The thirtieth anniversary of Jarocin Festival is much more than just an excuse for a celebration. It’s more than an opportunity for sentimental memories. It’s because Jarocin Festival was and still is something more than other music events taking place in our country. In the eighties, it not only shaped the tastes of the young generation, malevolent to official mass media and to what the music industry offered at that time. It was also – within the possible extent – the place for the youth to experience freedom in art, to resist against the oppressive regime, an attempt to voice their ideas via young artists on behalf of the entire generation.
The fact that today many of those artists have the status of stars and are still creatively active, only confirms the validity of their musical choices; in spite of many cases when the quality of their artistic achievements was called into question. Looking for a cheap sensation, the official media of the eighties, presented many young Jarocin artists, as well as the very idea of the festival itself, in a distorting mirror, At the same time, the security and surveillance authorities were not idle either. Today, we know perfectly well their eagerness and meticulousness with which they tracked and controlled not only the Jarocin performers, but also their audience. Officially, the authorities agreed for the festival to be organized. Unofficially, they subjected it to multilateral surveillance. The cry of the young generation, the cry for freedom and their disagreement with the reality of those times evoked constant alertness of the authorities.
Many of the achievements of the Jarocin artists might have not been perfect in terms of form, skill, or instrumentation. Paradoxically, however, that was the main driving force of the then Jarocin; the authenticity and genuineness of performers who often came there for the first time as amateurs in the most accurate sense of that word. And then, year after year, they developed the quality of their scenic communication. In fact, the simplicity, raw energy and sensibility of their communication led to their on-stage honesty and truthfulness. These qualities, which in some other areas of art faded away into the background or became something shameful, have become the cornerstone for the Jarocin performers and their audience.
Jarocin festival concerts were not only a fleeting experience for a couple, a few dozen, or sometimes even twenty thousand viewers. In those old and strange times, many of young fans came to the festival with poor-quality tape recorders and registered the concerts of various artists. Such recordings, copied dozens of times, traveled around creating a kind of a network linking rock fans across the whole country, thus becoming a part of a generational experience. Later, those recordings became such a rarity that, in spite of their poor technical quality, they were often included in albums published officially many years after.
Actually, the myth of Jarocin is still alive. Even nowadays, the Jarocin experience brings together many fans, now in their thirties or forties. They, as well as younger generations, still want to go back to that music, to that ambience. The idea of Jarocin Festival continues. Naturally, the form of the festival has changed a bit since then. Today, we are able to invite to the festival foreign stars that we could just dream of seeing then. We have a better quality, fully professional sound and light equipment. However, Jarocin Festival still remains the voice of disapproval and protest of the young people against violence, discrimination or environmental destruction. Jarocin of today is the voice of a generation that is conscious of its strength and importance. And – last but not the least – it relates to the old days in terms of both, aesthetics and philosophy. The Jarocin artists and audience are in fact in opposition to the commercial pop-culture trends that are promoted persistently. Today, just as years ago, they attempt to present their vision of the world.
Many years ago, such famous bands as Dżem and TSA made their first steps and their first achievements in Jarocin. Other groups, such as Dezerter, Izrael, Armia, Moskwa, Siekiera, Tilt, Piersi, to name just a few out of hundreds, are closely associated to the Festival. In the eighties, Republika with Grzegorz Ciechowski, Voo Voo and Lech Janerka gave their memorable concerts there. It was the meeting place and a venue of complete creative freedom – and so it continues to be today.
Jarocin Festival is a great legend, which cannot be compared to any other rock festival in our country. Moreover, the are ambitious plans to keep the legend going.
