Polish Entertainment

Television & Radio

The most popular Polish entertainment by far is Television; there are around five terrestrial channels but several satellite services available such as Canal+ and Polsat, which have around 20 Polish language channels as well as English BBC programs. Satellite dishes appear to cover the buildings in most Polish towns or cities.

The reasons for the large number of Dishes are that the Terrestrial programs are so bad, many repeat programs, very old programs, (you can still watch programs like the "A" team and Kojak from time to time) and also the availability of Pirate decoders make Sat available to most families although nowadays the pirating is in decline.

Most homes in blocks and estates have cable systems that include the telephone system, cable TV and the internet this is at reasonable cost, from about 90 Zloty per month, (25 USD).

The main reason for the poor standard of this particular Polish entertainment is the lack of finance for most of terrestrial television companies. Theoretically users must have a television licence issued by the government but I have found out that paying the license fee is difficult.

I walked in to my local post office and asked for a television license. After 10 minutes wait, the young lady informed me that they had lost the book of TV license forms as they had not used it for many years and asked, "why do you need a license" so I resolved to break the law, and still have no license. I have tried several times I have never been able to buy one.

Still people complain at the standard of Polish television, although there are adverts the revenue these provide is still not sufficient to provide a comprehensive range of up to date programs. Recently the programs have improved, particularly news and local programs, I believe this is due to increased advertising revenue from the explosion of commercial activity.

I must qualify this with the fact that there are many good programs produced by the television companies, just not very regularly. In addition, certain type of polish entertainment, in particular music, the quality is superior to most other countries.

Another popular polish entertainment is Radio, as with most places in the World, the local FM stations with the younger people. Although there is a radio station here, listened to by the older generation which really shocks me, This is radio Maryja, (English Maria), in my view it is an extreme Catholic organization listened to by the older religious people who take what the station preaches as the gospel.

Radio Maryja often contains language that suggests that foreigners should return to their own country and leave Poland alone, my own opinion is that the station is anti Semitic, in fact anti everything that is not Polish. It is quite shocking when you realize that the listeners are mainly older devout Catholics.

One interesting point is that the "man of god" who owns and runs this radio station is the owner of one of the most expensive cars in the world, the Maybach. Why not a "good" Polish car like the Polonaise?

Modern Dance & Music

Dancing to modern music is a very popular Polish entertainment and embarrassingly most Polish men and women are very good dancers, the girls are usually slim and graceful, but all dance very well when compared to most other countries. Dancing is one of the most popular participant entertainment and there are some very good venues. These types of "nightclubs" have gone out of fashion in the West and USA but they are very reminiscent of the 1950's when you can take your partner out for dancing, a meal and a few drinks. My wife and I go regularly. The whole night would normally cost under 40$ including taxi.

Much of this results from the communist era, when popular music was very important but records were not available, the norm was very poor black market copies when people would club together buy a tape and copy it. One interesting fact is that many of the groups and musicians that were considered second rate or one hit wonders in Western countries were very popular in Poland. In fact I attended a Smoky concert only a couple of years ago, they were the group that recorded "Living next door to Alice", a minor hit in the UK in the 60's but a very popular song in Poland.

At the present time there are many top artists coming to Poland on their world tours, people such as Rod Stewart, Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, Elton John and many others seem to be regular visitors nowadays, filling stadia wherever they appear, even at the comparitivly high proces.

No article on Polish Entertainment would be complete without mentioning the main groups of Polish music There are several types of music popular in Poland, most are similar to the music of other countries, but some of the particularly Polish music is described below:

Discopole - This is electronic music, which many people would dispute as being music although my wife would never forgive me if I didn't put it in this list. It is very thin on content and rhythm a bit like poor techno music with flowery lyrics.

Polish Rock - There are several Polish groups who could compete with any musicians in the world, the limiting factor is usually the language. Groups such as Lady Pank and Budker Suflera really rock. The latter is rather like the Rolling Stones, I think they all have their bus passes but the music has been loved by Poles of all ages since well before the fall of communism, and is still loved today.

Budka Suflera

Jazz - Aficionados of jazz will enjoy their time in Poland, every city has several Jazz clubs, with live music every night, arguably the best are in Krakow including the 60's throwback the "Kornet". Another Polish entertainment that often is performed in the jazz clubs is poetry, I can not really recommend the poetry nights, although it is very reminiscent of Western Europe in the 1950's, (I am so old I can remember), with the beatniks, sandals roll neck jumpers and pipe. I believe 9it is called existentialism.

Folk Music - The general folk music is similar to other areas of Europe, the music that most Poles enjoy is the Mountain Folk music, usually two-part harmony in a rather shrill tone. However, enchanting and still very popular. If you are going to the Tatra's or Carpathian's you will be immersed in the mountain music, it is superb and very atmospheric. It can also be heard everywhere else in Poland, nowadays there is a rock version which is also very good.

Classics - Of course the home of Frederic Chopin hold many concerts of his work. Many of the former palaces and castles throughout the country have classical concerts throughout the summer months, usually in the open air. I can thoroughly recommend a visit to one of these atmospheric venues. There is a particularly good concert staged at Chopin's Manor house around March the 1st each year, (Chopin's Birthday).

Many city dwellers become stary eyed when reminded of the mountains by the music, it seems to me that the cultural heart of Poland revolves around the mountain people, arguably this is where the culture, welcome and quality of life are better, although rather cold in winter..

To spend a couple of days in the mountains with the kielbasa cooking over the campfire whilst the local village people sing folk songs is one of the lasting memories of Poland and the best of Polish entertainment.

Other forms of Polish entertainment such as Music & Dance and Sport are covered in the respective areas, please follow the link to view these pages.