Dear Vice,
My Polish cousin, Paulina, sent me some bootleg cassettes from the 1980s which were recorded on a tape recorder at a metal festival in communist-era Poland. This was apparently the only way this music could be distributed at the time. This was my first taste of Jarocin festiwal…

This festival, previously known as Ogolnopolski Przelghad
Muzyki Mlodej Generacji w Jarocinie (All-Polish Review of Music of Young Generation in Jarocin) was organised by the Soviet-backed regime to allow
the kids to let off some steam. And it worked.

The festival became more and more dangerous each year. The presence of the commie
militia created a bad atmosphere and the punks and metal heads, Warsaw people and Krakow
people, turned on each other. Riots were expected, but
everyone just got on with their own business, like these guys.

I mean, just watch this insane video below featuring KAT live at Jarocin in 1986:

PETE KOWALCZYK