Med, a famous band from Bratislava, will also play a gig in Café Kušnierik. The band was initially known mostly for their concerts in today non-existent Stoka. Bratislava is also the main theme of Med’s songs. Many musicians have gone through the band during the 21 years of its existence and non-existence. The unchanged fundamental duo is Tomáš Ďurovka and Vlado Holina. Med currently play sporadically, but with a great pomp, and their line-up consists of Tomáš Ďurovka, Vlado Holina, Vlado Slama and Matej Ruman. Back in their time, Med were famous for their excellent posters, but the band was also a frequent topic of Juraj Kušnierik, who recommended it to Pohoda several times. Now they will play on a stage where Juraj is the patron. → read more

The talented composer, pianist and singer Andrea Bučko will also play at Café Kušnierik. She is often compared to Tori Amos or Norah Jones, and she wonderfully opened the concert of Sixto Rodriguez in Stará Tržnica last autumn. In her music, Andrea mixes several genres ranging from jazz, indie, Slovak folklore, classical music to the French chanson influences. In 2012, she debuted with album “In the Middle of”, featuring a talented harpist and her long-time colleague Maria Kmeťková, who will be her guest also at Pohoda. The debut was then followed by “Polarity” (2015) and the latest release “Escape” (2018); she worked on the latter one during her almost two-year residence in Paris. She collaborated on this extraordinarily intimate recording with, for example, Iraqi painter and political refugee Mudi, and the album features also a duet with the singer of the famous Brazilian band Vanguart, Helio Flanders.  Songs from the last album, as well as some new ones, will be delivered by her intimate line-up at Pohoda 2019, too.  → read more

Pohoda 2019 will also host the Ukrainian DJ Nastya Muravyova. She’ll deliver her straightforward techno from Kyiv in the best sense of word. After storming through European night clubs, Nastya stood up behind the DJ decks and now "transforms the acquired inspiration into her energetic sets.  She mixes postpunk, coldwave and rock influences with heavy 4/4 structure with inserts of breakbeat, EBM and electro. Her sets are a perfect combination of the Easter European coldness coming from the tiles of the Kyiv Cxema and the whimsiness of Berlin techno clubs. To prepare yourselves visually for her music set, we recommend checking this Instagram: www.instagram.com/c_x_e_m_a: www.instagram.com/c_x_e_m_a/ → read more

LUVVER is a postindie trio which has emerged from a band formerly known as freshoutofthebus. Coming from a rock-ish background but heavily influenced by contemporary poppy sounds of The Neighbourhood, The 1975, Lorde or The Weeknd. Their songs combine dreamy and melancholic atmosphere with uplifting harmonic soundscapes, intertwined with four-to-the-floor downbeats and powerful vocal melodies. They were nominated in the Newcomer of the Year category and won the Advance Investments Foundation award (grant for music production) at recent Radio_Head Awards 2018. “LUVVER sound like the present-day and more interesting version of Depeche Mode. They deserve to be at least as famous,” goes the description that LUVVER received from our team. → read more

Pohoda 2019 will also feature the Grammy Award winners Morgan Heritage. The band was founded in 1994 by five children of the famous Jamaican reggae artist Denroy Morgan. They won a Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album for their records Strictly Roots (2015) and Avrakedabra (2018). Reggaeville praises them as great musicians and, according to The Huffington Post, Avrakedabra surpassed everything they have recorded so far. It will soon be presented at the Trenčín airport as well. → read more

"Do batôžka si nalož pretvárku lož a faloš“ (loosely translated as Put pretence and falseness into your bag) – this song was one of the anthems of the Velvet Revolution. According to Milan Lasica, it’s too pathetic, but we disagree. After all, it’s known that the album Bolo nás jedenásť is stored in a display case in the music section of the Paris International Bureau of Weights and Measures as a basic unit of artistic perspective. Even though Lasica and Satinský are considered to be theatrical performers, they managed to record the best album of our history (according to many people) – Bolo nás jedenásť – thanks to their collaboration with brilliant Jaro Filip. → read more

Freedom is an important dimension of art. If it weren't for the events of November 1989, only people in uniforms instead of music stars would be walking through the Trenčín airport until today. The 30th anniversary of the greatest milestone in our history will be commemorated in several ways at Pohoda 2019. As far as music is concerned, there will be two different approaches that artists used to come to terms with the reality in times of freedom deprivation. The underground one is represented by The Plastic People of the Universe and the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra with the project “Co znamená vésti koně" (translated as Leading Horses). Coping through humour is presented by the project Bolo nás jedenásť (translated as There Were Eleven of Us), which had its live premiere at Pohoda 2017. This time it will be performed with an extended line-up and programme as well. → read more

Pohoda 2019 will also host the Finnish-Beninese band Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble. The band mixes afrobeat, voodoo rhythm, jazz and funky. This Afro-Nordic collaboration has already captivated fRoots, worldmusiccentral and many other world music-oriented portals and charts. Their second album, Fire, Sweat & Pastis, became a folk recording of the year in Finland, and last year they released their third album, We Are Together, with which they also appeared at Womex. → read more

This Friday our whole team is heading for Sharpe showcase festival in Nová Cvernovka. We’re not just going to listen to great music there, but we’ll also be part of the programme. Suzanne Verschueren, Tono Repka, B-Complex and Oscar Strajn will sum up the Slovak focus at ESNS 2019. Subsequently, our core-team will summarize our year-round effort through a workshop-sketch-lecture entitled "How To Make a Festival in 60 Minutes". Michal Kaščák will lead a Keynote interview with the Balkan promoter legend Login Kociski. Our head of production Mišo Sládek will host a debate on Zero Waste festivals and we’ll also try to retain last year's victory in the table football tournament. Suzanne and Matwe will be stagemanagers, and Matwe will also curate Nočná and play as DJ Zachód. → read more

An experimental electro-pop phenomenon from Malaysia – The Venopian Solitude – will also come to Pohoda 2019. The band has performed at Sonar, Fusion and Montreal RBMA festivals. Ten years ago, it was a solo project of an extremely productive artist performing under the pseudonym Suiko Takahara. At first she released a huge amount of her work on the website thesixtyone (approximately one EP per week), later on Bandcamp and Youtube. There she got the attention of people and media from various parts of the world (she was praised by Red Bull and Time Out, for example) thanks to her unconventional melodies and original choice of instrumentation. → read more