Bruno Mars has closed the fourth and final day of Open’er Festival, stunning Poland with epic showmanship and one of the most ambitious productions of the entire festival.
As he opened with ‘Finesse’, huge fireworks were seen lighting the sky behind him – with the display continuing to stun throughout the entirety of follow-up track ’24K Magic’.
And while it would be disingenuous to describe Mars as the next Michael Jackson, he certainly embodies the King of Pop’s spirit – pairing slinking dance moves with equally impressive vocals.
“We back Poland!”, he tells the crowd early on.
“I missed y’all but the same rules apply. I wanna see y’all moving, I wanna see y’all dancing, I wanna see y’all sweating.”
It’s a call-to-arms that Mars continually employs through the crowd – and he’s duly repaid with one of the biggest reactions of the entire weekend.
‘Perm’ sees the Polish crowd proving that they’ve got a whole lot of energy for one final dance of the weekend, and cements Mars’ reputation as one of pop’s greatest showmen.
But it’s the slower moments that really show off his voice – he’s never sounded better on a emotional rendition of ‘When I Was Your Man’, while ‘Versace On The Floor’ is every bit as sexy as that title would rightly suggest.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s the end of the show that proves the true highlight – ‘Uptown Funk’ sounds muscular, funky, and performed by Mars in a way that proves precisely why it’s been heralded as one of the greatest pop songs of the last decade.
All considered, it’s one of the strongest pop shows that we’ve seen in a long while.
After Mars, we headed to Years & Years – who pulled in the biggest crowd that the tent stage has seen for the entire festival.
The devotees of the Palo Santo group are in full force, there’s a huge sprawl of fans spilling outside the tent – and a deafening selection within too.
It’s a crowd that the band entirely justifies, with the Polish crowd singing back every word of their 45 minute set to frontman Olly Alexander.
‘Eyes Shut’ proves to be a tender early highlight, while the otherworldly sci-fi sounds of ‘Palo Santo’ are met with the kind of fervour that’s usually reserved for old favourites.
And while ‘Desire’ proves the perfect party-starter for a Saturday night, it’s bonafide banger ‘King’ that gets the best reaction of the night.
The whole performance totally justifies the size of the crowd – and you suspect that they might just be taking top billing when their next appearance at this festival rolls around….