In partnership with Open’er Festival
Massive Attack kicked off Open’er Festival in Gdynia, Poland last night (July 2), showing solidarity with the people of Palestine and rolling out huge fan favourites such as ‘Angel’, ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ and ‘Teardrop’.
- READ MORE: 10 must-see sets at Open’er Festival 2025
Headlining the main stage on the opening Wednesday night, the Bristol trip-hop group covered Ultravox’s punky ‘R0ckwrok’ and put on a dazzling audiovisual display that featured clips of Kurt Cobain and John Lennon.
Before they played ‘Safe From Harm’, frontman Robert Del Naja told the audience: “This next song is dedicated to the Palestinian people.” He emphasised the importance of learning from previous atrocities and explained that “never again must mean never again for everybody”.
This drew huge cheers from the crowd and prompted a spontaneous pro-Palestine chant. One audience member in a prominent position down the front waved a Palestinian flag.
At another point in the set, screens behind the band broadcast stark footage of a devastated Gaza. Later, the screens turned black with the simple messages “Wolna Palestyna” (“Free Palestine”) and “Wolna Ukraina” (“Free Ukraine”).
@bizariusz Massive Attack entrance on stage at Open’er Festival in Gdynia 2025 #massiveattackmusic #massiveattack #openerfestival #opener #openerfestival2025 #fyp #elisabethfraser #massiveattacklive #pppppppppppppppp #music
This follows Massive Attack’s response to the fallout from Bob Vylan‘s controversial performance at Glastonbury. The punk band voiced support for Palestine, lead chants of “Death, death to the IDF [Israel Defence Forces]” and shared a message stating that while the BBC describes Israel’s bombardment of Palestine as a “conflict”, “United Nations have called it a genocide” against the latter. The US State Department subsequently revoked Bob Vylan’s touring visas and some of their festival shows were cancelled.
In response to the wider backlash against Bob Vylan, Massive Attack posted on social media: “Today, a hot day when 22 Palestinians (including journalists) sat in a seafront café were murdered by one Israeli bomb, various national media outlets have contacted us (again) to ask our view of something a musician said.”
They added: “Massive Attack would urge the BBC and other media outlets to redirect their considerable news resource to reporting the truth of what is happening, daily, to the people of Gaza.”
Massive Attack’s Open’er performance also saw them refer to conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of a series of video statements about unrest around the world. As well as core band members De Naja and Grant Marshall, the set featured vocal performances from regular contributors Horace Andy, Elisabeth Fraser and Deborah Miller.
Open’er, one of Poland’s biggest festivals, is currently celebrating its 22nd iteration. Held at the Gdynia-Kosakowo Airfield, the annual weekender now attracts 90,000 attendees and hosts global icons as well as homegrown Polish talent.
In addition to Massive Attack, Open’er day one featured a stellar show from Jorja Smith, who played classics such as ‘Little Things’ and a soulful new track titled ‘The Way I Love You’.
The four-day festival will conclude in early hours of Sunday, July 3. As well as Polish artists such as Wiktor Dyduła and Trupa Trupa, this year’s stacked line-up features performances from Nine Inch Nails, Muse, Future, Linkin Park, Doechi, FKA Twigs, J Balvin, JPEGMAFIA, Little Simz, St. Vincent, Wolf Alice and more.