It was quite a memorable weekend for Polish artists at the British Isles. Poland's top pop and rock acts performed in front of a crowd at Wembley Arena on Sunday. It was billed as the biggest ever Polish music event on foreign soil. Also, the Second Annual Eurovision Dance Contest, held in Glasgow was won by a Polish team, dancer Edyta Herbus and actor Marcin Mroczek. 

Bogdan Żaryn reports

The name Wembley brings back happy memories for Polish people and it remains a special place. Small wonder then that crowds of adoring fans packed Wembley Arena on Sunday to see their favorite superstars perform to a full house. The concert featured such known Polish artists as Kayah, Lady Pank, Wilki, Bajm, Monika Brodka, Natalia Kukulska and Doda alongside aspiring young artists who performed on a smaller stage. Guests on stage included Poland’s former PM Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz currently living in London and Jan Tomaszewski, the goalkeeper whose heroics at the old Wembley Stadium in 1973 helped secure a 1-1 draw to send Poland to its first World Cup at England's expense. The event, which cost one million pounds to stage  was advertised on 30 London buses. Tickets were free to those who registered. Aleks Sławiński, a journalist of Anglo-Polish Radio Orla in London participated in the event. 

‘The atmosphere was amazing. I have been living in London for many years and there has never been such a Polish event like this in London before. There was a huge crowd crammed at the gates. There were Wilki, Kayah and Natalia Kukulska among the participants and they were really amazed. I spoke to Wilki and they were really happy to be there.  That was something special even for them.’

The audience was mainly the large community of Poles living in the UK, but an underlying goal of the concert was to introduce a British audience to the modern side of Polish culture. According to Sławiński of Radio Orla this goal was accomplished.

‘I am not really sure if they expected such a thing. As I spoke to some people they were really happy to see such a thing and many of them never attended such a big thing even by British standards. I am sure that the Polish pair winning the Eurovision Dance contest a day before really created big interest among British people just to show them that we, Poles, have something to show. A day later, there is a couple of pretty famous bands performing in Wembley Arena. People had a chance to find out more Polish culture, Polish music. That was a pretty good idea.’

The free concert was sponsored by PKO BP bank, one of Poland’s largest banks and the first to open a branch in London. It was also broadcast on TVP2.