“It’s an adventurous music festival of popular music – and music that challenges the notion of pop music – kind of situated against an urban dystopian backdrop. That’s the festival in a nutshell.”
This year who are some of the biggest acts people can look forward to?
“The biggest acts are Young Fathers, who’ve just done a really storming show at Glastonbury for a huge massive crowd, and Spiritualized, which is a kind of a space rock band from the UK.
“Ireland are sending over a fantastic band called Gilla Band, formerly known as Girl Band. There’s also Hudson Mohawke from LA, a Scottish producer now living in LA.”
Video of Young Fathers – I Saw (Glastonbury 2023)
What about you, who are you most looking forward to seeing?
“I’m looking forward to seeing Tommy Cash again, because we kind of got really friendly last time and we’ve invited him over again. He does a storming show, so I’m looking forward to seeing him.
“Also I’m looking forward to the aforementioned Gilla Band, and Spiritualized, because I’ve been listening to Spiritualized since the age of 15 really.”
Previously the main venue for Pop Messe was the pitch of this old stadium in Brno, Za Lužánkami. Is it the case that you no longer have the use of the stadium?
“Yes, we’re not allowed to go onto the pitch itself, although that’s not really a pitch any more, it’s a jungle. And due to the fact that it’s become kind of dangerous to use some of the parts of that stadium the Town Hall has decided to close the stadium for these purposes. But they have kindly given us the surrounding area – the car parks and various other nooks and crannies of that site; it’s quite a big site.”
So where will the main stage be for the festival?
“The main stage will be just next to the stadium, facing the ‘90s relic Bobycentrum, which is a big 2,500 capacity hall for concerts. So we will have an indoor and an outdoor large capacity stage at the festival.”
Putting on a festival like Pop Messe is obviously a major undertaking. Do you get much support from the city or the region, or anybody like that?
“Yes, it is funded primarily by the city, although funding has been reduced, like I presume anywhere else in Europe, due to the situation that we’re in currently.
“But yes, it still remains the main donor of funds for the festival. So that is a great help and that basically helps us build this size festival. Without that funding we wouldn’t be able to build any of those stages or have a festival this size.”
Asian Insider: Malaysia Edition helps you connect the dots on the biggest stories playing out in Malaysia every week. Sign up here to get the newsletter in your inbox. The race is on to woo the Malay-Muslim electorate, which forms the country’s key vote bank that could well decide the outcome in three swing states of Kedah, Terengganu and Selangor in the upcoming state elections on Aug 12. The vote in six of Malaysia’s 13 states is being widely billed as a referendum […]
