In partnership with Open’er Festival 2025
Words: Jordan Bassett and Kyann-Sian Williams
The problem with too many festivals is that you can’t go on an enormous set of swings made from office chairs, slide down a big blue slide and buy yourself a tiny toy car from a Hot Wheels stand before seeing some of the greatest artists on the planet. Fortunately, that’s exactly what you can do at Open’er Festival, the annual bonanza held in Gdynia, Poland.
Now in its 22nd iteration, the festival this year features a huge line-up including the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Muse, Future, Linkin Park, Doechi, FKA Twigs, J Balvin, Massive Attack, JPEGMAFIA, Little Simz, St. Vincent, Wolf Alice and many more. Surely that’s one of wildest line-ups of the year.
Even besides the music, though, there’s something for everyone here. Held on the Gdynia-Kosakowo Airfield near a bucolic coastline, the 90,000-capacity festival also includes loads of eccentric and extremely entertaining diversions such as the ones mentioned above, making it a unique event in a packed summer of fun. Here’s what went down on day one (July 2).
Massive Attack brought hope and dystopia
Bristol trip-hop legends Massive Attack put on an uncompromising set that melded their political outspokenness with a dazzling audiovisual show, which included video screens broadcasting cut-up images of conflict, people dancing and even clips of a rudimentary robot that looked like it had been assembled and filmed in the 1970s. Even if you didn’t know it to be the case, you’d reckon cult filmmaker Adam Curtis was involved somehow.
After an opening montage, the videos – which were eerily soundtracked by Italian producer Gigi D’Agostino’s house banger ‘In My Mind’ – suddenly cut out as the band kicked off with the dark, grimy ‘Risingson’. Naturally, the audience’s cameraphones came out for the classic ‘Angels’, ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ and ‘Teardrop’, though the biggest cheers were perhaps reserved for the band’s numerous statements in support of the Palestinian people.
These statements were part of a general theme of unity that permeated the set and stood in compelling contrast to the dystopian images onscreen: Vladimir Putin swaggering through a palatial corridor, night vision footage of a military raid. Perhaps Massive Attack’s unusual set-up contributed to the feeling of togetherness, as core members Robert Del Nata and Grant Marshall were joined by regular vocalists Horace Andy, Elizabeth Fraser and Deborah Miller. They had the feeling of a travelling circus of likeminded renegades, come to speak truth to power around the world.
At one point, the screens were filled with rolling Polish-language gossip headlines about pop culture figures from Taylor Swift to Ryan Reynolds; combined with the harrowing images, it was like injecting raw internet into your veins. Throughout it all, the though, the music was transcendently hopeful. When Elizabeth Fraser returned to the stage for a gorgeous ‘Teardrop’, the rallying cry for change was clear: “Love, love is a verb / Love is a doing word.” (JB)
Gracie Abrams sprinkled a little magic
Taking over from the glitzy, Gatsby-style spectacle of Britain’s beloved crooner Raye, Gracie Abrams offered something even gentler on the main stage for her Polish debut. The indie-pop juggernaut rifled through her ever-changing carousel of instruments while treating her mic stand like a trusted confidante in a public confessions session. From the bittersweet honesty of ‘I Miss You, I’m Sorry’ to the emotional gut punch of ‘Tough Love,’ Gracie offered a set of angsty life lessons wrapped in ethereal, escapist tunes. She even lived out her “dream” of performing ‘That’s So True’ “someday outside at a festival as the sunsets”. She joked, “It’s freaky I’m doing it right now,” before thanking “the gorgeous people” of Open’er for making it happen.
@daniel_szumacher najbardziej cute moment z tego koncertu, czyli Gracie Abrams robiąca sobie selfie z fanami 🥹 #opener #gracieabrams #koncert #openerfestival #gracie #dc #dlaciebie
She offered her love in abundance, collecting fan-made beaded bracelets, playfully pointing at the crowd while giving out beaming smiles – she even took a FaceTime call with a fan mid-song.
“I love you,” Gracie beamed, reminding everyone they’re “just pure magic” – but really, this set was pure magic too. With her tender explorations of love and all its trials, she turned the field into a glowing, intimate singalong where friends could hug, clap, two-step and throw whatever dance moves they want into the mix, running free under the open sky. (KSW)
Other acts that caught our eye
If you were able to pull yourself away from the kaleidoscope of emotions and introspection on the main stage, there was endless fun under the tent stage, too. Bodies stuck together by cloying beads of sweat, people cramped under the shelter to jump around to Schoolboy Q’s ferocious rhymes and vicarious tales of being a man from South Central. Still reeling in the success of last year’s critically-lauded ‘Blue Lips’, he celebrated by crip-walking around the stage to the soaring jazz ode ‘Blueslides’ before whizzing through his stacked roster of bangers. His biggest were ‘Collard Green’ and ‘That Part’, which feature Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West, respectively. “Are we still going to do the Ye verse, though?” Q asked the crowd mid-mosh, then shrugged his shoulders, expelled a “Fuck it” and rapped along word for word anyways.
Jorja Smith also blessed Open’er with a tranquilising set, lulling the crowd into a safe sense of serenity. Outside, bodies swayed and contorted in joy and release, but outside the Tent Stage, many sat and watched the Walsall star sing on a huge video screen as if she were an Oscar-award winner in the latest big musical. Backed by her big band as always, Jorja was dressed casually in her cargos and baggy tee, but there was nothing casual about the grandiose arrangements as she reinvigorated her old and new hits alike. There may have been a small stumble when she fluffed the opening lyrics to her infectious garage tune ‘Little Things’, but she laughed through and the crowd cheered on: nothing could ruin the vibe.
As the night winded down, even the cool sea air couldn’t temper the heat from Polish hip-hop duo Dwa Sławy. Full of fire and vim, the Łódź boys spat quickfire bars at the adoring fans, attacking every 808 and synth with precision while punching in a witty bar or three as they went. (KSW)