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, and a slice of fixed costs such as the venue and bands.
Your total is the €50 Reservation Payment plus the cash choices below. Before any optional donation that is €120 for a tent, your own mattress or a barn mattress on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, leaving on Sunday; €170 for the same with Sunday night added; €210 for a shared sleeping place with Sunday night; and €260 for a single sleeping place with Sunday night.
Work out your own number on the cost calculator — three choices, and it tells you what you send now and what you bring in cash.
The first table covers three nights: Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Add the Sunday-night line only if you are sleeping at the venue on Sunday night and leaving on Monday.
| Thursday, Friday & Saturday nights | Your cost |
|---|---|
| Floor — tent, your own mattress, or a barn mattress | €70 |
| Shared sleeping place for two — bed or large mattress, per person | €110 |
| Single sleeping place — bed or large mattress | €160 |
| Sunday night | Your cost |
|---|---|
| Leaving before Sunday night | €0 |
| Staying Sunday night, whatever you sleep on | €50 |
An optional donation of €100, €50 or €20 is welcome on top, and entirely optional. If you bring Polish złoty instead of euros, use €1 = 4.50 PLN.
There is also a €50 Reservation Payment for shared fixed costs, transferred when you sign up; the transfer details are inside the form. It is what makes the gathering happen, and it comes back in exactly one case: if we do not reach 40 by 3 August 2027, which is what the counter at the top of this page is counting. The Reservation Payment is not refunded for any other reason. If you cannot come, you may pass your place to someone else — email openbluespoland@gmail.com. Everything except the €50 Reservation Payment is brought in cash to the venue.
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, you choose your exact place in the shared Sheet once the gathering is confirmed. Places are allocated in signup order. Browse the room photos and venue map first; your paid category is guaranteed and 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 signing up works
Open Blues 2027 is first come, first served, and one form does the whole job. It asks your name and email, where you’ll sleep from Thursday to Saturday and whether you are staying Sunday night, an optional donation, whether you’ll DJ, jam or run a workshop, your travel and lift offer, and how you heard about us — then the €50 Reservation Payment transfer (the details are inside the form) and a tick to say you have emailed us the confirmation. No account and no sign-in.
Then watch the counter at the top of this page. That is the whole process.
Nothing you answered is locked in: change any of it yourself, any time, at openblues.pl/change. Only three things go by email — the €50 Reservation Payment, your email address, and passing your place to someone else: openbluespoland@gmail.com.
Signups close on 19 August 2027.
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, signups, 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. The signup form asks whether you would consider leading something; mark “yes” or “maybe”, and change your mind later at openblues.pl/change if you want to. 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.
Is there a selection?
No. Nobody reads your answers to decide anything, there is no audition and there is no required dance level. What we do need is enough people, which is what the counter at the top of this page is for.
What if we don’t reach 40 people?
Then it does not happen and your €50 comes back in full. Nothing else is owed.
What’s the Reservation Payment about?
The €50 commits your place, counts towards the 40 paid signups that make the gathering happen, and contributes to fixed costs such as the bands.
Can I change my details after signing up?
Yes — that is the point of asking everything up front. Your confirmation email carries a link that reopens your own signup with your answers in it; change what you want and submit again, as often as you like. openblues.pl/change explains it and sends you the link again if you lose it.
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.