“While millions of Catholics in Poland will worship the Lord Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament during Eucharistic processions, in the Gdańsk Shipyard they intend to blaspheme God, glorify Lucifer’s rebellion, sadism, suicides and sexual deviations” thundered Catholic, non-secular Poland before the festival. Catholics were most outraged by the date of the performance (God’s Body) of the “satanic Behemoth” and the Ghost group, which, according to the state of knowledge of the organization, “glorifies abomination and sacrilege”. The band Hostia “mocking at the consecration” was also criticized.
This is not the first time that Catholics have been outraged by the fact that in Poland, as in the rest of the world, people listen to metal, have different denominations and views, including those that are contrary to the doctrine of the Church. For years, Catholics have been fighting against the concerts of Kata, Behemoth, and even as declared by the co-organizer of Mystic Festival, Arkadiusz Hronowski, the creators of cultural events cannot subordinate themselves to one right religion. “The fact that Poles are divided by politics and religion is bad. We do not divide people. We do not discriminate against people who are of other faiths. There are also Catholics at our festival. It does not matter to us – music and atmosphere unite us” – he said Hronowski in conversation with Jacek Nizinkiewicz.
They play metal and in addition on Corpus Christi. Catholics had to make amends to God for the sin of blasphemy
Symbols used in the activities of metal bands may raise doubts among believers. Extreme music is based on anger, pain, opposition, raises taboo topics, poses difficult questions, refers to the subject of death, hatred, aggression and criticizes the Church, and often even God. However, it is worth to remind here, that for non-believers “God”, similarly to “Satan”, are only symbols – of rebellion, freedom, or limitations and false morality. For obvious reasons, it is easier for rebels to identify with a fallen angel who opposed the totalitarian divine rule. However, among the metalheads there are also those who believe in God. For them, metal music is simply art, a form of expression, a metaphor to which they have the right distance.
When Catholics terrified of guys with guitars marched through the streets of Gdansk clutching their rosaries, good things happened at the festival grounds. The organizers of Mystic Festival took care not only of the highest musical level of the event, but also remembered about support for those who need it most.
Immediately after entering the festival area, the participants of the event saw a row of red tents of the DKMS Foundation. Between concerts, metalheads could not only talk to competent people about the idea of bone marrow donation, but also register in the database of potential donors in just a few minutes. As Marek Koniecniec, DKMS Foundation’s donor recruitment coordinator told us, 402 new people willing to help registered at the festival. Many participants of the event declared that they were already in the base, and they heard about DKMS thanks to Adam Darski – the vocalist of Behemoth, who once struggled with blood cancer himself and needed a bone marrow transplant.
Metalheads declared to help everyone. “A man is a man” – religion, orientation and skin color do not matter
“Our employees were very positively surprised by the reception of the idea of bone marrow donation, and the cordiality with which they met among festival goers” – reports the event Marek Dobrzeniec. “There were also many families with children at the festival who came up to us and said that it was important to talk about not only music, but also socially important topics during such events” – he adds.
However, that’s not all. DKMS employees asked each potential donor if they were aware that by registering in the database, they declared their help to every person suffering from blood cancer in the world. This means that the genetic twin of a given festival goer may turn out to be a person of a different skin colour, religion or orientation. “The most frequently heard answer was: a person is a person, if I can save someone’s life, it doesn’t matter if they are like me. It is important to give someone a chance for health” – reports Marek Dobrzeniec.
A dozen or so meters away, between stands with climatic handicrafts and metal t-shirts, there was a tent of Open Cages – an association that since 2012 has been making every effort to change the tragic fate of farm animals. Throughout the duration of the Mystic Festival, participants of the event could make donations and buy gadgets, and talk to volunteers about the latest campaign, “One Voice”, which aims to ban the use of cages in factory farming. At the stand, it was possible to sign petitions regarding the welfare of farm animals and solve a great metal knowledge test prepared by Noise Magazine journalists, which was supposed to encourage people to visit the stand.
Mystic wants to host bands from Ukraine again. The festival raised 50,000 zlotys for those fighting for freedom beyond the eastern border
The organizers of Mystic Festival have not forgotten about the ongoing war beyond our eastern border. They regretted that once again they had to cancel the performances of local musicians due to the unpleasant duties related to the defense of the homeland. On the way to the three festival stages, each participant of the event passed a special stand of Evropa Invicta, On Guard UA and Fundacja Widowiska Massowych, where it was possible to support organizations with a donation for the purchase of tactical medicine, from tourniquets to vehicles for medical evacuation, and to buy CDs of Polish and Ukrainian, t-shirts, patches and other souvenirs from Ukraine.
Charity stand for Ukraine – a joint action of the Evropa Invicta Foundation, the Mass Performances Foundation, and the Ukrainian Foundation ‘?? ?????? UA / On Guard UA at Mystic Festival 2023 Evropa Invicta Foundation
Leopold Łysogórski, President of the Management Board of the Evropa Invicta Foundation, initially declares that the foundations managed to collect about PLN 50,000 during the festival. “We are waiting for reports from the terminals, this amount will probably increase” – he assures. When asked about his thoughts on the festival, Łysogórski does not hide his enthusiasm and thanks the organizers for the invitation. “It was great! The organizers of the festival supported us very much, providing us with a very large, fully equipped stand in a great place – thanks to them we collected so much money and we are extremely grateful to them!” – the president of the Evropa Invicta Foundation tells us. Will a similar stand appear on Mystic next year as well? Łysogórski is sure that it is. “Regardless of whether the war ends or continues – for many years there will be huge needs related to the rehabilitation of the wounded and the reconstruction of the country” – he says.
On polskakatolicka.org you can read a completely different report from the Mystic Festival than this one. Perhaps because no one from the editorial office checked what was actually going on at the festival. On the site we can read that the volunteers, absorbed in prayer for blasphemous concerts, were attacked by metalheads. “While we were praying in the center of Gdansk, one of our volunteers was pushed and leaflets were snatched from him, which the attackers tore up moments later,” we read.
Violence is unacceptable and the behavior described by the Catholic portal is really reprehensible. However, it shows us that limiting freedom in such an absurd way gives rise to new conflicts and inflames the existing ones. Thanks to this example, we can also see that in each group there will be behaviors that deserve sharp criticism, but they have nothing to do with the genre of music that a given person just likes.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
