The summer of 2024 in Poland ended with a blaze of heat and light. While festivals like Mystic, Open’er, Globaltica, Rockowizna and few more had already passed through Tricity, one final newcomer swept in to close the season with ambition and imagination: Aurora powered by T-Mobile (known as Zorza wspierana przez T-Mobile in Polish).
That festival was the debut of a project dreamed up and curated by Dawid Podsiadło, one of the most popular and inventive artists of the past decade in Poland. Known for selling out arenas, topping charts, and bringing a playful intelligence to mainstream pop, Podsiadło took a leap few performers at his level ever attempt: creating a festival with its own curatorial identity.
Podsiadło designed a traveling platform for collaboration, reinterpretation, and surprise. Over the course of two days in each of six cities, Poznań, Wrocław, Warsaw, Kraków, Gdańsk, and Katowice next weekend, Zorza offered audiences something they couldn’t see anywhere else: unique duets, genre-crossing performances, and artists revisiting old material in fresh arrangements.
As Podsiadło put it himself in the festival’s early promo campaign: “I wanted to create something that isn’t about routine sets or repeating what you already know. Zorza is about meeting, about discovery”.
From the beginning, Zorza supported by T-Mobile was designed with layers. Mainstream headliners took the central stage, but younger and emerging talents found space on the Fenomen Stage, while electronic fans were served a program co-curated with Audioriver on its eponym stage, one of Poland’s most respected electronic music festivals. This gave Zorza a balance rarely found in large-scale festivals: the ability to pull together stadium-ready pop and intimate, underground experimentation without either overshadowing the other.
Podsiadło himself was present in both roles: host and artist. His sets were never traditional concerts, instead, he stepped into the background at times, supporting others, then returning in unexpected duets.
The visual design matched the ambition. In Gdańsk, the Polsat Plus Arena grounds were transformed into a festival village of three stages, food truck alleys, art installations, sponsor zones, and chillout areas inside what I think is one of the most beautiful stadiums in Europe. Spacious and thoughtfully laid out, the site avoided overcrowding, though long queues for food and only one free water point proved real flaws, especially under the summer heat.
DAY ONE
The first day of Zorza in Gdańsk unfolded under a scorching sun, with the atmosphere of a closing chapter to Poland’s festival season.
On the Fenomen Stage, fresh voices like Ania Szlagowska, Daniel Goodson, Liwka, and Krzyk Mody created an intimate atmosphere. Their performances hinted at the festival’s promise: discovery, rather than routine.
The Audioriver Electronic Stage brought a different energy, with Ikarvs, Agim & Deas, and veteran duo Catz ’n Dogz steering the crowd into grooves. But the focus was clearly on the Main Stage, where the heart of Zorza’s curatorial experiment revealed itself.
Paulina Przybysz covering Bajm: a reinterpretation that was calmer and moodier. The twist? A choir of festival participants, recruited through open sign-ups in each city, joined her on stage, blurring the line between performer and audience. It was a daring community gesture, though reactions were mixed: some found it moving, others felt the power of Bajm’s anthems was diluted.
Sokół + Fisz Emade: two titans from rap and alt-hip-hop finally sharing a stage for the first time ever. Their chemistry was explosive, and the rarity of the collaboration made it one of the evening’s high points.
Podsiadło + Kaśka Sochacka: closing the night with the premiere of their joint album “Tylko Haj“. The set was understated, emotional, and beautifully introspective, a finale that invited the crowd into a moment of reflection, offering depth instead of sheer euphoria.
DAY TWO
If the first day was about quiet discoveries, the second was a burst of energy, nostalgia, and bold contrasts.
The Fenomen Stage spotlighted acts like Rozen, Odet, Kachus, and Newskin, while the Audioriver Electronic Stage pulsed with Bass Astral, Rosalie, Flirtini, and a DJ set by Monika Brodka.
But again, the Main Stage carried the festival’s narrative arc.
Kukon + Kacperczyk brothers: an unlikely yet magnetic blend of rap and alt-pop, anchored by their hit “Moja Wina“. Brodka’s unannounced appearance sparked chaos and delight, one of those “you had to be there” moments that define festivals.This was a powerful gig.
Kortez revisiting “Boomerang“: paired with a film project titled “States of Aggregation“. It was artistically ambitious, visually striking, and emotionally heavy. For some, it was the highlight of Zorza’s experimental mission; for others, too much weight for a summer night crowd craving lighter energy.
Podsiadło + Artur Rojek performing Myslovitz classics became one of the most talked-about moments of Zorza. Songs like “Peggy Brown“,”Scenariusz Dla Moich Sąsiadów“, and “Długość Dźwięku Samotności” drew numerous fans into a communal singalong, a true generational touchstone. Rojek admitted from the stage to the crowd: “I hadn’t performed those songs for a very long time. Playing them again, in a different arrangement gives me a lot of happiness”.
Because I’m coming to the material without the weight of history, I found the songs dynamic, melodic, and full of life. The arrangements may have been different, but to me, they sounded rock-driven and energetic, powerful enough to make me enjoy the concert.
At its core, Zorza is as much about Podsiadło’s role in Polish music as it is about the lineup itself. For years, he has been Poland’s rare “stadium artist”, one capable of commanding mainstream attention without losing artistic credibility. But with Zorza, he has gone further: shaping the conversation about how Polish music festivals can look and feel. How a festival can be different, how it can add an alternative voice in the festival landscape of Poland.
Zorza placed curation above convenience: artists out of their comfort zones, audiences pushed toward new encounters, collaborations that might never happen again.
In that sense, Podsiadło’s project feels very personal, like deeply invested in building bridges between the mainstream and the underground, the past and the future.
Was Zorza perfect? Not quite. The long waits for food and drinks – 75 minutes to get a single portion of french fries is very long, looks like they had only one deep-fryer working – and the decision to have only one free water point in oppressive heat, were real missteps. Also one single entry point was not enough on the first day. There was a huge human traffic jam, with no explanation, no information, just waiting under the sun.
But artistically and atmospherically, it delivered.
The two days offered a vision of a festival that was more thant just another summer stop,it was a new cultural offer, a place where Polish music could reflect on its past, reinvent its present, and imagine its future.
For sure that festival was not what a lot of people expected, it was different, it took another approach. Let’s see in two years what they will have learned from this first edition, and if the festival will keep its purpose and soul.
