Long before our summer expedition we had the idea of taking our kids to a festival, a concert or a large outdoor event. We found out that there was a concert in the area we were driving to, a concert of our favorite band – Pidżama Porno. This concert was a part of Cieszanow Rock Festival. We didn’t know exactly where it was, but we knew that we want to go there.
Quickly we looked at the map and saw that it is on the south-eastern part of Poland, in the region we planned to explore during our summer escapade. So we planned our route to reach Cieszanow on August 21, on the day of the concert.
We bought tickets before trip. In addition to admission tickets (at the price of PLN 40 per person) we also bought a ticket for the festival campsite — you had to sleep somewhere. Children could come with us for free, both to the campsite and to the concert.
Cieszanow, as it turns out, is the Eastern equivalent of Woodstock, just a little bit on a smaller scale. We got there in the afternoon. When we arrived we saw in the town groups of rock music fans walking to the shops. We headed to the lake where festival was organized. Parking lot was simply the field. Our car stood out among the rest, was the only one with a luggage rack, and the only one so heavily packed. Probably we were the only one who decided to visit this event “on the way”. There were only a few cars from the Wielkopolska area.
We needed to exchange our printed tickets for wristbands. With these wristbands, we had access to the area where the concert took place and into the school area, which acted as a campsite. We were a little frightened when we saw a line of people waiting to establish ties – but these were people who wanted to buy a ticket on the spot. For those who bought tickets “online” was a separate, much shorter queue. Uff.
For this night we took our old tent. It had been traveling with us the whole time. We used it last year during our Denmark road trip. Back then it was enough for us, maybe because the kids were smaller. Now it looked a bit small for the 5 of us. We didn’t want to set up the new tent here because of drunk teenagers everywhere.
We found some free space for our tent, we set it up and pumped up our mattress. We needed to carry all the necessary stuff from the parking lot to the campsite, because there was no way to park closer. Somehow we survived this one night without luxuries like mobile toilets, which smelled really bad. When our tent had taken its place among the others, we could head to the destination, where music played.
When we arrived, the band Coma was playing on the stage. We had a chance to walk around the square to see the amusement park attractions and watch some bungee jumping. We hit the food truck area, where we ordered something warm for dinner.
Around 10 PM, the main part began. We went with the children near the stage and had a great fun. At the festival, each band played songs chosen by their fans. In the case of Pidzama Porno it was a “Marchew w butonierce”, which was played in its entirety. Our children also had the chance to listen the tracks of this album, because throughout our road trip, we had been listening to this CD. We made sure the children were familiar with the repertoire of musicians.
We regretted a bit that the concert began so late. Children, after the morning trip in Zwierzyniec and about 60km driven in the car quite quickly were exhausted. If the concert had been earlier, they would have benefited more.
We went to bed around midnight, in the background our favorite band was still playing. They played songs not on the main CD. Along the way, many people reacted very positively to the fact that we were at a concert with children.
We have good memories of the festival. We received a very positive atmosphere that prevailed there. Only at the entrance (before the gates) was safety below average, because some people had drunk too much up there and police needed to take care of them. But it didn’t have an impact. Every social group has its fringe elements.
We don’t have any video from our stay in Cieszanow. It was not possible to take a camera with us to the festival. We had asked for permission before arrival and were denied.