Pohoda (music festival)

Foundation

Michal Kaščak had a band back in 1985 that was part of the Czechoslovakian alternative music scene. The Czechoslovakian alternative music scene had many problems with the communist regime, so the change in 1989 was something of a miracle for them. A free music scene started to develop and many festivals were founded, mainly in the Czech part of the country. Czechoslovakia split into two independent republics in 1993. Michal Kaščak and Mario Michna simply wanted to invite their friends to play with them in their city, Trenčin. Pohoda started as local event with eight bands on one stage running until 4am. On the first edition there wasn’t any security – just a good PA and a lot of passion. “I hope that people feel the festival has the same essence that it did in 1997, in its celebration of friendship, the miracle of free art, and freedom.” - Michal Kaščak^[2]

History location

In 2000, the Topvar brewery became the general partner of the festival and from 2002, the general partner of the festival was the Zlatý Bažant brewery; the festival was named Bažant Pohoda.

Since 2004, the festival has been taking place at the Trenčín airport. Visitors can watch shows on two open-air stages, an open arena, and several covered arenas dedicated for the dance scene, as well as for dance workshops, theatre, literature, and debates. There is a kid park for families with children. There are two tent camps directly on the festival grounds and plenty of parking spaces are available.

Incident in 2009

During the festival in 2009, a thunderstorm hit the festival. The promoter of the festival warned the festival-goers about the bad weather and suspended the event for up to three hours. On the moment the storm hit the festival, the O2 Arena tent collapsed due to heavy winds. Fifty-two people were injured, one man from Piestany died on the festival site. The festival established a special phone number and email address to stay in contact with the injured and festival goers. The festival was cancelled and the tent was guarded by private security pending the examination by experts. Half a year after the incident happened, the festival announced that there would be a next edition of the festival.^[3]

Awards

Pohoda Festival has won The Green Operations Award 2017 of the European Festival Awards in Groningen. In the same year Pohoda was shortlisted 7 times for the EFA Awards for the categories: Brand Activation Award (Západoslovenská energetika at Pohoda festival), The Health & Safety Innovation Award, Pohoda festival for its weather management system, Take a Stand, Promoter of the Year, Line-up of the Year, Best medium-sized festival. Complementary to the votes of the expert jury of the European Festival Awards, the Best Medium Festival and Best Line-Up categories were also decided by a public poll. In 2016, 800,000 people from across Europe participated in it. Jury of hundreds of music professionals nominated Pohoda among the six best festivals in the world in the Arthur Awards two times in its history. Pohoda was nominated in UK Festival Awards in the Best Overseas Festival category as well.^[4][5]

1.5 Foreign media recognition

Good words about Pohoda spread increasingly in recent years. In 2018, reputable British newspapers such as The Telegraph, The Guardian, Evening Standard and Metro have included Pohoda in the selection of the best festivals. Festival received a five-star rating out of five in review by The Independent titled: "Jubilant three days where the feel-good vibes are reflected by a stellar, diverse lineup", with subheading "Guests are treated like family, and there is truly something for everyone."^{[6][7][8][9][10]}

Doma Dobre

Doma Dobre is an event yearly organised in the low threshold hostel St. Vincent. During the event several bands, painters, photographers or even famous cooks are performing. The admission to the concert is free and during the concert, you can make a voluntary contribution that will help the people in Depaul Slovakia provide accommodation or food for homeless people.

Pohoda Day_FM

The Pohoda Day_FM usually takes place during the month May. Pohoda Day_FM is a free event held in the national radio building. The programm exists of concerts, a football game and animation for kids in the wide corridors of the building. During the event several concerts and interviews with the core team are live on the radio. Some new bands and other news is announced.

Transport

Pohoda Festival promotes mass transportation to the festival site, which is not only more environmentally friendly but also makes the roads more accessible. There are special trains dispatched to Trenčín by the company ZSSK, as well as the suburban transportation dispatched by SAD TN and the shuttle service within the city of Trenčín.

On its site, the festival promotes ride-sharing and offers a platform for finding passengers for passenger cars called “Spolu na Pohodu” (Together to Pohoda).

The festival team uses bicycles to move around the festival grounds. Bicycles are also the recommended means for the transport of artists and suppliers on the festival site. For visitors arriving of bicycles from nearby settlements, bicycle locks are available at the gates.

Waste management & disposable dishes

The festival uses reusable cups for serving their drinks. All the other dishes served on the festival are compostable dishes.

Fsevparacia at Pohoda Festival 2018

In 2018 Pohoda introduced the waste sorting stations, in 17 different stations divided over the festival grounds, volunteers were helping the visitors with sorting the waste into the right bin. Supervising the waste separation is an important step to process the waste on a better level. The biowast was divided in the backstage into two categories, biodegradable dishes and food waste. All the food waste is composed on the festival site. The 7 tons of biowaste was gathered and transported to a specialist company for composting.

Large ashtrays can be found, all over the area; smoking in the family park and festival tents is forbidden. Special separation of old toothbrushes can be found in the sanitary areas.

0.92 kg of waste per visitor / day = average daily production per inhabitant in the Slovak Republic (0.91 kg)

In the tent camp, each tent will receive two bags: one for separate collection, and the other for other waste. The yellow bag is for empty plastic cups and bottles (with no drink leftovers, ideally also compressed), clean sacks, bags, foils, all kinds of paper, and cans. Everything else goes into the bag for municipal waste. When leaving, please tie all the bags and leave them on spot. Waste collected in bags and larger containers for separate collection will be further sorted and then recycled. The staff at the collection points will be happy to provide you with more information.

7.3 Energy

Since 2016 Pohoda is using a mobile solar power station and solar lighting of the grounds. In 2018 one stage was completely independent on the mobile solar power station.  In 2017 28% of electricity came from the fixed network thanks to the use of temporary transformer stations. Most of the biggest stages are connected to the fixed network to avoid using diesel generators. In 2017 Pohoda used only 0.22 l of fuel per participant / day = 38% of average consumption at festivals in Europe.

Sanitary

The festival is providing an above standard number of toilets. The flushing of the toilets using utility water from the wells on the airport.

Other toilets are chemical toilets with bio-concentrate and gentle long-term disposal of waste. A non-stop service & crew "Chemical sisters & the Toi Toi Police" are keeping the sanitary working and clean during the festival. The repaired water supply to the airport means elimination of water tanks. Drinking water is available  free of charge during the whole festival.

Merchandising

All the clothing merchandising is made from fair wear organic cotton with the GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) certification. To send the merchandising bought on the website, degradable packaging is used, or there is the option to pick up the items at the shop.

NGO passage

The festival provides space for many non-profit organizations that focus on ecology and environmental issues. Their stands are located in the NGO passage, in debating tents. Every year, the festival organises an increasing number of workshops and screenings of films on environmental issues, including the area of the Family park.

Environmental awards

In January 2018, at the Eurosonic Noorderslag Festival, it received seven European Festival Awards nominations and won The Green Operations Awards.

Inštitút cirkulárnej ekonomiky (The Circular Economy Institute)appreciated us for supporting the idea of waste prevention. Pohoda is the only festival in Central Europe where biodegradable kitchen and restaurant waste is sorted and even composted directly on site.

According to English server Greenmystyle.com, the Pohoda Festival was ranked among the 12 most eco-friendly festivals in Europe in 2010. During the three-day festival, 60.3 tonnes of waste were generated, of which visitors managed to sort 22.7% —up to 13.7 tonnes. The largest amount of sorted waste was made up of plastic (PET bottles, cups, jars, and plastic dishes), amounting 10.4 tonnes.

In 2010, Pohoda also made official Slovak recording the quantity of plastic separated. About 23% of waste, which is 13.7 out of 60.3 tonnes of waste produced, was separated at one event, with the greatest merit of our visitors. Our visitors contributed to a great extent to the sorting of paper waste amounting 2.7 tonnes.  Metal, especially aluminium cans used for beverages, made up 480 kilograms. The waste sorting at the festival was provided by ENVI-PAK and the collection company SITA Slovensko.