Innovative pop and brilliant hip-hop — live on stage. DIY vibes, punk/rap hybrids, and nu metal as you’ve never heard it before in Poland. The OFF Festival Katowice (August 1–3, 2025) reveals the latest batch of phenomenal artists whose shows you won’t want to miss. Tickets are now on sale.
Benny Sings
Benny released his first album on Sonar Kollektiv, and his most recent on Stones Throw Records. He’s collaborated with such artists as Rex Orange County, Anderson.Paak, and Mayer Hawthorne, and his LP Young Hearts was produced in its entirety by Kenny Beats — the very same one who’s worked on tracks for Gucci Mane, Idles, and FKA twigs. The American producer reportedly reached out to the Dutch singer-songwriter and proposed they team up for a session in Los Angeles. Let that be the greatest possible review of Benny’s songs. The artist has a soft spot for jazz, soul, and hip-hop, along with an undeniable knack for writing catchy tracks. Inspired by lighthearted poetry and movies in the vein of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love, his songs are thrilling stories of outsiders and anti-heroes who just might feel like Superman when they put on a Benny Sings record.
Los Campesinos!
“It’s all hell,” sing indie-pop-punk rockers Los Campesinos!, “but we’re so glad to live through it with you.” And they’re doing it again at the OFF Festival, returning nine years after their first show in Katowice. They just might be at the top of their game, with their 2024 album All Hell garnering rave reviews, and Pitchfork hailing it the band’s best effort yet — on top of a “Best New Music” label. Hats off to Los Campesinos! for funding, producing, and publishing the record themselves: after nearly two decades on the scene, they remain truer to the DIY ethos than ever before. They rarely play live, especially outside the UK: their non-musical day jobs leave them little time for year-long tours. Late capitalism, paying the bills, lucid dreams: that’s what their music is all about.
Bad Boy Chiller Crew
The world’s rowdiest rap crew. A musical incarnation of Jackass. Or a vulgar version of Vengaboys. Each of these monikers applies to these charming chavs from Bradford, who turned their love for shooting outrageous videos into a comedy rap project, before finally becoming a serious and respected group. BBCC have developed an original bass-heavy sound that draws equally from two-step and speed garage as it does from European house. Combining that with their humor, expression, and plain-spoken lyrics, they soon attracted a local following — and then global attention. “We just want to distract people,” they say. “We make the world look like a fucking joke.” And if you’re up for a good laugh, you know where to find these lads in August. See you in Katowice at the OFF Festival!
Ralphie Choo
The day Rosalía followed him on Instagram, Ralphie nearly had a heart attack. Not long after, he recorded a track with her, and then another with Mura Masa and Paris Texas. The Madrid-born singer, songwriter, and producer records highly innovative pop songs where traditional Spanish and Latin-American styles rub up against modern electronic sounds and hip-hop, taking on a life of their own. Asked to name his biggest inspirations, Ralphie Choo (fun fact: his stage name comes from the “I Choo-Choo-Choose You” valentine given to Ralph Wiggum on The Simpsons) lists: Arca, Dean Blunt, Aphex Twin, Tyler, the Creator, and Childish Gambino. And if you love Frank Ocean’s Blonde as much as he does, then you’ve got to meet him. It just might be the beginning of a beautiful adventure.
Berlin Manson
Our parents thought all we needed to do was catch up to the West, and everything would be smooth sailing from there. And then it turned out that might never happen. Sound familiar? Hailing from Slovakia, Berlin Manson screams into a microphone about the problems young people deal with in this part of Europe. They named one album Poor, but Sexy. Check it out to hear them take aim at Eastern-European capitalism.
Omasta plays Madvilliany (PL)
One of the best hip-hop albums of all time versus a Krakow band that shies away from no challenge. Omasta comes to the OFF Festival to perform Madvilliany, the collaborative album by producer Madlib and rapper MF Doom.
.bHP (PL)
The current guidelines for listening to nu metal are simple: don’t miss the .bHP show at the OFF Festival. You read that right: nu metal is still alive, and as this young Warsaw crew proves, it can sound better than anything that crawled out of that drawer back in the early days of Polish Limp Bizkit and Korn soundalikes. .bHP hits hard with a massive, filthy sound, female vocals, and record scratches.
||ALA|MEDA||
Something this danceable has to be played by a DJ, right? Nope, it’s ||ALA|MEDA||! By far one of the most intriguing experimental acts in Poland, famous for its euphoric performances. Founded by Kuba Ziołek, Alameda has a sound that’s dense with rhythm, a product of the fascinations and experiences of its instrumentalists and their decades-long musical explorations.
