Now that you’ve absorbed some of Kraków’s atmosphere, let’s base our next trip around a calendar of festivals held in the city. Once again, Kraków can boast the highest number of jazz events, festivals and competitions in Poland. Here is a selection of some of the most important ones.

Spring brings the Young and Old, or Jazz in Kraków International Festival, presenting some of the most important work being done in the genre in Poland, Europe and around the world since 1995.

It is followed by the Summer Jazz Festival Kraków. Running for around a month, it is a review of Polish jazz ensembles with regular guest stars from abroad, including Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny and Return to Forever. One of the most colourful elements of the festival is the New Orleans Sunday, with a parade taking to the streets of the Old Town and gardens of cafés lining the Main Market Square resounding with trad jazz by groups such as the Old Metropolitan Band, Boba Jazz Band and Poland’s longest-running ensemble of this kind: the Jazz Band Ball Orchestra. The Summer Jazz Festival Kraków coincides with the Jazz Night featuring dozens of concerts at venues all over the city.

At the height of summer, on alternate years Kraków hosts events commemorating the city’s late jazz maestros: the Jarek Śmietana International Jazz Guitar Competition and the Zbigniew Seifert International Jazz Violin Competition. The globally-acclaimed events draw veterans of jazz from all over the globe to sit on both juries and up-and-coming musicians who often go on to headline renowned festivals.

Autumn also presents two festivals intertwining 20th century classical, club and electronic music. But looking to the past and the future, these attempts at categorisation may yet turn out to be far too simplistic!

The Sacrum Profanum festival has certainly seen its fair share of turbulence. Some of the early performances were lavish music spectacles in the post-industrial space of the Tadeusz Sendzimir Steelworks (now ArcelorMittal Poland), followed by ambitious presentations of classics of 20th-century avantgarde led by Karlheinz Stockhausen and Steve Reich. The festival also turns its attention to rock and electronica with Kraftwerk, Aphex Twin, Sigur Rós, The Cinematic Orchestra and Jonny Greenwood, and showcases icons of Polish 20th-century music by Witold Lutosławski, Krzysztof Penderecki, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki and Wojciech Kilar. The festival features leading performers of modern music, including Kronos Quartet, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern and Ensemble intercontemporain. In recent years, Sacrum Profanum has turned its attention to brand-new music, commissioning operas from artists such as Paweł Mykietyn (“The Magic Mountain”) and Alek Nowak (“ahat ilī – Sister of Gods” to a libretto by Olga Tokarczuk), as well as hosting installations, meetings, discussions and an indie classical stream.

The Unsound Festival explores a different corner of the avantgarde world, with roots in club, techno and ambient music. It started off in cramped cellars, soon evolving into a major festival with concerts held at venues such as the Museum of Municipal Engineering and the Church of St. Catherine; more recently, the former Hotel Forum has been brought back to life by the organisers of Unsound and now serves as a space for meetings and events under the banner Forum Przestrzenie.

It would be difficult to outline the festival’s programme framework, but if we were to generalise, it could be said to showcase ambitious electronic music. Since its founders like to take their audiences by surprise, Unsound has often been described as a laboratory bringing together new media, visual arts and experimentation on all fronts. Some memorable events of recent years have been Ben Frost and Daniel Bjarnasson’s “Solaris” produced with Sinfonietta Cracovia with visualisations by Brian Eno and Nick Robertson, and the project “Ephemera” combining audio, visuals and smell. Unsound has no ties to a single concert venue in Kraków, and its restless spirit also reaches far beyond Poland. The organisers have already held satellite festivals as far afield as London, New York, Adelaide and Tbilisi.

This brings us to the end of our musical journey. After our busy autumn it’s time to take a rest, and join Kraków’s jazz and alternative circles in a spot of well-earned hibernation. Nourished with music we lay dormant awaiting spring and the launch of the next long concert season!