Open'er 2024 • Festivals • DIY Magazine

On paper, the city of Gdynia might not be the obvious choice of location for the biggest music festival in Poland; nestled on the Baltic northern coast of the country, it is hundreds of miles from the likes of Warsaw and Krakow. What it does have, though, is a storied recent history of breaking new ground; architecturally, with its modernist city centre in line for UNESCO World Heritage status, and politically, with its shipyards, along with those in nearby Gdańsk, having birthed the Solidarity trade unionist movement that precipitated Poland’s transition from communism to democracy.

Perhaps it was this penchant for forward thinking that first attracted the organisers of Open’er Festival to the city for its inaugural edition in 2003. Line-ups that revolve around a core blend of rock, pop and hip hop, with plenty of room for more esoteric fare on the festival’s fringes, dominate the European landscape today, but Open’er have operated according to this blueprint from the beginning, and since the move to the beguilingly strange backdrop of the unfinished Kosakowo Airport in 2006, it has become one of the biggest summer events on the continent’s calendar by attendance.

This year, 130,000 people make the trip to the abandoned airfield, the third-highest figure in the festival’s history. The main attraction on day one is obvious; Foo Fighters’ headline performance on the main stage marks their first show in Poland since 2017, and from speaking to fans on the ground, it’s clear the faithful had travelled from all corners of the country. They get what they came for; over two hours of furious rock and roll in a set that actually involved a few risks - in among the usual big hitters, they bring back deep cuts, including the off-kilter breeziness of ‘Generator’, the shape-shifting ‘Arlandria’ and an appropriately-sparse ‘Skin and Bones’, which sees Dave Grohl and an accordion-wielding Rami Jaffee take to the centre of the crowd.

This is their first Polish appearance since the loss of Taylor Hawkins and his absence is felt keenly, both in emotional renditions of ‘Aurora’ and the sprawling, ten-minute ’The Teacher’, and in the sharply different playing style of new drummer Josh Freese, who’s heavy emphasis on the double kick pedal imbues the classics with a new, pulsating feel. Old-timers trying something new is a theme on day one, especially with Kim Gordon playing her thrillingly ambitious new record 'The Collective' in full and at ear-splitting volume earlier in the evening.

Ordinarily, festival headliners on any given bill tend to be of roughly equal standing, but that was never going to be the case at Open’er this year once Dua Lipa was announced as topping the bill on day two; she very much feels like the main event. It’s a been a long and complicated road to the main stage for her; two years ago, she was on site and ready to play when a biblical thunderstorm rolled in and forced both the evacuation of the grounds and the cancellation of her set.

The difference between then and now is that her 2022 show, as she finally went out on her COVID-delayed 'Future Nostalgia' tour, would have been an adaptation of her arena setup; now - as anybody who caught her Glastonbury performance knows - she is ready for the step up to stadiums, and this scintillating set suggests that she’s making the transition with consummate ease. For all the choreography of every other aspect, from the lighting to the dancers, Lipa is that rare breed of performer who oozes such stage presence that all she really needs is that, along with a setlist full of irresistible pop bangers. She’s certainly not short on the latter, especially with cuts from March’s 'Radical Optimism' making much more sense in the context of the live show. Either side of it, there’s the chance to catch two Mercury winners, with Benjamin Clementine making the Alter stage feel genuinely intimate in the early evening before Michael Kiwanuka made a soulful, late-night turn in the Tent.

Day three brings a real change of pace up and down the airstrip. As is customary, this year’s line-up is studded with Polish acts; a highlight among them was a Friday evening set by Skalpel, Wroclaw’s own nu jazz pioneers, who cloak the Alter Stage in a thick layer of Lynchian atmosphere with a set that pairs live jazz instrumentation with inventive break sampling reminiscent of DJ Shadow’s 'Endtroducing.....' It’s a consistently enthralling blend, and the set is perfectly placed on the bill between the two main players of the day in the Tent.

Slowdive’s unlikely renaissance shows no signs of slowing down, with the Reading stalwarts having been discovered by a whole new generation of fans through TikTok. Rachel Goswell, with her two-tone dyed hair and sweeping cloak, certainly looks the part of shoegaze icon, but the look on her face suggests a delighted bemusement at her band’s resurgence that has yet to wear off. The thing is, it’s not just the classic likes of 'Souvlaki' and 'Pygmalion' that’s captured the attention of their new following; their self-titled 2017 comeback LP - as well as last year’s superb 'everything is alive' - are on the same level, and this set just underlines the degree to which Slowdive continue to crackle with vitality.

After the swirling urgency of opener ‘shanty’, we swing between the group being in full atmospheric mode - the swooning ‘kisses’ is a case in point, as is the gorgeously woozy ‘chained to a cloud’ - and their signature explosive walls of reverb-drenched guitar, as on ‘Souvlaki Space Station’ and ‘When the Sun Hits’. An epic cover of Syd Barrett’s ‘Golden Hair’ to close, meanwhile, left the audience staggering out towards the last of the evening sun in a daze.

By the time they return to the Tent an hour or so later, a huge, white-framed oblong box has arrived on stage, as if having just landed from outer space. Those familiar with Air’s latest live undertaking will already have seen photos of the stage set for this tour, but they won’t quite have done it justice. They’re marking their 25th anniversary of their classic debut, 'Moon Safari', by playing it entirely live, employing vintage synthesisers and live instrumentation to bring the album’s sumptuously dreamy electronica to life.

It still sounds utterly space age; the difference is that technology has begun to catch up with it in the best way possible, meaning that the box that encases Nicolas Godin, Jean-Benoît Dunckel and drummer Louis Delorme pulsates with individually-tailored light shows for each song, almost becoming a living alien being unto itself; it breathes in time with the music, which feels vibrant, effervescent, when played this loud and this pointedly. There’s even time for a best-of encore that runs the whole gamut of the French outfit’s career, from blissed-out ambience (‘Highschool Lover’, penned for The Virgin Suicides) to juddering electro-rock (‘Electronic Performers’).

As is customary, a number of major rap names hit the festival across the weekend, including a headline set from Doja Cat, a breathless turn on the Alter Stage from Noname, and a first-ever Polish turn by 21 Savage, who was on blistering form. Perhaps the hip hop highlight, though, comes on the Saturday evening courtesy of Loyle Carner, who plays an endearingly stripped-back set in which his signature brand of laid-back rap belied some of the deeper themes he delved into; now a father of a three-year-old boy, he speaks movingly of his urgent need to eschew toxic masculinity to be a role model to his son, and given his ability when it comes to emotionally literate introspection, it’s something he needn’t worry about.

The act following him has an altogether different vibe in mind; Open’er pulled off something of a coup by being one of a handful of festivals to book Charli XCX, given that Brat summer is now very much in full swing. The Tent is rammed, its biggest crowd of the weekend, for a relentlessly energetic hour-long set that may just be Charli and a backing track, yet still emerges as a serious contender for the stand-out show of the festival.

The 'Brat' tracks meld into each other at breakneck pace - ‘Guess’ into ‘365’ in particular - and for the uninitiated, the searing pace of this hour of pop perfection would serve as an ideal introduction to her music; lurid, overwhelming, irrepressible. Given that the summer is hers off the back of 'Brat'’s success, she seems a fitting choice to bring the curtain down on the weekend; Open’er, like Charli, have once again again proven themselves to be masters of capturing the zeitgeist.

Tags: Charli XCX, Dua Lipa, Foo Fighters, Slowdive, Open’er, Festivals, Reviews, Live Reviews