Our research approach : structuring our creative parameters and talking to our music communities, starting with our first True Music city in Krakow, Poland, organising insights from conversations and interviews with our Krakow True Music artists about what are some of the major challenges to the music scene thriving in Krakow.

The creative parameters : Maximising the grants We want the investment to go as far as possible towards strengthening the longevity and vitality of the local community, which means out of the 20k – we want the entirety of the support grant to go to the local community directly and efficiently without any funding reserved for our oversight or administration, which means any organisational projects like skill schools, community development, mentorships, radio stations, recording studios, venues, are out due to cost and time.

Supporting Hyper Local Economic Growth Small city music scenes thrive on the underground but there is a glass ceiling on development without access to a thriving local music industry where paid gigs are few and far between. As local visual artist and DJ, Kubba said in our chat, “in Krakow there is a little vein from tourism, but things can be grim. Funds can definitely help. There isn’t a lot of it in Poland (laughs).” (Kubba, Visual Artists & DJ Feb 21, 2019 Interview with Whitney)

Krakow is home to internationally renowned experimental music and arts festival UNSOUND, but like many international festivals there are some local acts but also mostly international and over the economic opportunity of the year, the festival is an exception. As a University and tourist town, most of the economy is seasonal which makes stable music and arts gigs hard for venues, and the city, like many, is experiencing venue closures. This may seem like a an obvious insight, but if we look at the problem, our challenge is how to take our 20k seed and build more roots into a thick strata of local economy that is interconnected with the potential of self perpetuating.

Backing Chica Gang’s CHICA party series in Madrid to working with local promoter Paulina Żaczek in Poland on a unique open-air music event series ‘ZABAWA, aimed to encourage new audiences into Krakow’s electronic scene through the new day-party format. Paulina’s debut of ZABAWA showcased eight local artists, attracted more than 700 local creatives and was featured on local television and radio stations. Paulina Żaczek is a producer and curator of music and community events, specialising in cultural communication. Law graduate from Jagiellonian University, she’s been part of the Unsound team since 2010, currently working as the festival PR manager. She is behind the success of Szpitalna 1 club, where, as a PR Manager and Creative Director until July 2019, she was responsible for a comprehensive strategy of rebranding and external communication. She is the owner of GRANKO agency, founder of Zabawa party series and the manager of Olivia, the Krakow-based DJ.

“Without the [Boiler Room and Ballantine’s] support there would not be any ZABAWA. This grant helped me realise my ideal party format and push it even further! Inspired to continue the project and aim higher, I already plan the next summer edition, bigger in venue and number of DJs. Daytime ZABAWA showed that there is a great need for such projects.” Paulina Żaczek