A Gig at Sunrise: Reflecting on W Brzask at Ephemera Festival

In June, we co-commissioned W Brzask no. 36 at Ephemera Festival in Warsaw as part of our ongoing partnership with Unsound, supported by British Council Poland. Carefully curated by AND, Unsound and W Brzask, the event was hosted by Królikarnia Sculpture Park at dawn featuring artists Andrzej Sławomir Kiełbowicz, Harry Górski-Brown & Wojciech Rusin, Bianca Scout with local collaborators and felicita b2b kacha. Our Assistant Producer Sophie guides us through her experience of being at Ephemera Festival, and offers a glimpse into being at the open air gig at sunrise.

The crowd gathered in darkness little by little until the park was full of the early morning W Brzask attenders, eagerly awaiting the opening of the show by saw virtuoso Andrzej Sławomir Kiełbowicz. The full moon set, as the sun started to appear behind the Królikarnia Palace.

It was interesting to work with cultural partners in an outdoor setting in Warsaw. Ania & Krzysztof worked hard to keep the W Brzask series running in the city for 10 years. Our exchange gave us insight into the shared experiences of producing events in outdoor public spaces for cultural programmes. With the wider context of recent upheaval within the Polish government and the disruption that may cause to experimental arts and culture production in the coming years, supporting experimental art in times of uncertainty felt all the more important.

On 15th July, the last night of the festival, we started W Brzask at 3:30am with Andrzej, a local experimental artist that uses a saw as his main instrument. The crowd perked up to the stark sound of Andrzej sawing through wood before taking his bow to the saw’s teeth, creating the perfect opening ceremony to the morning ahead.

Bianca Scout’s performance was very impressive – her workshop with local participants in the day leading to the show was facilitated with sensitivity and lots of energy, supporting 15 strangers to take part in a performance for 1000 people. The workshop was a space to get to know each other, explore the performance concept and co-create site specific choreography around the park and palace. As a result of this intensive workshop Bianca developed a brilliantly strange performance in less than 24 hours with the participant performers who worked so fluidly together, and excitingly, may spark further collaboration locally. Bianca responded to and used the site of the Królikarnia Palace extensively within the performance, using it as a stage and inspiration for choreography for the work which blended theatre, dance and her signature mix of haunted synth pop sounds.

Harry Górski-Brown and Wojciech Rusin’s collaborative performance provided perfect drone sounds for the sunrise. The mixture of Harry’s bagpipes and Wojciech’s amplified balloon air release gave a sense of breathing into the dawn creating sounds that elongated one’s sense of time and space.

felicita & kacha’s b2b featured an energising mixture of live performance and a DJ set coaxing the audience to gather under the trees where they performed. Some audience members danced and took shade from the rising sun, whilst others napped in deck chairs, soothed by felicita & kacha’s gentle beats. A perfect way to round off the sunrise show and bring the audience into the full light of day.

Our other festival highlights were UK based band Still House Plants and Asian Dope Boys – catch their 12 hour durational performance at London South Bank Centre 18 July.

This project is supported by the British Council under the UK/Poland Season 2025.

Images: jasinÿ