Three demonstrations, the 6th anniversary of the Pope's death and a Graffiti Jam against Adidas - that is how the Varsovians spent last sunny weekend.
"Did you have fun?", you might ask and I would answer: "A lot of it".
There are two types of fun in Poland.
The first one is a kind of Ibiza-party-style, internationally recognized, transplanted into Polish soil from the West and treated as a holy cow. Having fun is obligatory if you want to be a cool part of a global village.
The second one is our traditional way of having a great time. We call it "zadyma", which literally means "a heavy whiteout", but is used to describe a state of chaos, fight (also a hooligan, but not only) and a demonstration of solidarity.
Spontanous gathering seems to be our national sport and it delivers us lots of fun.
Last weekend, in Zamkowy Square three groups of demonstrators met. There were: animals' rights' defenders, people commemorating the WWII masacre and Yael Bartana with her artistic project of bringing Jewish people back to Poland.
Can you imagine it? Vegetarians,combatants and the Jews - all at the same time and place.
A few quarters away (and a day earlier) there was a crowd of people praying and singing John Paul the Second's favourite song but I think our Pope would be delighted if he joined the Graffiti Jam in Służew.
There is a cult wall of streetart there. A couple of days ago Adidas blurred it to put their advert on it. It was the worst marketing move I have ever seen. 27 thousand people joined "Adisucks" group on Facebook afterwards. A great number of them gathered in reality to protest against this brand. "Money is not a king", they declared and on the the wall they sprayed a portrait of the Pope. He was a big fan of "zadyma" too.
Read more about Polish street-art:
NeSpoon - a little bit different street art
Chopin from the block
Every second Sunday of Janunary is a day on which the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity plays all over Poland. In every city, town, village, every corner of Poland they are collecting money for purchasing medical equipment for Polish hospitals. They have been doing it for 21 years and Poles got very into it. You can meet Orchestra's volunteers everywhere. Their characteristic feature is a big, colorful paper can in their hands. And, what's suprising, whole Poland is donating money by putting it inside the can. Every year it gets really crazy - big companies spend thousands of zlotys to buy an official golden heart of the Orchestra, there are concerts and events taking place in every city, all TV channels are broadcasting only materials about the Orchestra, people are spending as much money as they can to take part in the Grande Finale money collection. It's crazy & beautiful. And the person who makes it happen is Jurek Owsiak . It was his idea to found the Orchestra and collect money for specialistic equipment for children hospitals. He also organises Woodstock Festival in Poland. See the website of the Great Orchestra: http://www.en.wosp.org.pl/
