History

This year marks our 15th anniversary!

Over the past decade and a half, we have organized hundreds of events under the Up To Date Festival banner. Believing that one doesn’t need to follow the beaten path, we brought legendary artists from around the world to Białystok, as well as those pushing genre boundaries – representing the electronic, experimental, and even rap music scenes. We have organized many significant social actions. If someone had told us over a decade ago that this would happen, we would certainly have choked on our local specialty – the sękacz cake.

Up To Date Festival was brought to life in the post-military warehouses complex on Węglowa Street. That’s why this place quickly turned into an informal center of alternative culture. Over time, we moved our festival activities to the parking lots of the Białystok City Stadium, and wanting to provide festival-goers with a moment of tranquility, we permanently included the Central Ambient Salon in the festival schedule. The following years were full of changes, sparking our desire for continuous development: besides the stadium space, we explored the halls of the Branicki Palace, the stage of the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic, and the outdoor, post-industrial areas of the mysterious Secret Location.

Our festival is like us, full of contrasts, humor, and critical distance from the surrounding reality. Expanding our activities and implementing increasingly original ideas, we have always aimed to connect not only musical genres but also generations. Initially, UTDF was an eclectic and pioneering blend of electronic, club, and rap music worlds. Today, all our events are created under the influence of a very well-thought-out, crystallizing vision of a music festival formed over the years. Moreover, we base it on sonic consistency, interpenetration of worlds and perspectives that are hard to find elsewhere. Programming a festival, we have never been afraid of genre-bending journeys or experiments, and our affinity for ambient music translated into Ambient Salons, Ambient Park, or the airborne Flying Ambient Salon.

Years go by, and after moving from Węglówka to the Stadium in Białystok, spreading carpets in the Branicki Palace, or returning to our roots under the Secret Location formula, we still strive to break free from conventions and refrain from joining the race for headliners.

Since 2023, we have also been strengthening our cooperation with the leading climate tech brand, Electrum, based in Białystok. We’ve put together two Electrum Ambient Parks, an international conference discussing the impact of humans and the industry on the planet called #DOWEREALLYCARE, which is part of a consistently implemented pro-ecological strategy, two charity actions in the form of Flying Ambient Salons, or numerous brainstorming sessions leading to the development of a project on mental health, we call Don’t Worry Be Yourself. All this to step by step realize our vision of what it means to be Up To Date today, and in 2024, we start with a titular partnership and officially become: Electrum Up To Date Festival.