https://www2.polskieradio.pl/eo/dokument.aspx?iid=26527
The Battle of Sopot
05.01.2007
Letter from Poland
by Peter Gentle
22.08.05
Every summer, at the end of August, the seaside resort of Sopot comes to a standstill for the Sopot International Song Festival. But this year, a vicious, no-holds barred war broke out between two TV companies for the rights to stage the event. The result: not one, but two, rival Sopot song festivals.
The festival began way back in 1961. Prizes were awarded to the best artists from either Poland, or abroad. It claims to have an, international reputation as a song festival to rival the European Song Festival. But looking at some of the previous, international winners, all seem to have sunk rapidly into obscurity. For instance, who remembers the winner of the 1971 Masterpiece prize, the UK’s Samantha Jones and her song, He moves me? And who remembers the 1973 winner of the same prize, again from Britain, Tony Craig and his, er, masterpieces, Can you feel it, and I think of you baby?
During the three years during and after Marshal Law – from 1981 to 1983 – the festival was cancelled.
Since then, the public television broadcaster, TVP, has had exclusive rights to stage the festival, which was a major part of the station’s summer schedule.
The event is held in an open-air theater, with a 4,500-audience capacity. Against a backdrop of forested hills, the thousands in the audience and millions at home watched stars from all over Europe perform.
Sopot International Song Festival is a summer institution in Poland.
But this year the serene atmosphere of the almost quaint seaside resort has been rocked by a battle between television stations to stage the festival.
Last year, the then director of the public broadcaster, TVP, decided that the station would sponsor the event no longer, and concentrate on the nation song festival held in Opole instead.
The private broadcaster, TVN, immediately started bidding for the Sopot Song Festival and promised the biggest and best event ever staged.
They planned to enlist the talents of Colin Knowles, famous in the industry as the producer of spectacular events like the MTV Awards.
They also said that they would put back the festival a couple of weeks into September, so as to catch the enlarged TV audience returning from their summer holidays.
Meanwhile, the public broadcaster, TVP, had acquired a new director, Jan Dworak. He decided, late into the bidding process, that he would in fact like to stage the event after all.
In the end, however, the private broadcaster, TVN, won the rights to stage the Sopot festival.
Smarting at being outbid by the private broadcasting upstart, TVP’s new director pulled his masterstroke. If he couldn’t have the proper Sopot festival, then he would just go ahead and stage a rival festival of his own. And he would put it on in late August - at exactly the time when the old festival would have been staged.
In one fell swoop, the public broadcaster had upstaged the private rival.
And TVN, the private broadcaster, is none too happy about the situation. The TV audience is now confused which festival is the real Sopot festival, and which one is the pretender. And the brand of the international festival has been weakened by the fact that there are now not one, but two summer song festivals this year.
The public broadcaster’s festival was held last weekend. The first night was mostly dedicated to Polish acts form the nineteen eighties. They had the group Ladypunk, for instance, who are neither ladies, nor are they punks. What they are, these days, are a gang of middle-aged men, sporting, what used to be known as ‘mullet haircuts’ – short at the front, long at the back. It made them look like a group of nineteen eighties, eastern German motorcycle enthusiasts.
The night was saved by British star, 23 year old Craig David. As he came on stage young girls rushed to the front of the auditorium and gazed loving into his eyes, as their boyfriends shuffled about jealously behind them, looking like they even wished the return of the mullet wearing, east German motorcycle enthusiasts.
The second Sopot festival this year, to be held in September, has booked Ricky Martin as one if its international stars – but I haven’t yet been able to get a full list of participants.
To end, listen to one of the hits from yesteryear at the Sopot festival, before the bodies of TV executives littered the beach there. This song is from the 1960's. The novelty is that it is being sung by an Italian, but in the Polish language. The singer is Morino Marini and the song is Don't cry when I leave.