We traveled for what seemed like a decade. Ciechocinek, Poland is a long way from anyplace. After flying from London to Wroclaw and spending the night we took a 5 hour train to Torun, where we were picked up by the festival organizer Piotr (there were two guys, both named Piotr).
Ciechocinek is a strange town. Very old (from the 13th century) it is a spa town, where for centuries people have come to breathe the special air that is there. The air has a salt smell like the sea because of these strange structures that have been built long ago. They take salt and spring water and filter it through huge walls of sticks that then emit this odor of salt across the town. You can not imagine how big these walls are – something like 600 meters long and 12 meters tall.
The festival went very well. Some astounding work by Piotr Kamler as well and shows by Woody Alien, Ed Wood and the two bands I performed with Hati and Mikrokolektyw.
Both Hati and Mikrokolektyw put on exceptional sets and the festival was held in a very cool old cinema. All and all a god time.
After tow days of festival we headed back for an afternoon in Torun, where Copernicus is from, to explore the city. Breakfast at a great little restaurant but then the rain started. We saw as much as we could but soon gave up and headed back to the train station for the trip to Wroclaw.
The two Piotrs put on a great fest and it is amazing that people like them exist, trying to make culture happen in these tiny towns. Isolated from the attention of the mainstream cultural establishments yet still working very hard to make things come together.
Back in Wroclaw I started the first film shoot of an as yet unnamed and secret feature film; shooting in the dark on Ostrow Tumski (the cathedral island). Someday soon this project will start to shine. Time and much more footage will be required first.
Raymond Salvatore Harmon 