Number of bands: 130
Number of visitors: 15 000
Article on the Internet: rozhlas.cz
BANDS
PERIOD REFERENCES
This year’s Rock for People is over
On Monday 7.7. early in the morning the Polish band Hey ended the four-day music festival Rock for People. The festival featured over 130 acts from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, France, Ireland, Great Britain, Australia and the United States.
Over 1,000 journalists from literally all over the world were accredited to attend the festival, so we’ll leave it up to them to give a thorough assessment of Rock for People. Judging by the universally enthusiastic reactions of the audience, we are convinced that this was the best edition of our festival to date. The performers also highly praised the technical support of the event and its overall organizational management. Although the ensembles performed simultaneously on three main and two secondary stages, there were no time shifts during the festival and we did not have to deal with any unforeseen technical problems this time.
Attendance at this year’s Rock for People broke all our previous records. The festival was attended by 15,000 spectators from all over the Czech Republic, Slovakia and other countries.
In addition to the almost complete domestic rock top, we welcomed several important foreign guests. The members of the American hip-hop group Cypress Hill and its management were delighted with the reception at the festival and its organization. Cypress Hill rewarded the audience late Friday night with a performance that was definitely one of the highlights of the festival’s nine-year history. Also, the Levellers from the UK, Italy’s Modena City Ramblers, the UK’s Oi-Va-Voi, and Ireland’s Therapy? put on a rousing performance.
As organizers, we are extremely pleased with the way this year’s festival went. The main goal was to improve the most massive showcase of Czech (not only) rock music, especially in terms of organization and quality of service for both the audience and the performers. We managed to meet this goal and we hope to go even further next year. We see the way forward as further expanding the festival’s dramaturgical scope and want to continue the trend of continuously improving the service for all involved. We are also considering a return to the already proven model of a three-day event.
During the Rock for People festival, the Český Brod area faced slight traffic problems due to the large number of visitors. On Friday and Saturday, mobile operators experienced network outages, probably due to congestion. The weather this year was kinder to the festival than in previous years: several short and longer showers swept over the area over the four days, but the weather was generally pleasant and not too sultry.
We would like to thank all the individuals and companies who contributed to the preparation of this year’s festival. A mere listing of their names would take several pages, so we will limit ourselves to a general, but all the more sincere THANK YOU. Special thanks to the town of Český Brod and its inhabitants.
We would also like to thank all our colleagues from the media for their cooperation. We look forward to seeing you at the tenth anniversary of Rock for People in July 2004.
Petr Fořt, Michal Thomes, Štěpán Suchochleb, Lída “Dydla” Minaříková, Jakub Plíhal