37 replies to this topic

[DangerJones11]

Hi People

Me and a few mates are thinking of doing this festival in 2012

Just after some general info.

Any ideas when tickets go on sale roughly? and how much will they be about?

Also flights......where do you fly to from the UK? and again roughly how much

And most of all, anybody who has been can you recommend it as a good festival? We have done Benicassim and Rock Werchter and loved them both, but want to try a new one!!

Thanks in advance

Dave

[FunkyIdioteque]

Hi there, we went to Open'er in 2011, with four of us staying in an apartment in Gdynia for the week - this was about £500 between us. This means i can't comment on the camping! We travelled into the festival site for the four days of the festival. The bands start about 5pm and go on until the early hours. Gdynia is a good place to be, with a nice beach and bars along it. Weather was good for the first 3 days or so, then a couple of bad days then another couple of good ones. A lot of the site is on concrete (airfield) so it's ok for rain and doesn't get too muddy.

The lineup was ok, not amazing, but the headline acts were great including Prince and Coldplay (unexpectedly good!). The main drawback with the festival (Polish law aparently) is that you can't take drinks into any of the festival tents or stage areas. All the drinking has to take place in one of the designated food and drink areas. They have herras fencing seperating these from the tents and stages, with big Polish bouncers on each entrance/exit! This meant that for Prince, for example, we stood in front of the stage for near on three hours without a drink - not ideal. Sometimes, we decided to stay in the bar area and watch from a distance. Sound was excellent, as with all European festivals.

There were a few dancy areas including the silent disco, which was in a big concrete aircraft hanger section of the festival site - good fun but got very busy. Again, you couldn't take drinks into these areas.

The food and drink in the festival area were cheap and used pre-purchased tokens. I think it was 2 tokens (£1.50?) for a beer and about 6 tokens for a big meal. Choice of food was good, but not so good on the drinks front. As you'll know, it's the Heineken Open'er Festival, but they've taken the whole sponsorship thing too far and you can only buy Heineken. No wine, no cider, no spirits, no cocktails. Heineken, soft drinks or tea/coffee. Disappointing, especially towards the end of the week when fed up with beer.

I've also been to Rock Werchter, and preferred that, but Open'er is a lot cheaper. £75 for a ticket (non-camping), £125 return flights (Luton/Gdansk), and £125 accomodation for a whole week. I've also done Roskilde a few times, Werchter, Pinkpop, and Sziget. I'd do all of these again over Open'er, but i don't wanna put you off completely as it's still a decent festival but the drink issue knocks a lot of points off my rating! If you could roam the place with drink, and the weather had been a bit better, i'd definitely go back, but i can't see this happening any time soon.

Hope this helps.

Paul

[silent_disco]

the silent disco at opne'er festival last sumer was super cool.
i went there every night for a dance. the djs suck but the atmosphere was great.
here the links for the people that organise it
http://www.silentdiscotheque.com/
http://soundtransporter.com/

[Cristall]

Thanks for your comments Paul! I haven't been to Open'er, but I was doubting to go there next year. But your comments and what I've heard from friends who've been there this year, made me decide not to go.

This year some friends of mine have been there, so of course I asked for their reactions and they told Open'er was highly overrated (they won the European Festival Award for Best Major Festival earlier this year). Just like you told, drinking beer in seperate areas and the lack of other drinks were big turn-offs for them, but I also heard bad stories about logistics and the camping area. The festival camping is very bad accessible by car, the last few miles my friends had to wait several hours in a big traffic jam. Finally there they had to wait again in a big queue to exchange their tickets. About the camping they told it was a poorly lit, rough field, where they had to be careful not to get any injuries, and there were quite a lot of fights.

So instead of me joining them next year on a road trip to Open'er, they will probably be joining me on a road trip to Sziget. Been there three times before and it's always the best week of the year.

[DangerJones11]

thanks for all that info! great help.

what would you say was the best europen festival you have been to?? taking into account Music, Price, Atmosphere, Weather.... in that order!

im the party member that has to organise all my friends!! so any info would help. Done Beni and Rock Werchter, think we preferred the latter, but are willing to try somewhere else in 2012 if anyone can recommend.

the booze issue at Opener would be a big No for my mates, who like a beer or two when watching the music.

Thanks again for the reply!

Dave

[sammygooders]

i went to open'er 2011, and i loved it, the beer problem isnt much of an issue most of the time, although it can be a bit annoying when your seeing a long set, but you can still drink beer around the arena, like at the dance stages (which is amazing) and at the food stands, also you an buy cold cans a the campsite, and theres a sick beer garden at the entrance with good music and food.
there's a really good atmosphere that differs alot from english festivals, most of the people there are polish but they can speak good english and are always up for a good time, no matter where your from. id really recommend this festival, its price is amazing, and the price for food and drink is amazing compared to most festivals.
i also went to sziget festival, which was fucking insane, 7 days of hard partying and cheap booze made it an amazing week, the line up was also good, and theres hundereds of stages with all types of music going on til 7am, also the camping and music isn't separated at all which is good, because your never 50 metres away from some kind of music or bar (which are 24/7)
id recommend both these festivals

[FunkyIdioteque]

DangerJones11, on 01 November 2011 - 01:19 PM, said:

thanks for all that info! great help.

what would you say was the best europen festival you have been to?? taking into account Music, Price, Atmosphere, Weather.... in that order!

im the party member that has to organise all my friends!! so any info would help. Done Beni and Rock Werchter, think we preferred the latter, but are willing to try somewhere else in 2012 if anyone can recommend.

the booze issue at Opener would be a big No for my mates, who like a beer or two when watching the music.

Thanks again for the reply!

Dave

Music and Atmosphere - i'd go for Roskilde.
Price and Weather - it's got to be Sziget.
Rock Werchter and Pinkpop are good all-rounders. I wouldn't go for Opener on any of those four criteria.
Roskilde suffers from high Scandinavian prices (not so bad in festival as in town though) and when it's wet, it's REALLY wet. I mean Glastonbury wet! Sziget doesn't suffer from either of these problems, but i can't comment on the camping as i stayed in an apartment.

[Cichy]

Cristall, on 30 October 2011 - 10:00 PM, said:

and there were quite a lot of fights.

I've to agree with most beverage posts

but also to mention two things:
1. just two times in festival history it was rainy festival - 2007 and 2011. Usually in this area in early july is preety hot and the nearest beach (~15 minutes walk) is great place to spend few hours in the morning/afternoon.
2. unfortunately usually british folks fight just after they came to poland and drink few cheep beers... in previous years there were less people from GB... and NO FIGHTS at camp site :/

BTW

Today at 8 PM first announcement!
first headliner:

Edited by Cichy, 09 November 2011 - 11:49 AM.

[xyz]

Björk confirmed.

    Heineken Open’er 2012 will take place on July 4, 5, 6 and 7 in Gdynia Kosakowo.
Tickets are available for general public on December 1, 2011, yet Alter Art Klub members can buy them at special early bird prices as soon as tomorrow (November 10).


Early bird tickets for Klub Alter Art Members available until 30th of November 11:59 pm:
4 Day ticket (4.07-7.07.2012) - 340 PLN / £66
4 Day ticket w/camping - 380 PLN / £74
2 Day ticket (6.07-7.07.2012) - 260 PLN / £50
2 Day ticket w/camping - 300 PLN / £58
1 Day ticket (any day) - 165 PLN / £32
General release tickets go on sale from 1st December and are priced as follows:

4 Day ticket (4.07-7.07.2012) - 370 PLN / £72
4 Day ticket w/camping - 410 PLN / £80

2 Day ticket (6.07-7.07.2012) - 290 PLN / £56
2 Day Ticket w/campsite - 330 PLN / £64

1 Day ticket (any day) - 165 PLN / £32

Surcharge for camping - 80 PLN / £16
Campers / caravan (trailers) - 400 PLN / £76

Please note: currency exchange is correct at the time of publishing this news (9.11.2011) but subject to change

Edited by xyz, 09 November 2011 - 07:32 PM.

[thetime]

As a bjork obsessive very interested in this fear now, all depends if she gets announced for other European fests.

[5co77ie]

these are probably wrong but it says here:

http://www.ringrocke...c=21225&start=0

Quote

Björk Festival 2012
Coachella 4-13-2012 * - only U.S. show in 2012
5-30-2012 Primavera Sound Festival (Spain) *
6-1-2012 Rock am Ring (Germany)
6-1-2012 Rock im Park (Germany)
6 -7-2012 Primavera Sound Festival (Portugal) *
6-29-2012 Main Square (France)
6-30-2012 Rock Werch (Belgium)
6-30-2012 St. Gallen Open Air (Germany) *
7-3-2012 iTunes Festival (UK) *
7-5-2012 Roskilde Festival (Denmark)
Way Out West (Sweden) *
Opener Festival (Poland) * confirmed
(* headlining show)

[thetime]

The thing about those dates is that they were going around forums before the opener announcement so could be true.

Hope so.

[FunkyIdioteque]

Just remembered another thing. The searches on the way in are VERY intensive. If they find a camera over about 5mp, they'll turn you away and make you go and put it in a locker. When we tried to retrieve our stuff, it took about twenty minutes or them to find it in their disorganised portacabin.

[Kuki]

Next announcement tomorrow

[mechanized]

The XX confirmed.

[ampersand]

FunkyIdioteque, on 24 November 2011 - 08:35 PM, said:

Just remembered another thing. The searches on the way in are VERY intensive. If they find a camera over about 5mp, they'll turn you away and make you go and put it in a locker. When we tried to retrieve our stuff, it took about twenty minutes or them to find it in their disorganised portacabin.

even phones? seen as your standard smart phone has over 5mp cameras these days.

[pete76]

just announced JUSTICE

[mechanized]

ampersand, on 10 January 2012 - 10:36 PM, said:

even phones? seen as your standard smart phone has over 5mp cameras these days.

They don't care about phones.

[ampersand]

mechanized, on 13 January 2012 - 01:42 PM, said:

They don't care about phones.

which makes it ludicrous. my phone has more pixels than my camera that is really chunky which they would confiscate.

this fest is looking pretty likely for us though. wish they would give us more than one band at a time though.

[xyz]

Franz Ferdinand,  SBTRKT and Julia Marcell (PL) confirmed.

Edited by xyz, 26 January 2012 - 07:30 PM.