When I started this post, Poland’s Red Smoke Festival had just unveiled the first names for its 2024 edition, set for this July 12-14. That was Domkraft, Coogans Bluff, Earth Tongue and Narbo Dacal. You know how it goes, you get caught up with stuff, a couple days go by, and now there’s four more adds in Acid Rooster, Kanaan, Perilymph and Tuskar, so it’s safe to say the event is taking shape at a fairly good clip. I don’t know the announcement schedule or anything like that, but if you’re in Poland or thinking of making the trip, I imagine you also don’t need me to suggest following their socials, etc. Even if you don’t, I believe you are capable.

So does the festival, which admirably dispenses with some of the social-media-era hoopla around these things by making a slogan out of ‘The Less You Know the Better.’ They might be right, or at least there’s a philosophical argument waiting to be made there. Either way, there were YouTube and Facebook links for the bands, but again, I believe in your power to dig and would encourage you to do so. I only took them out because it looked funny on the page and this site does weird things with YouTube hyperlinks. Certainly all parties involved have online presences and audio, which even 30 years later kind of makes the internet feel like a miracle. Not to mention it’s how I know this fest exists in the first place.

Even so, I don’t know much more than this, so I suppose I’m doing alright in that regard:

First announcements for RSF2024

COOGANS BLUFF – Horns Rock’n’Roll Dance From Germany

Domkraft – Riffs Riffs Riffs Repeat From Sweden With Love

Earth Tongue – Odd But Gold Heavy Psych Fuzz From New Zealand

Narbo Dacal – (Be)Witching Metal From Poland

Acid Rooster – Endless Trippy Kraut Experience from Germany

Kanaan – Blazing Freeform Psychedelic Rock From Norway

Perilymph – Beautiful Psychedelic Sounds From Germany

Tuskar – Heavy Doomed Hammer From UK

Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1316543752328569/

Save the date 12-14.07.2024

The Less You Know The Better

https://www.facebook.com/RedSmokeFest
https://instagram.com/redsmokefest
https://redsmokefestival.pl/

Domkraft, Sonic Moons (2023)

Acid Rooster, Flowers and Dead Souls (2023)

Poland’s Red Smoke Festival 2022 makes its first lineup announcements, with Mars Red Sky and Kaleidobolt joining the bill. The event is of course part of greater Europe’s summer festival season, but like many of its heavier-minded ilk, seems to have developed a culture of its own, and in addition to bringing in some heavy hitters each year, looks like a good time also, you know, on a human level of existing with other people who aren’t dicks. At least for a couple days.

In 2022, four days, in fact. July 7-10 at the Amphitheatre in Pleszew in Central Poland. Mars Red Sky will be among the headliners, and fair enough for that — dying for new album news from them — and Kaleidobolt will play supporting their 2019 album, Bitter (review here), which was both awesome and released by Svart Records. Amazing how often those two things come together.

There’s about zero chance I’d be able to get to this thing, but as someone who makes a habit out of daydreaming about attending European heavy rock festivals on concurrent weekends oh, say, forever, a couple days of long summer heavy in Poland sounds pretty righteous to me. It’s nice to be able to think something like this will actually happen.

More announcements forthcoming, obviously, but here’s the first two:

Red Smoke Festival 2022

SAVE THE DATE! Red Smoke Festival returns with a 4-day edition! July 7-10th. Amphitheatre in Pleszew.

Ticket sale will start in early March.

Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/300002808790014/

Mars Red Sky and RSF 2022!

Do we all know them? Sure!
Are they great? Of course!
Is this one of the most interesting bands in the genre? You bet!
It will be one of the headliners of RSF2022.

KALEIDOBOLT at RSF2022!

Speed, power & sweat. Endless dance! It might be one of the biggest highlights of the festival.

https://www.facebook.com/events/300002808790014/
https://www.facebook.com/RedSmokeFest
https://instagram.com/redsmokefest
https://redsmokefestival.pl/

Mars Red Sky, “Hollow King” official live video

Kaleidobolt, Bitter (2019)