Wroclaw NonStop off to a good start!
After the traditional excitement and fever pitch celebrations of Midsummer Night or 'Wianki' on the 24th June, it was definitely time for something more chilled on Monday evening, as Wroclaw Non Stop entered its fourth day.
Trip Hop Island certainly did it's job in this respect. As the fearsome sun finally lost some of its juice, the good citizens of Wroclaw slowly meandered over to Piaskowa Island to enjoy a summer evening of the most pleasant nature.
We arrived just in time to grab a cold beer and a place on the grass and listen to the extremely interesting sounds of Neanderthal Alien, an experimental collective who hail from every corner of the globe (well, Serbia, Germany and the US). After an incredibly diverse set from them came the more predictable but equally beautiful, Digit-All-Love. A ten piece ensemble, this delightful orchestral group had 'chill' down to a fine art, with melodic strings and lullaby vocals finding their perfect pitch in the summer evening air.
It was back to the beer tent after that as the crowd waited for headliner Ursula Rucker, a slightly angry American black female artist to take to the stage. Disappointingly Ms Rucker fulfilled all the preconceptions we've already given you about her by our description and tainted an otherwise good set with pseudo-political messages that the average ten year old would have been patronised by. Oh well, with beer at 4 zloty a pint most of the crowd took her inter-song rants with a pinch of salt and were able to just concentrate on the music!
For us though it was time to bid Ursula farewell and hit the afterparty... A great end to a great evening, and there's still plenty more to come from Wroclaw's biggest festival - Wroclaw Non Stop!