Noc Walpurgii – Valpurgis Night Festival
This years Festival program call be checked out over here:
http://www.myspace.com/nocwalpurgii
A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
The Noc Walpurgii festival started in 1996 in Warsaw, Poland, and is organized every two years. It was a pioneering event in Poland which took up about such issues like the struggle against sexism and homophobia and the promotion of girl-fronted bands and activities.
These issues were often not taken seriously within the punk, DIY or antifascist scenes and we felt that it’s important to show that most forms of discrimination like racism, sexism, homophobia are all linked together. Fighting against these forms of oppression is the basis of antifascist, leftist, anarchist and hardcore/punk movements.
As a pro-feminist and pro-women festival, we support anarchist-feminist activities as well as other forms of feminist and anti-patriarchal struggles. We were also supportive of any kinds of all-female and female-fronted punk and hardcore bands, as it was clear back then that local scenes used to have limited numbers of women involved. It was even worse in the case of openly queer, gay or lesbian participants in the DIY culture. That’s why we started working with queer, lesbian and gay activists, spoken word artists, drag queens, drag kings, djnes and other activists.
The event achieved its goals as it became an attractive mixed crowd of both women and men, queers, lesbians, gays or straights, punks, HC and others who wanted to be a part of it. It’s a great feeling to see so many different people having fun at the dance floor or during the shows. We respect the need for self-organization and space for all those discriminated or oppressed, but the aim of the festival is not to create a separate place for just one certain type of people. Noc Walpurgii is more about connecting each other and building fundamental structures for a strong and diverse DIY culture – free from any kind of discrimination and prejudice.
It’s open to anyone interested in supporting the issues of the festival; bands or artists. It’s important for us to create a meeting place for exchanging ideas, or speaking about political and personal matters.
We felt the importance to make the events friendly with everyone involved having fun and feeling welcome in a safe environment so were and still are against all kinds of violence at the shows, violent dancing or macho behaviours. It was important for us all to see more women taking up the space or having fun during the shows.
Throughout the years the festival has become one of the most important events in Poland connected to the DIY underground hc/punk scene. The are around 400-1000 visitors attending each festival. Every time there are more and more visitors from other countries, foreign bands or artists. Noc Walpurgii is now the oldest DIY-oriented hardcore/punk festival in Poland.
Throughout the years many international bands/artists were guests at the festival, e.g. LYNNE BREEDLOVE (TRIBE 8), HARUM-SCARUM, RE-SISTERS, ACTIVE MINDS, INNER TERRESTRIALS, SCATTERGUN, DAISY CHAIN, BEYOND PINK, GREG BENNICK (TRIAL), HIGHSCORE, THE TANGLED LINES, SHORT FUSE, LORENA & THE BOBBITS, DE FATWAS, LADY! DIE, OIL, AMANDA WOODWARD, AGATHA, USAISAMONSTER, LIFE CYCLE, DIASPORA, N.K.D. , DEATH BEFORE WORK, CINDER, VICIOUS IRENE and more. Also we were honoured to have many great local bands at the fest, e.g. POST REGIMENT, HOMOMILITIA, GUERNICA Y LUNO, ZLODZIEJE ROWEROW, SANCTUS IUDA, EYE FOR AN EYE, EL BANDA, REGRES, EXMISJA, DULDUNG, SILIKONFEST, WHITE RABBIT and others.
Many non-musical activities have always been a part of the fest, e.g. workshops, performances, exhibitions, spoken word, Drag Kings & Drag Queens, DJ’anes, movies or demonstrations (Take back the night, Gay Pride) with people from Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Sweden, UK, USA, Argentina involved.
Since the beginning Noc Walpurgii was organized by Emancypunx Records (which originated from anarcho-feminist collectives KDP and Emancypunx) and Refuse Records.
Our goal is to make Noc Walpurgii something more than an annual festival: it can become an event which gives inspiration for new projects, bands and activities with girls and/or queers involved, and also any other forms of DIY activism.
