacity the country’s biggest festivals like Wild Mint Festival for instance are also currently planning with.
The UK is a different story, where the government’s roadmap out of lockdown is still scheduled to lift all restrictions on social gatherings by June 21.