OFF Festival Information

The OFF Festival is a musical celebration created by Artur Rojek. For over a decade, the festival has drawn alternative music artists and fans from all over the world to Silesia, Poland. OFF was born of the need to share music and fulfill dreams, but it was also driven by a sense of mission: to bring together members of different cultures, milieus, and artistic disciplines. That’s why you’ll find more than just music at the OFF Festival, which also showcases the visual arts, literature, and cinema. Its visionary program and welcoming atmosphere are praised by OFF regulars, the media (with recommendations from the Guardian, Time, and Pitchfork, as well as Seattle’s KEXP Radio, which recorded a series of live sessions with Polish artists in Katowice), and the festival industry: OFF is a winner of the prestigious European Festival Award for Best Medium-Sized Festival. The OFF Festival stage has featured numerous alternative music legends — including Iggy Pop, PJ Harvey, Patti Smith, and The Smashing Pumpkins — but it also showcases the best there is in Polish alternative music, from Hey, Voo Voo, and Skalpel, to Molesta and (believe it or not) Zbigniew Wodecki, who played his first full show with Mitch & Mitch at OFF. An OFF Festival invite has been known to revive long-dormant legends, sometimes just for the occasion, and sometimes for longer.Such was the case with Lenny Valentino, Miłość, Something Like Elvis, and Kinsky. Last but not least, the OFF Festival is an informal annual gathering of the creative industry: you’d be hard pressed to find a higher concentration of filmmakers, writers, and media figures, all of whom descend upon the festival in search of new sensations and inspirations.