Opole townsfolk outraged by mayor's destruction of their song festival

First, if he's found guilty in a fair trial then he's human filth and I want him locked up and put away for a long time.

Second, he had no official position with KOD... or Opole

What connection does that man have with the Opole music festival?
What proof do you have that he was Kayah's friend?
What are the chances that you are trying to contribute to this thread rather than just following the example of PF's own Polish hero by driving the thread off topic?

Hint: the answer to all of the questions above is "none at all".

Those are the media whose principal activity is PiS-bashing, badmouthing
every single word, gesture, action, plan, project or piece legislation originating within the democratically elected good-change Law and Justice government. Those media are heeded by the losers' camp whose only aim is to regain the status quo that gave them power, prestige and financial gratification. Case rests!

Easy to say when you have none besides endlessly repeating tired, disproven ideas.

PiS screwed up, they don't want to admit it, and you're carrying their water. What else is new?

Yes, that was mentioned in the FT link, and I've also read elsewhere that invitations were withdrawn by TVP to certain artists that were deemed to be 'too controversial'. The musicians protested about this, hence all the withdrawals, but Kurski is still saying that there is no blacklist.


I don't. I think if you try to read their articles more than once, then the subscription page comes up. However I used another browser and now I can view the page again.

A few points from it :-

" Kayah, one of the country's most popular singers, had been barred from appearing at the National Festival of Polish Song in Opole next month because she had taken part in anti-government demonstrations and spoken publicly against a government-backed bill banning abortion."

" more than 20 announced they would pull out over what they called politicisation of the event, while Opole's mayor said that he had terminated the town's agreement with the TV station ".

"The public withdrawal of so many artists from the festival would significantly decrease its range," said Arkadiusz Wisniewski, Opole's mayor, explaining his decision to cancel the town's contract with TVP."


Funniest thing I've heard all day!!! I'm inclined to take far more seriously the FT reporting than what is in the link you provided, which seems to be some sort of celeb gossip column, and which also included some reporting linked to Fakt, which seems to be the equivalent of The Sun in the UK.........

One quick question. How do you explain the huge volume of copy generated on PF by a single, local incident. There are numerous town councils where various rows, incidents and irregularities occur but go largely unnoticed beyond their local area. In terms of PF focus, the Białystok incident might appear to be a major "catastrophe", "disaster" or "conflagration". In actuality it is truly a peripheral occurrence if one consdiers the Manchester massacre, the NATO summit, scams such as AmberGold and many other domestic and international issues. What is your personal, candid take on this?

The Opole music festival is not a local incident, it's also symptomatic of the cack-handed rule by the neo-PRL Kurski and his attempt to destroy public tv in Poland.

You're not quite PiSlamic so I won't suspect you of maliciously twisting my question to score points, but I specifially referred to the "Białystok incident". Of course I agree that Opole is a landmark cultural institution, but Białystok has generated probably more copy than the festival.

Why would you do that in a thread about Opole?

No argument there. FT is not a ztabloid but a serious business and general newspaper. But any paper that constantly highlights only one side of a dispute is not providing balanced reporting. The Western mainstream media have by and large taken the "total opposition" view as unquestioned truth. Do you regard that as impartial reporting?

Communism will die with P3.

How sad.

I agree, but you haven't really given much in the way of presenting an alternative viewpoint, only that Rodowicz bailed due to personal problems and so called pressure from Kayah, which was reported in that link which appeared to be little more than a gossip column! Sorry, but I really can't take that sort of reporting seriously. Is there anything which you have read from a credible source which supports a different view of events? Plus Rodowicz was only one of many who bailed.


What makes you think that it's not? Over 20 artists , a director and a host have boycotted the event. Why do you think that is? Because they were all having a bad day? The only consistent thing I am reading is that TVP chief Kurski is denying there is any blacklist. Even if that is the truth, it doesn't explain why all these artists have pulled out does it? Under the circumstances, what would you have expected the Mayor to do?

Not everything gets reported. Interview-givers only give out what they want to. A lot of stuff comes over the grapevine, through personal contacts, often on condition of anonymity so linsk are not always available. Rodowicz was not one of many in this case -- this was to be her 50th-anniversary gala and the otehr artists were to lend splendour to the event.

I was referring not just to Opole, but to the Polish-Polish war in genral. Ever since the losers went into shock over losing the election in Oct. 2015, their side of the dispute over numerous individual issues was largely accepted as the gospel truth by the Western liberal-leftstream media. So right there we know we are not dealing with balanced reporting but with a biased, partisan narration.

But not ex- and post-communists and their families nor today's cultrual marxists. Despite their valiant efforts, I doubt if PiS can succeed in fumigating all the post-PRL hold-overs and their fellow travellers out of the nation's woodwork.

I'm sure it does, but gossip isn't facts and I haven't read anything concrete, and you would think there would be something, to suggest a different side of the story. TVP have given no explanation other than to repeat that there is no blacklist. If there were other valid reasons for all these artists boycotting the event, why are they silent about it? One would think that they would be keen to give the other side of the story don't you think?


She was the headliner, but still one of 20 who won't be performing. I'll ask you again though, what do you think the Mayor should have done under the circumstances? Personally, I don't think he had little choice but to cancel it .


That is the topic of this thread though.

A sizable share of the showbiz community is against the current conservative govt. As I mentioned before, both Kayah and Rodowicz had refused to perform at the 2015 annual carol concert in the Duda presidential palace although they had done so the previous year under president Komorowski, widely suspected of being an SB informer code-named Litwin and known to oppose the dismantling of the Soivet-era military intelligence WSI. This is much the same as Hollywood boycotting Reagan, Bush and Trump but going gaga over Clinton and Obama.

If the mayor had not been a PO operative and former councillor and had firmly backed Rodowicz's anniversary gala, few performers would have dropped out. But he himself had objections to some of the peformers Rodowicz had invited such as the King of Polish Cabaret, Jan Pietrzak.

Performers are not generally known for their conservative tendencies.


So... Polish cabaret is supposed to angry and deliberately unfunny? Who knew?

This just in: TVPiS' secret trial last night for the replacement for the Opole Festival of Polish Song (working title The Torun Blessed Festival of Radio Maryja Music) was a roaring success! More to come as details arrive.

Extremely funny to native Poles. Expats are known to miss the point of Polish quips. anecdotes and in-allusions. Par for the course.

Perhaps it would better if we asked them rather than you speaking for them.


And Polish song in your case, given that you are an expat who thinks that it is better that the Festival of Polish song dies than the PiSlamic State has anything other than 100% control over it.

Not actually that funny and a bit of a dying art now.


Because trhere was of course no 'boycott'. They simply weren't interested in taking part.

One can always tell a simpleton because he always sees things in the most simplistic terms. Some roughshod slogan and bam, bang, boom -- the rumpus is ready to go.

In reality, most things are far more complex and derive from mutlple, often crisscrossing and/or underlying factors. The Opole row was actually started by Kayah's manager Tomasz Grzewiński who first spread the rumour about Kurski's alleged blacklist. Whether there was an actual physical list or simply some virulently anti-government performers were in disfavour is not important, because Rodowicz herself got it all straightened out and all her invited performers could perform. But the hate industry couldn't let such a PiS-bashing opportuntiy slip by and rolled out their hate-spewing artillery. So it was not about saving a Polish cultural icon, the festival, because Rodowicz had already done that. It was about stoking up the poltical conflict and scoring points in the Polish-Polish war. But that may be too involved for some who prefer (or are intellectually able only) to see everything in black and white.

If the mayor's priority had been to activate PO's hate industry (dunno if you know Polish but in the original it is przemysł pogardy), he did that job very well, destroying a half-century old cultrual icon. If his true intention had been to save to the song fesitval and he had some obejctions, he should have sat down and sought a negotiated agreement. Whenever someone issues an ultimatum, storms out of an assembly, occupies parliament, blocks a relgious or patriotic commemoration or ostentaiously breaks a contract in the public limelight, such individuals are not seeking dialogue but want pnly to smash and humiliate their adversaries. That seems to have been the case here. But if you regard yourself as a rabid PiS-basher first, last and always, then such explanations are a waste of breath.

Really? What position does he hold at TVPiS which enables him to ban Dr Misio from performing due to one of their videos (which was not to be transmitted) being "untransmittable"?


I thought it would be because he criticises what he is himself, like the expat whose language is English but who criticises expats whose language is English and the First Secretary of the Party who speaks out about communism.

The chronology is important. If there was a blacklist and one wanted to milk it for what it was worth for PiS-bashing purposes, one only had to spread the rumour and raise a public hullabaloo about it. It's no secret that PO's hate industry is always ready to pounce at every opportunity. If the aim had been to save an icon of Polish popular culture, then ways could always be found to achieve a negotiated settlement. But there was no attempt at dialogue by the PO hate industry. That became all the more glaring when Rodowicz ironed out the porblems and all her invited guests could perform. But the PO hate industry couldn't let such a PiS-bashing opporutntiy slip by. They are too monothematic, blinkered, biased and hyPOcritical!

You mean the list of artists who cannot perform even though they were invited to do so because their music videos are deemed to be "untransmittable"? There is no 'if' about that.


That was the aim and the settlement is an easy one: TVP can broadcast the event as it is organised by the city of Opole or TVN will do that. TVPiS is not welcome in Opole.

"untransmittable", "untranshittable", the point is Rodowicz had worked it out and all could perform as invited by her. It was the fact that she annoucned it on state TV and unleashed the PO hate industry's barrage of attacks and insults on the 71-year-old. And that proves conclusively that it was not about trying to save the festival -- Rodowicz had already done so -- it was all about more PiS-bashing, your favoruite hobby. BTW TVP was always the organiser of the festival. Opole only provided the venue and did not interfere in the programme or line-up. But facts are unimportant when there is but one goal: PiS-bashing. That's something you know about, right?

Please at least try to tell the truth: Dr Misio had been banned because of a music video which wasn't even going to be screened. Or would you have us believe that they were banned by Rodowicz and not TVPiS?


You really should make an effort to fact-check the rubbish you hear on Radio Maybach before posting them here. The rights to the Polish Song Festival are owned by the city of Opole. Perhaps TVPiS would also like to organise the Cannes Film Festival in Torun as well?

Does FT advocate healthy conservative family values, belief in God, patriotism, decency, restraint, self-control, personal accountability, etc. or the "anything goes" agenda: abortion on demand, hook-ups, shack-ups and patchwork "families", homo promotion, recreaitonal drugs. religion-bashing and all the other anarcho-libertine-leftist garbage that has turned much of the West into an open cesspool. Top that off with a growing overlap of invading Muslim migrant hordes and only one conclusion is possible: THE WEST IS DOOMED THROUGH ITS OWN STUPIDITY!

I had to look himn up on wiki: Dr Misio - polski zespół muzyczny założony w 2008 z inicjatywy aktora Arkadiusza Jakubika[1]. I ahd never heaqrd of im and know nothing about him.

As PF's court know-all (amongst your many other titles and claims to "fame"),tell us how it all works. We've always heard that TVP has organised the event since its inception. You claim otehrwise so give is your (only one true?) version. The city of Opole has always created the festival programme, scenario and stage set according to their own tastes and preferences and invited only those artistis the city fathers liked. TVP only came in to film and transmit what the Opole city fathers had put together but had no say in anything. Is that what's your trying to tell us. We're all ears!