Kizz Me More Warsaw

In July, I went to my first Kizz Me More festival. Read in my post why I liked the festival and why I will go again next year…

How to Get There?

Warsaw is the capital of Poland and there are several ways to get there.

By plane: Chopin Airport (WAW) lies around 10 kilometers from the city center of Warsaw and handles more than 300 flights every day. It’s the busiest and largest airport in the country. The Polish airline LOT, as well as the low-cost airline WIZZ AIR, are flying there. Ryanair is flying to the second airport in the area called Warsaw Modlin (WMI), which is around 40 kilometers from the city.

By bus: Depending on where you’re coming from and how long you are happy to sit on a bus, this is a cheap and comfortable way to get to Warsaw. I actually like taking the bus because I can work the whole time while when I fly I can’t do that. On most of my trips, the Wi-Fi was working well and with my noise-canceling headphones*, I have no problem creating a productive atmosphere.

By car: If you’re free to travel, I’m sure it’s an amazing road trip on which you would be able to explore other Polish cities like Krakow. At the venue, there is a big parking lot with enough space for your car.

 

The Venue, The Parties, And The Socials

The festival takes place at Novotel Warszawa Airport, just five minutes from Chopin airport.

The parties take place in the two rooms of the conference area of the hotel – the smaller one was the Traditional room while the bigger one was the Urban room. Especially the Urban room, although it was the bigger one, was crowded all the time and there were followers waiting around the dance floor to be asked for a dance.

The socials take place in the outside area. Although they call it pool parties they are not by the pool. The announced foam party didn’t take place because it was raining on that day. A few times, people were dancing inside for the socials when it was raining.

The second night was African party. I really liked that there was somebody selling African clothes and jewelry. Unfortunately, there was nobody else selling dancing clothes or shoes.

 

The Workshops

The workshops take place in the same rooms as the parties. I wanted to participate in a few but most of them were so full that it was extremely difficult to not run into each other. Plus, they put parquet over the carpet but it ended at a certain point. It was super annoying to be pushed from the parquet from the crowd. Some people also danced on the carpet but the downside of that is not only that you have a floor that is not adequate for dancing but also that you can’t see what the instructor is doing and showing. In my opinion, there should be a limit of people who can attend the workshops. It’s not nice for anybody to not have space, and to neither hear nor see the instructor.

 

Accommodation & Food

Accommodation: Most people stay in the hotel during the event. It’s definitely the most comfortable way. I was staying at an Airbnb though, approximately 1.5 kilometers from the venue. Since there is a bus stop right in front of the Novotel and the bus stop at the Airbnb* was also just in front of the house, it was super easy and much cheaper than staying at the hotel. I paid 80 Euro in total for four nights and 0.75 Euro per bus ride with buses running 24/7. Also, there is Uber* in Warsaw, which is making it very easy and comfortable in case you don’t want to wait for public transport.

Food: There are vouchers for festival participants for both, lunch and dinner, for 10 Euro. You could also opt for the food court where you could get a meal including a drink for around 5 Euro. Just exit the hotel, cross the bridge and enter the building there. There is also another hotel in there, the Sound Garden Hotel, where a few people I know stayed. And one last tip: There is also Uber Eats if you want to have something else but don’t want to leave the venue.

 

Final Thoughts

Kizz Me More was a special festival for me. It was the first festival in Europe that I traveled to just for the festival. Normally, I include the destination in my travel plans and spend a few weeks at that place or at least somewhere in the area. But not this time. To be honest, I was a bit annoyed at times. The workshops were crowded, the parties were full of girls waiting to dance. It was a huge gender imbalance and probably not enough taxi dancers. I talked to many girls who said they won’t come again. But for me, in the end, there is just one thing that counts: the dances. And truth be told, I didn’t have one bad dance at Kizz Me More. I danced enough, probably like 5-6 hours per day and made new Kiz friends. That’s amazing and that’s why I will come back. I still hope that the gender balance will be better next time and that they put a limit on the number of people in workshops. Just my 2 cents.