By Ketevan Chitanava and Eka Tsereteli

Click here for the review in Georgian! (must have Georgian font installed)

Next destination – Mighty Sounds Festival!

That was the first thing I heard from my boss that morning. It sounded great – a festival around 100km from Prague, with 10,000 people and a range of music represented, fronted by punk and ska.

Tabor, the festival's connection city, is easily accessible from Prague; Olsi, the festival's nearest village, was harder to come by. There were no clear signs for the festival or the shuttle bus schedule. But with a little camaraderie from fellow festival-goers found at the station, we all made the trek out there unharmed.

Our hard toil in traveling there was instantly rewarded. Open air, sun, diverse music, good beer and the thousands of different faces…what else does a young spirit need? The organisers had outdone themselves: here was not just music, but an atmosphere to revel in. With 6 different stages – three live stages, two DJ stages and a theatre of chapitaux- this pleasant village field was transformed to a place where the sounds of Europe united. Though we arrived on the last day of the 3-day festival, it was still crowded and full of life. Distributing the vital Provokator magazines put us in a perfect position to talk with performers and guests alike, and the consensus was that the festival was a great success that would keep them coming back for years to come.

Every band had its audience, evident from the densely packed fields and demands for merchandise. The number of people requesting the CD, T-shirts and related paraphernalia at the end of each band's performance was testament to the popularity of the music on offer.
Backstage there was no less variety and activity; people with pink tights on their hands rushed to distribute food for musicians and guests, as the artists prepared for their perfomances. Backstage was the best place to feel the heart of the festival, but the soul was out on the fields.

For a festival so hot with performance and life, it was a blessing that the splendid summer rain and the chill of daybreak finally came to ease us all down from this high. An especial blessing that it came as the weekend ended!

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