SAWA festival is one nice story here on domestic diy hc punk scene and even wider.. it's the whole Balkan gathering actually for quite some years already and this years edition was canceled just few hours before it's beginning because strong storm hit the place 2nd time in two days and cause irreparable damage to infrastructure and equipment, I already mentioned it before
here when there was 1st small benefit gig organized in Požega and now already few different collectives, initiatives or individuals get involved in helping SAWA crew in recovery.. they themselves are very active as well, it seems all this isn't killing their spirit, obviously the whole thing just get them stronger so they prepared some merch, again supported by friends of the festival which you can buy and help on that symbolic way and show your solidarity with one of the best diy stories on Croatian hc punk scene..
so below is nice article about all that, extensive but very interesting and inspiring.. for the whole thing visit their
web page where you can find both versions on Croatian and English, also see some phots and videos of storm and of course the most important to see which actions were already made, which are planned in the nearest future and to check merch and other ways to support them..
SOLIDARITY IN ACTION
SAWA Festival 2023 was forced to be canceled half an hour before the first band, due to a severe and dangerous storm that could have caused harm to the visitors. Nobody in our area remembers a (shit)storm of similar magnitude in recent history.
SAWA Festival means much more to us than just music, a weekend gathering, or a weekly DIY activity. We live and prepare it throughout the year. For two months a few of us dedicated ourselves entirely to it, leaving all obligations and jobs aside. For this edition of the festival, we went all in like never before. Unfortunately, mother earth has shown us her teeth for everything bad that we do to this planet every day. Let this be a wake-up call since we can expect more and more natural disasters every summer going forward.
We are truly sorry that everything fell apart just before the concert was supposed to start. We are also happy that everyone is fine and no one got hurt, which is the most important thing right now. We will fix the damage to our equipment and installations during the upcoming year and get back on our feet. This will be done with the help of many self-initiated punk solidarity actions organized in the region, our personal investments and
merchandise that we prepared for all of you who want to support us. We don't whine, beg, or ask for anything. However, we are super grateful to the goodwill of bands, labels, organizers and individuals, for self-organizing and launching several solidarity actions, while we were cleaning up the festival area in shock of what happened. The same goes for all of you who donated through the website - thanks a ton!
On Wednesday, July 19th, 2023, the day before the festival, a sudden wind of 180 km/h ravaged Županja and its surroundings, destroying most of the festival installations, tents, electricity poles, and hundreds of trees on the bank of the river Sava. This is just the recorded wind speed before the wind blew away and broke the device itself at the meteorological station, meaning that we don't know exactly how strong the storm really was.
Given that trees were torn down, concrete pillars cracked, tents weighing several tons were broken, and roofs flew around the city - all volunteers and members of the SAWA Crew suffered serious trauma. Trauma that is usually not discussed, and is difficult to recover from. They are our scenes heroes and we thank each one of the crew members for that.
Despite the city being without electricity, but still with a favorable weather forecast for the weekend, we decided to clean up everything. In 48 hours we (re)built a good enough infrastructure to hold a concert on Friday and Saturday - because Balkan punx deserve it. We also made a few last-minute changes to reduce the risk of anyone getting hurt (e.g. camping under the trees was forbidden). On Thursday, July 20th, 2023, Day Zero of the festival - visitors started arriving and the weather was sunny as if nothing had happened the day before. They swam in the river, sang and hung out preparing for the Friday concert night. Everything was promising that we would have an awesome party on the weekend.
On Friday afternoon, July 27th, 2023, new storm announcements started. We were prepared for heavy rain, but no one expected a similar chaos that could be dangerous for the lives of visitors and bands, as we experienced on Wednesday.
Immediately after the sound check and just before the concert was supposed to start, clouds began to gather. It was extremely hot and without the slightest breeze. The river Sava was unusually calm. Everything stopped completely, as if someone had frozen the scene around us and put it in slow motion. It was clear to those of us who experienced the chaos on Wednesday that something similar was about to happen. We took all the safety measures we could, based on the experience from a few days before and immediately started closing the big tents. The storm started and the wind threw the heavy aluminum 160m2 tent over 3 meters high in the air. The tent was sturdy and otherwise stable in any conditions that we prepared for. Inside were band distributions & SAWA merchandise, which later got soaked, wet and some of it even destroyed. As the tent flew around the festival area, it damaged a few cars and vans, causing total damage to a vehicle from one of our crew members.
Most visitors & SAWA crew volunteers rushed to the second 240m2 tent, where the stage & bar were. Our small punk community tried to defend whatever remained by closing the tent and holding it down for the next 30 minutes of heavy storm, clinging to every possible opening. We wanted to reduce the risk of it being lifted by the wind and doing serious harm to people on the festival grounds. Everyone who experienced this knows it was a fight for our lives, the festival, and our friends.
Despite everything that was happening at that moment, the atmosphere under the tent was amazing. THANK YOU to everyone who helped in saving each other and the remaining equipment. Calmness, collective effort and coordination left a huge mark and will stay forever remembered. Thankfully, all of the visitors are alive and well without any injuries, although we were facing serious danger from wind gusts that knocked down everything on their way.
As soon as the wind calmed down, all visitors were asked to leave the festival location and go to the city center to a dry location - CB OKAC, which offered us a safe haven until dawn. At that time it had already been announced that there would be another storm during the evening and rain all night. Unfortunately, the club "Multicultural Centre" we took care of for about 15 years and held hundreds of concerts, and which can accommodate up to 500 people, was lost and is not ours anymore. If that wasn't the case, we would have moved the concert there. We called and tried every option we knew for hours on Friday night, but the city was in total collapse and there was simply no alternative option. That being said, the weather still did not prevent people from gathering in the parking lot and in the rain until the early hours of the morning.
To every band that came despite the storm - hats off, and a big THANK YOU from the SAWA crew. The least we could do was cover the travel expenses and provide food and drinks while everything else fell apart. There will be opportunities for concerts another time in the future, and we greatly appreciate your understanding of the situation.
With human lives being the most important thing, luckily most of the rented equipment was not damaged, besides some pieces of our own equipment. However, we are still left with a lot of damage and financial loss. Everything rented has to be paid for, as well as all the food that we ordered, every t-shirt, pallet, cable, spray, poster and every detail we invested in and prepared several months before the festival. Now, a month after the sawacalypse, we are slowly being able to pay back our debts.
On the same day when cancellation was announced various solidarity actions were initiated by all of you throughout the region. Today we count over 20 actions that have been organized or are planned to be organized by the end of 2023. This is unbelievable and we are beyond words. The scene has not been this proactive in solidarity for a long time. We never could have imagined how much SAWA means to all of you. THANK YOU PUNK SCENE and big thank you to all the people who started the actions!
On the other hand, we are trying to make up for the losses by selling our
festival merch (t-shirts, hats, sweatshirts, bags, cookbook, etc.), first by presenting it at the Monte Paradiso festival, and now by putting it for sale online for all of you.
Lastly, we do not plan to give up! 15 years of effort were damaged and crippled, but not destroyed. We have a lot of work to do, to fix and create new installations, pay off our debts, and in the end, organize a party to remember in 2024!
