Michal Kaščák received the Outstanding contribution to music award
The 10th edition of the Radio_Head Awards had Michal Kaščák receive the Outstanding Contribution to Music Award. It was handed by Oliver Rehák of Denník N, who also noted that he and Juraj Kušnierik had been thinking of proposing Michal for this award, but then agreed that it would be ideal after the 20th edition of Pohoda. Oliver said: “He merits the award because Pohoda would be a completely different festival unless organised from the early beginning by a musician who does care about the country he lives in.”
16. March 2018
Michal became a prominent figure of the alternative music scene as a teenager, when he was the singer of the band Bez ladu a skladu. Subsequently, he performed in many other bands (as a singer in Neuropa, drummer in the punk band VBPS, and the first and second violin in the band Hore Belu Voda Beží...). He also composed music for several films and theatrical plays. Probably the most notable manifestation of his not only musical activities is the Pohoda festival, which he organizes every year in his native city of Trenčín. The festival gradually became the largest multi-genre event in Slovakia and brought many world-famous artists to Trenčín. At the same time, Pohoda made our country more visible on the map of Europe. This is evidenced by the record-breaking seven nominations in the European Festival Awards, the receipt of the Green Operations Award, and the top ten Continental Europe festivals in the UK's Telegraph that also features Pohoda. Michal was shortlisted for his extraordinary contribution for the European Festival Awards (in the Award for Excellence and Passion category, together with names such as Damon Albarn (Gorillaz, Blur), Ruud Berends (the chief of Eurosonic), and Fruzsina Szép (the head of Lollapalooza Berlin). In January last year, our President Andrej Kiska awarded his outstanding merit for the development of democracy, the protection of human rights and freedoms and the development of culture.
In his immediate reaction last week, Michal Kaščák said: “What can I say? I am happy and at the same time feel slightly taken aback, because I want to contribute more,” He shared more thoughts at the Radio_Head Awards 2017 ceremony. This is his Acceptance Speech:
“I did not expect it, even though I've read it before, but here, you cannot be sure whether something it is true or not if you read about it. I will use the words of the genius linguist Július Satinský: I feel awkward and captivated. The awkward part for me is that I am receiving the award for the contribution to music, while I feel like a recipient. I even have this jacket because I played in a band with my brother Peter, whom I started to open to only when we started playing in the band. It was music that made me meet my best friends; music again made me meet the most amazing people in the 80s; and those people were extremely brave and tortured or imprisoned by the then regime for free playing of music. When you see it as a teenager, it shakes you. Later on, when I switched to the operative part of the music profession, when we started doing more of the organisation and less of the playing, I got to meet amazing colleagues, the amazing people who make sure our musical events run smoothly. Music simply did give me a lot and now that I am being given the award for a thing where our relationship is quite non-proportional, I feel it is me who should be thanking to music.
And then there is the captivated part. I am receiving the award from the media—from Rádio_FM that does a brilliant work for the Slovak music. In my opinion, no one has so far done such amount of work for the Slovak music as they have. I am also being awarded by the daily Denník N, by someone who, in my view, deserves the award not only for the contribution to music but also for the contribution to the society. Thank you very much for receiving the award from journalists. Thanks to music, you can create this amazing community feeling and meet amazing people in clubs and large areas as well. Unfortunately, two people from Slovakia will not be able to attend any more concerts, and those people are Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová. I want to thank them for their courage. I believe that the previous two winners of the Outstanding Contribution to Music Award—specifically Juraj Kušnierik and Marián Varga—have prepared a great welcome for Ján and Martina in the heaven. Thank you very much.”