Colour Meeting, Policka, Czech Republic 2024
The 21st edition of Colour Meeting festival took place in Polička, Czechia, on 12 - 13 July 2024. Colour Meeting is one of leading Czech alternative festivals which continuously and consistently presents emerging and highly rated international and Czech artists who overcome boundaries of genres and established artistic production. A significant number of them are artists based on traditional and folk music. The line-up of the 21st festival edition consisted of a mix of Czech and international independent artists, lot of them performing in the Czech Republic for the first time. Theatres for both adults and children are traditionaly open to public with no entrance fee and this year was no different. Workshops for children had taken place in the festival grounds at the same time. The year 2024 was the third season of the Sounds Of Europe project. Thanks to the artist exchange within this project, in 2024 Colour Meeting was able to invite 3 international artists bringing roots of their cultures to the Czech audience:
The Artists from the Sounds of Europe project invited on the festival
1) Conjunto Papa Upa (Venezuela/Netherlands)
Conjunto Papa Upa is, first and foremost, the name of a grinding, pulsating, Amsterdam-based psychedelic dance band, which soars through the traditions of Latin music culture, incorporating Salsa, Afro-Latin and Caribbean rhythms. "Papa Upa" is also both a tune by the Cuban music legend and mambo innovator Arsenio Rodríguez and the name of a Venezuelan chewing gum that rotted kid's teeth in previous decades. It's a recycled joke band name that band leader Alex Figueira thought would never stick.
2) JÚLIA KOZÁKOVÁ - Manuša (in co-operation with World Music Festival, Slovakia)
Singer Julia Kozakova is best known for her solo work. Since 13, she has worked closely with Roma artists. Her breakout and internationaly released debut album Manuša (2022), saw her to bring new life into traditional Roma songs originally from Slovakia and Central Europe and brought Julia in front of a new audiences performing in UK, Belgium, Italy, Estonia, Czech Republic and Slovakia and receiving a lot of positive media feedback.
3) MORDÁI (in co-operation with Sziget Festival, Hungary)
MordáiI is a folk rock band that draws from the repertoire of the experimental Hungarian folk music of the 60s and 70s (Muzsikás Zenekar, Sebő együttes, etc.). It's sound evokes the dark spirit of the highwaymen. With their first single, Mordái quickly became a prominent feature of the Budapest concert scene. The band has represented Hungarian music in abroad at many prestigious events such as ESNS in Groningen, Primavera in Barcelona or Music Week Moscow.