Goth scene in Poland

Is there a big goth scene in poland?

Possibly...There are famous Polish metal bands, but goth, don't really know...

;)

There might be people listening to the music, but you don't see [real] Goths on the streets.

agread with W', half the Poles I know like more "dark" music,just never dress it. Ive a feeling Goth would clash with the national uniform of shaved head and backpack.

I ought to remind a guy at work I like to wear his 'uniform' - he has hair in a pony-tail!

jk ;p

Seriously though,in a partialy stone age/gene huntesque sociaty where gay people get beaten up by the Police and stoned by skin heads just how many lads are going to wear eyeliner and black lipstick?

I've seen a few goths 'round Kraków and Warszawa

lol,probs british students ...you should have seen the odd looks even "mild" goth types got only a couple of years back in those very same cities :)

don't forget the crap jacket and cap lol.

omg you should have seen me back in the 1980s... I'd have got slaughtered if I'd lived in Poland back then. Mind you, I took some beatings here in the UK too lol

lol Now how did I survive here being a punk rocker as adolescent?

As for the initial question, the scene is almost non-existent. Quite frankly, for some unknown reason, it was never strong. Still, there is an interesting festival that you might want to check in July.

nice one,punks are slightly less androgynous than goths though :)

Are you suggesting that I looked androgynous in my teen age? How rude! ;)

I really don't think that bitish chavs are in any way more tolerant and peace loving than polish dresiarze.

Maty were you really a punk rocker?
That is so cool! And probably brave.

When I was a teen (a thousand years ago) in college, I was very into punk/new wave etc. I went to school in the middle of the country side (the biggest part of the school was devoted to agriculture, rodeo and the like).

I was at a pizza place with my friends one night, dressed-up as pirates circa Adam Ant (we all had spiky colored hair, eye liner etc), right after a Hank Williams Jr. concert ended. To make a long story short, the police picked us up and delivered us to safety! (We would have never gotten out of there alive, otherwise).

Ahh the good old days....
:)

You wouldn't believe the stuff young people used to wear back in the eighties in Poland. ;-) We were very adventurous and anarchistic. Reality sucked bad, so we just did our thing and couldn't care less. I'd say so-called "modern" youth is extremely tame and unimaginative by comparison.

And because there was basically nothing in the shops back then, we used to trawl through parents' wardrobes, flea markets, and other unlikely places (not charity shops or "łachmyciarnie" existed in Poland then), and then remake, dye, take in, shorten, whatever, until the desired result. ;-)

I particularly remember one cute guy waiting for a concert at Riviera-Remont. He was dressed all in black, had the tightest jeans you could imagine, and the jeans were very decoratively torn on his bottom, revealing... red underpants. Awww... all the girls were swooning over his fashion statement... ;-) Bye the bye, getting your hands on red underwear in eighties Poland must have been a task in itself - I guess our generation used up all the red and black fabric dye in the country ;-)

The way young people dress nowadays is really depressing me. No creativity, no personal touch whatsoever.


You too? Greetings! ;-) Wasn't it loads of fun?

No,theyre not,spot on observation. A young girl was kicked to death here by chavs just for being a Goth.
Magdalena,I tend to agree,young people all seem to be drones these days,even the so called "idividualists" all seem to shop in the same place and dress the same,very sad. I too remember a time when my rather tame ripped levi's and biker boots got me abuse here in england....

ps,lol re hank williams jnr, Best tune he did was in Kellys Hero's ;)

Greetings to you too. In deed, it was loads of fun, but I started to listen to punk rock in the mid 90's. The first years of wild capitalism, unemployment was high, Jarocin was just cancelled, after the fall of communism punk rock was in retreat and searching for other enemies one could revolt against and continue to exist. Thus the explicit popularity of all the antiglobalist (pardon me, it's now called alterglobalist), Marxist, animal-, gay-, women-rights, anti-racist, anti-fascist, anti-church, anti-whatever movements in the punk rock world.

The awakening came one day when I realized that listening to the bands like Piekło Kobiet (Women's Hell) or Crass was not the best way to spend my leisure\re time. :) There was no rock and roll any more present in punk rock. It was to serious and eventually people that claimed to be against any dogmas and considered to be free thinkers created their own dogma. What a pity. The same with Oi and HC. I'll stick to my T.Love, Ramones, Manam and Misfits records, thank you. :)

Yeah, punk rock can be dangerous. :) And I totally adore Adam and the ants!

These year seems to be special for moi. I already am a lucky owner of a ticket for The Police concert in Chorzów in June and I just cant miss Sex Pistols in July on Opener Festival in Gdynia! Woohooo! I'll have to practice my pogo steps though! ;P

Can't anybody see the person behind their appearance anymoreeee?

The thing is, appearance very often speaks volumes about the person. I am sure you would know who I am, at least in very general terms, if you saw how I dress. Dress is our code, our second skin, our mask, and our confession, all at the same time ;-)

There is a goth scene in Poland but here, it is completely underground, I would say. There is no goth in the media and you don't usually see people wearing goth clothes in the streets for they would just get beaten up or verbally abused. I used to dress in an extravagant way in gymnasium but I got sick of being abused in the streets and harassed at school. Now I just dress black and goth up for gigs and festivals and that is what most Polish goths do. (I still haven't grown out of that, contrary to my family's expectations )

Castle Party is the most important event on Polish goth scene and it's really a great party. People are relaxed, have a lot of fun, and the locals are very nice to all the 'freaks' who come to Bolków. I've been there three times and this year it will be my fourth time. A lot of people from abroad come, mostly Czech, Russian and German, but I've met there English and Dutch people as well.

But a lot of stuff happens apart from Castle Party. In most of the big cities there are some goth parties going on, but they are known only to the interested ones. There is quite a lot of concerts in Poland. These year we already had performances of: Clan of Xymox, The Fields of the Nephilim, Christian Death, Einsturzende Neubauten (I know it's not exactly goth, but popular among goths, and btw, THE WERE FANTASTIC!!!), The Cure. And there are going to be (apart from CP line-up): Diary of Dreams, Peter Murphy, Combichrist, to name the most important artists in the scene visiting Poland.

Unfortunately there aren't too many interesting Polish bands. I can recommend Miguel And The Living Dead (post-punk, gothabilly, very energetic, oldschool and tongue-in-cheek yet too professionally performed to be treated as a mere joke; they are great live), and Sui Generis Umbra (dark ambient, industrial, electronica etc.). Pati Yang is interesting, too, and she's performing at CP this year with Flykkiller, but it is rather a kind of dark trip hop, not anything gothic.

All of these can be listened to on MySpace band profiles if anyone's interested. Asking about Polish bands you can also come across names such as Closterkeller, Artrosis or Monlight, but in fact they are popular rather among young metalheads as they play more of a goth metal.

So, we're there but you can't see us ;-)

switezianka :

closterkeller, artrosis or moonlight doesnt play goth metal :> (ok, ok, young artrosis played it, but it doesnt play it anymore :/)

btw, its my favourite movie from CP

RubasznyRumcajs:
So maybe they play post-punk or cold wave?

Never understood goth culture. I mean, you're going to be dead a long time; why would you want to assume the look when you're alive?

I love to dip into the goth style, and often get mistaken for one - I just love the drama and theatre of it all, though I'm not really a goth, as I don't really like the music.

That's the very nature of youth subcultures, they don't want you to understand. That their secretive charm ;-)

you clearly will never understand the morbid beauty that lies in death ^^

Dead Is The New Alive ;-)

Clearly I am not evolved. I'll take your word for it , now I gotta grab a beer and a sun tan. 8-)

In Warszawa there's a pretty big gothic underground scene. NO MERCY is a great club if you like alternative music. Last summer they arranged a huge zombie walk with over a 100 participants around Plac Defilad. I've seen a couple of gothster-kids hanging around Stare Miasto as well ;)

"huge zombie walk"?:)

A bunch of people in Romero-styled make-up dressed up as zombies, marching around, moaning. It was quite a sight. I believe there's a clip of it on youtube :)

Some of the costumes were really ellaborate, with sawed-of limbs and chunks of flesh hanging loose.