At a glance
Compare sleeping options, food and travel details in Plan your stay.
Is Open Blues for you?
Open Blues is open to anyone who is comfortable with its DIY format. There is no required dance level: what matters is arriving ready to participate, share the work and make the gathering together.
Come if you want to teach a workshop that has never been tried before, cook dinner for the whole festival, dance to a band your friends sit in with, dress up for Saturday’s fancy dinner and fall asleep in a palace attic.
Open Blues may not be the right fit if you prefer a fixed schedule, classes sorted by level, hotel-style accommodation or a fully staffed event. That is completely fine: there are many good festivals with that format, and we go to them too.
Your cost
Open Blues is a private, cost-shared gathering made by its participants. Nobody is paid and nobody profits. Everyone covers their own share of the real expenses: their sleeping arrangement and communal food, their drinks, and a slice of fixed costs such as the venue and bands.
Your total is the €50 Reservation Payment plus the cash choices below. Representative totals, before any optional donation, are €90 for a tent or floor on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, leaving Sunday and drinking no alcohol; €130 for the full Thursday-to-Monday stay in a tent or on the floor with no alcohol; €165 for that full stay with average drinks; and €205 for the full stay on a mattress with average drinks.
Calculate the cash part of your contribution by choosing one item from each relevant table:
The first table covers three nights: Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Add a Sunday-night option only if you are sleeping at the venue on Sunday night and leaving on Monday.
| Thursday, Friday & Saturday nights | Your cost |
|---|---|
| Tent or your own floor setup | €40 |
| Mattress, without sheets | €60 |
| Shared sleeping place for two — bed or large mattress, per person | €100 |
| Single sleeping place — bed or large mattress | €150 |
| Sunday night | Your cost |
|---|---|
| Leaving before Sunday night | €0 |
| Tent or floor | €40 |
| Mattress | €60 |
| Bed | €50 |
| Drinks contribution | Your cost |
|---|---|
| No alcoholic drinks | €0 |
| A little | €10 |
| An average amount | €35 |
| Lots | €45 |
An optional donation of €10, €25, €50, €100, €150 or another amount can be added. If you bring Polish złoty instead of euros, use €1 = 4.50 PLN.
There is also a non-refundable €50 Reservation Payment for shared fixed costs. Transfer details are in the registration form. The remaining amount is brought in cash.
If you registered while an earlier Sunday-night price was shown, the original Sunday-night amount in your confirmation remains valid. Bring that confirmed amount; it will not be recalculated at the current price.
Food and accommodation
We cook all communal food together, and it is all vegan. Food is included from Thursday dinner through Monday breakfast.
Sleeping options include a paid bed option, a mattress you arrange yourself, or space for your tent or sleeping setup on the floor. A paid bed option guarantees a sleeping place prepared with sheets and a pillow, but it may be a conventional bed or a large mattress. Rooms are shared; it does not guarantee a bed frame or a private room. Compare the accommodation options and what to bring.
If you paid for a shared or single sleeping place, complete registration first and then see the rooms, find friends and claim your exact place. Your paid category is already guaranteed; no separate approval is required.
There is a small shop in the village, and a Dino supermarket in Kałków, the next village over, a few minutes away by car.
How registration works
Registration uses Tally, so no account or sign-in is required. Uploading a Reservation Payment receipt is still mandatory.
The sequence is:
- Calculate the cash amount for your stay, Sunday night and drinks.
- Transfer the non-refundable €50 Reservation Payment using the details inside the form.
- Upload the receipt and submit the form. The on-screen confirmation records your registration, repeats the cash amount to bring and links to this guide.
- If you chose a single or shared sleeping place, use the accommodation picker linked on the confirmation to see who is in each room and claim an exact place.
- Bring the remaining amount in cash. If you cannot come, you may find someone to take your place and ask us to update the registration.
See the complete payment, arrival and accommodation details.
About
Open Blues is a private, cost-shared do-it-yourself gathering. The main organisers deal with the venue, registrations, scheduling and some logistics, but music, workshops, cooking and merriment are created by the participants. We mean the name literally: the programme is open to whatever you bring.
Why don’t we follow the usual workshop format, invite some star teachers and segregate dancers beginner to advanced?
The simple answer is this: there are hundreds of such events in Europe anyway, and they are all very good at satisfying the need for top-down instruction (great teachers still come to Open Blues, but as participants). Yet, there is little horizontal and inter-community exchange outside of the social dance floor. Let’s fix this!
Whatever your dance passion is, bring it to Open Blues if you think it might enrich the community. You can request a very limited time frame (e.g. 30 minutes) or a bigger workshop (e.g. 90 minutes), you can lead it on your own or with your friends, with instruments or without, you can create a space for experimentation or give a traditional class.
One of us puts it like this in the film below:
We don’t have a teacher-student division. We are just kind of one mushy big thing together, and that means that everyone can bring something in.
Venue
Open Blues takes place at a beautiful and historically rich palace, which fell into disrepair during the Soviet rule over Poland 1945–89. It was bought by a Polish-British couple, Anna and Jim, who are now renovating it with much love. They make it available for visitors and cultural events. This unfinished palace is their home; a home they want to share. The palace has a raw feel that invites experimentation, so feel free to explore. However, remember to respect Anna’s and Jim’s privacy!
Here is what Anna & Jim have to say about their home:
The house dates from around 1300, but with a rebuild every 100 years or so, it’s hard to say which bit was built when. Architectural historians and archaeologists love the questions this building asks, and we don’t yet have all the answers. There are frescoes, glorious Renaissance painted ceilings, and sgraffito (a plaster technique). The working chapel (it’s the village church, Mass twice a week) has an impressive baroque altar-piece, recently restored.
In 2012, our ongoing restoration was short-listed for a prestigious Europa Nostra / European Union Award for the Protection of Cultural Heritage (the only Polish project so honoured). There is still work in progress, so we didn’t win. Nonetheless, we are proud of getting close, and we love to talk about our Big House Project with guests.
The Palace is in Silesia, in south-west Poland. The nearest airports are Wrocław (PL), Ostrava (CZ), Pardubice (CZ), Katowice (PL) and Brno (CZ). The nearest transportation hub is Nysa, a 20-minute drive away.
Impressions
What people say
You arrive as a guest and by Saturday you're running a workshop, stirring a pot, or sitting in with the band.
Dancing till sunrise in a half-renovated ballroom, live piano bouncing off bare brick. Nothing else comes close.
The only festival where I learned as much in the kitchen as on the dance floor.
I flew in from the other side of the world knowing nobody. I left with a family.
I've danced all over Europe, and the festival that feels most like magic is an hour from my home.
I didn't know I enjoyed chopping vegetables as much as I do dancing.
Dressing up for the fancy dinner on Saturday and wandering those palace halls — I felt like I'd slipped into another century.
Every festival says "community". This is the first one where I believed it.
FAQ
What are the workshops and who are the teachers?
This is a DIY gathering and all activities are community-led, so the programme takes shape late and changes often — we don’t advertise an exact workshop line-up in advance. Mark “yes” or “maybe” when the registration form asks whether you would consider leading something. Closer to the gathering, participants add their ideas to the community-filled workshop sheet.
Can I arrive earlier or stay longer?
Standard reception opens on Thursday at 18:00, followed by the welcome at 18:30, dinner at 19:00 and the party at 20:00. If you expect to arrive later, email openbluespoland@gmail.com before travelling so the organisers know when to expect you. Monday includes breakfast and communal cleaning; the programme finishes at 12:00 noon, followed by departures.
An additional night before or after the gathering costs €20–50 depending on your sleeping arrangement and does not include food. It must be agreed before arrival: email the organisers, who will coordinate the stay with the hosts.
Can I bring pets or children?
Yes, as long as they don’t bother the farm animals. There are geese, chickens, turkeys (RIP 🙏), dogs and cats. And people.
I have a pet or dust allergy. Can I come?
The place is a farm, so there are lots of animals and some places are dusty. However, there are rarely any animals in the ballroom and in the upstairs rooms — but sometimes there can be.
What’s the Reservation Payment about?
The €50 payment commits your place and contributes to fixed costs such as the bands. It is non-refundable, but you can find someone to take your place and ask us to update the registration.
What are the accommodation options like?
Compare the sleeping options in Plan your stay.
Who runs the event?
This is a private party and camp run by a group of blues dancing enthusiasts.
Who do I contact about a safety or conduct concern?
Email openbluespoland@gmail.com and ask for Klaudia, the primary contact; Konrad is the backup. They decide next steps together, except that either may act immediately if someone is in immediate danger.
What are the food options?
We all cook together as a communal activity. All communal food is vegan and is included from Thursday dinner through Monday breakfast.
How can I get there?
The venue is Piotrowice Nyskie Palace, Piotrowice Nyskie 54, Poland. The easiest option is to drive or share a ride. Join the WhatsApp transport group to offer or request a place; the invite is public, and other members can see your phone number and any WhatsApp profile information you make visible.
The nearest rail hub is Nysa, about a 20-minute drive from the palace. From there, arrange a participant pickup in the transport group or take a taxi (usually around €30–50). If you are driving, use the palace map pin rather than only the village name, and ask in the transport group or email openbluespoland@gmail.com for the current on-site parking instructions before setting off.