Festivals of Songs in the Polish People’s Republic

Bittner, Karolina (2024) Festivals of Songs in the Polish People’s Republic. BETEKINTŐ, 18 (4). pp. 7-32. ISSN 2732-186X (print); 1788-7569 (online)

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Abstract

As Communist rule established itself in Poland, its agents learned relatively quickly to appreciate the propagandic value of culture, including music. The authoritiesrealized that popular music, and the pop song in particular, is an important me­dium of influence on society. The pop song became an integral tool in socialistpropaganda, which manifested in how its repertory and content, as well as performers, were selected. Indeed/as a result, the list of criteria a pop star candidate hadto fulfil was rather long.In the Socialist nation, the pop song had an important role to play. It was intended to shape the society’s imagination on life, work, and leisure. In this frame­work, not every song could become a hit, and not every performer could becomea star. As a consequence of this cultural policy, the Polish musical stage saw the riseof a certain twofold division. Beside those performers in official circulation, a lot ofnew bands flourished and became very popular, especially among the youth.This dual world of Polish pop culture hosted several dozen music festivals:from the Sopot International Song Festival and National Festival of Polish Songin Opole, to the Academic Youth Art Festival (fama) in Świnoujście and JarocinRock Festival, to a number of rock music revues all across the nation. Among these,there were two festivals with a very special propagandic task to fulfil: the Soviet SongFestival in Zielona Góra, and the Festival of the Soldiers’ Song in Kołobrzeg.In this article, I discuss the propagandic function of festivals and the role theyplayed in the formation of Socialist society. Throughout its socio-political transformations, Communist Poland altered the way it employed pop music. But whoever headed the Polish United Workers’ Party, the pop song remained an importanttool for shaping the new mentality; as a result, festivals of songs were continuously used for formation of the new Socialist consciousness. I portray I therefore demonstrate here the meaning of pop music festivals in the context of the PolishCommunist Era pop song, including music reviews. The subject of my research is the relationship between the Polish UnitedWorkers’ Party (pzpr) and four festivals of songs: the Sopot International SongFestival, the National Festival of Polish Song in Opole, the Soviet Song Festivalin Zielona Góra, and the Festival of the Soldiers’ Song in Kołobrzeg. These festivalsstarted in the 1960s and were a very important tenet of cultural policy until the endof the Polish People’s Republic. Indeed, during the 1970s they became part of thepropaganda of success, while in the 1980s the Polish United Workers’ Party usedthem to improve its image.What were the main roles of these music festivals? How did they change fromthe 1960s to 1989? What was the level of censorship? Could anyone perform inSopot or Opole? Finally, did the festivals of songs shape the musical tastes ofPolish people? For the youth, the most important event was the Festival of RockMusicians in Jarocin. What role did this specific festival play in Socialist culturalpolicy? This research is based on documents of the Department of Culture of thePolish United Workers’ Party, documents of the Communist Security Service, newspapers, and audiovisual sources.

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