In cooperation with a number of pubs, artists and organizers of cultural events all over Slovakia, we have launched the Slovak pub initiative. “We believe that most of the pub frequenters in Slovakia are not racist and do not identify with fascist views. It was the people from pubs that Robert Fico referred to when he approved of the statements made by ex-member of the parliament Mazurek after his final conviction by the Supreme Court: “If the Supreme Court's verdict is to be a measure of what is a criminal offense regarding statements on Roma, law enforcement authorities might as well enter any pub in Slovakia and lock up all the customers, including dogs lying on the ground.” We do not agree with the division of citizens into a café and a pub society. We frequent both and we meet great people in pubs as well as in cafes. To show that Slovakia is not a racist country, we are organizing the “Slovak Pub” festival. The event will be held on 4–16 February in pubs throughout Slovakia. → read more

Pohoda 202 will also feature the Mongolian band The HU. They combine hard rock and traditional Mongolian music characterized by throat singing as well as exotic string and bowed string instruments. The videos for the songs "Yuve Yuve Yu" and "Wolf Totem" went viral immediately after their release and reached over 50 million views on YouTube in a short time, making the band famous. The band was subsequently praised by media such as The Guardian, NPR, GQ, The Independent, VICE and the German metal portal Metal.de, which gave their debut The Gereg a rating of 8/10. Last year they played a sold out tour in Europe and performed at festivals such as Downloads or Rock in Park. In half a year you can see them at the Trenčín airport as well. → read more

“Disco is not dead." Well, at least according to Paste magazine that used these words to praise the latest addition to Pohoda 2020 line-up – the Australian funk-pop band Parcels. Les Inrocks magazine described them as humanized Daft Punk who decied to jam along with Steely Dan and Frank Ocean. Parcels bring a unique blend of contemporary electronics and matured funk-disco, wide synth soundscapes, spirited guitars and excellent vocal harmonies. Their current approach to 70s and 80s music soon found many admirers, including Daft Punk with whom they recorded the hit "Overnight". Their eponymous debut Parcels received 5 stars out of 5 from NME magazine which called the album "cheeky, timeless and devilishly catchy". → read more

At Pohoda 2020, we will also host another British rap star - Slowthai. As mentioned by Hypebeast, "he is a turbulent punk rocker born in the era of grime." In May 2019, he released a debut album called Nothing Great About Britain, on which he collaborated with artists such as Mura Masa, Skepta and Slaves. The album made it to a top 10 of British chart, The Guardian placed it among ten best albums of the year and gave it the highest possible rating. Portal Dazed put the album to the third place among top recordings of the year. Slowthai was also nominated to the Mercury Prize. He is one of the undervalued voices of his generation whereas his texts serve as a manifesto of poor suburbs and excluded communities.  → read more

“Iconic.” “It’ll go down in our country’s cultural history.” “An inspiration.” This was how important names praised Stormzy’s appearance at this year’s Glastonbury. Five years ago, he was an unknown author of freestyle videos on Youtube, and today he smiles from the cover of Time magazine headlined as “Leaders of a New Generation”. His album was the first grime release to win the Brit Awards for best album last year and he also won the Singer of the Year category, leaving Ed Sheeran behind. In a half year from now, the first day of Pohoda 2020 will be closed by a fantastic rapper, activist, and voice of the new British generation, Stormzy. → read more

It’s not necessary to introduce Bazookas to Pohoda attenders or to attenders of concerts organized for homeless people in any special manner. They are friends, warm-hearted people, great musicians and entertainers. They will come to Trenčín again in 2020. In fact, they were actually the first confirmed act of the 24th Pohoda. We invited them when they were leaving the airport.  → read more

The next addition to the Pohoda 2020 lineup is a trio from Israel, Malox. This crazy high-energy charged band has been on the scene for a dozen years. On their avantgarde music trips, they fly between jazz, polka, klezmer and punk. The band featuring Eyal Talmudi (sax, clarinet, pipes), Roy Chen (drums) and Assaf Talmudi (keys) managed to make many clubs and festivals all around the world dance. The media also describe Caribbean rhythms, Balkan or cinematographic motifs in their music but, most of all, they mention the energy that makes people move their feet. Our colleague, Tereza, who discovered this gem in Tel Aviv, agrees. She confirmed that all the festival delegates who went to see them were leaving soaked in sweat. We are expecting a similar effect when Malox will be playing at Trenčín Airport. → read more

Chai are four classmates from Nagoya, Japan, who could be described as: “Make pink, girlband and kawai great again.” Kawaii means “friendly” in Japanese and this quartet is trying to redefine the term with their overexposed means of expression and shows. Pink is the name of their debut, which, according to Pitchfork, is a reprieve at times when we are in short supply moments of pure joy. They add: “A mix of ambition, sincerity, and palpable excitement seems to manifest in everything they do: their genre-defying recordings, their thrilling performances, and their graciousness in person.”  → read more

Pohoda 2020 will also have space rock for the new generation — it will be provided by five “wired men from the sonic spaceship” called Shht. This delicate crazy lineup from Ghent is based, as they present it, on synthetic bass lines delivered by a noise-band, delivered by a noise-band with chemical minds and a singer hanging from the roof mentally and physically. When they played in Birmingham last month before the Belgian stars De Staat, Louder Than War noted that playing after such an eccentric yet craftedly perfect performance set up one hell of a challenge for the headliners to follow. → read more

Excellent American folk-rock songwriter Kevin Morby has been added to the line-up for Pohoda 2020. Pitchfork's review of his album Singing Saw compares him to artists like Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. Five fantastic albums over the past six years have turned him into one of the most crucial songwriters of the decade at the age of thirty. The trend was confirmed by the latest studio album, Oh My God, which The Telegraph described as a spiritual album for a secular age that tries to distil a sense of the divine from the very act of making music. → read more