almost anything goes at the Woodstock Festival at Kostrzyn-nad-Odra While this might sound like many other big music festivals this one has something that makes it stand out: it is organised by a charity and the hundreds of thousands of attendees who take part in the revelry get in for free A group of revellers cheer during the festival organised by the medical NGO the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity Water flies as festival-goers dance in the mud A woman's hair flies as she dances in front of the main stage A young woman wears a surgical mask as she dances with the crowd A woman crowd-surfs in front of the main stage A couple kiss against a graffiti-covered wall A man and woman walk hand-in-hand as the sun sets It was a sweltering hot day and already late in the afternoon when I reached the small Polish border town of Kostrzyn-nad-Odra home to the Woodstock Station rock festival As I made my way along a forest road towards a military base on its outskirts I passed scores of bare-chested men who lay dotted around in the shade having clearly succumbed to a mixture of heat and hard liqueur I approached the throbbing roar of guitars beyond the forest with some apprehension believing I was in for a night of testosterone-induced aggression When I stepped out into the clearing I found myself at the edge of a mud mosh pit the size of a tennis court with a few dozen boys and girls in swim suits going absolutely bonkers to the sound of a Polish punk band Beyond it there was the main stage towering over a billowing cloud of dust thrown up by thousands of dancing metal-heads who were going equally off the rails Those in front of me chased one another through the knee-deep murky water tipping each other over (girls were the preferred targets) and rolling around in the sludge in what looked like Mad Max fighting scenes Every so often groups would be overcome by a communal fit of exercise mania and organise themselves in circles to do push-ups or crawl This is not a moment to be a distant observer I put one of my two cameras into my watertight rucksack (which I carried in anticipation of a summer thunderstorm) and stepped right in which I managed more or less by holding it high up in the air Only when I saw a possible picture did I dive into the mess that's a question of definition,” I replied Ten minutes later I was drenched and it was time to explore the rest of the festival ground but the overall mood was very peaceful and surprisingly photographer friendly but at German festivals people have the tendency to become overly pushy when alcohol and fun take their minds to ecstatic heights But here my camera elicited only smiles and embraces The promise of a good time at one of Europe's largest non-profit festivals must be the reason that some 100,000 Germans travel across the border each year to join their Polish neighbours for a weekend of rock contributing to the audience of hundreds of thousands that attended this year I believe that over this weekend people from the two countries make more contact than any official German-Polish friendship programme could ever achieve The festival is the brainchild of Polish journalist and social campaigner Jerzy Owsiak who some say is the second most famous Pole after Pope John Paul II He initiated the festival to say thank you to those who donated money to his GOCC charity organisation for child medical care Entry to Woodstock Station is free of charge all staff are volunteers and bands are merely paid expenses and a symbolic fee Owsiak says he wants to keep the character of the festival non-commercial but is also clear about who runs the show: “I like democracy That's why everything works,” he said in an interview with the German newspaper TAZ CA Immo exits non-core market Serbia with the sale of the 19,600 sqm office building Sava Business Center in Belgrade Both the sales price and the buyer are subject to confidentiality As the PBSA sector finally takes off in Poland it is now increasingly attracting international operators and investors Eurobuild CEE spoke to Xior's investment manager about why it has such confidence in the Polish market Residential developer Develia has signed a preliminary agreement to acquire all the shares in Bouygues Immobilier Polska the Polish subsidiary of Bouygues Immobilier ESA logistika has leased 15,000 sqm in Prologis Park Piotrków GLP has completed the development of its Wrocław V Logistics Centre and has received a BREEAM rating of Outstanding Panattoni has secured EUR 40 mln in financing from BNP Paribas for the development of Panattoni Park Sosnowiec IV Newgate Investment (NGI) and Redkom Development are developing a large retail park in Bydgoszcz Deutsche Hypo – NORD/LB Real Estate Finance has provided a five-year green loan to Olivia Seven for the refinancing of the Olivia Prime A office building in Gdańsk-Oliwa communications and security company Motorola Solutions has signed a five-year lease renewal 18,000 sqm at the Green Office complex in Kraków’s Podgórze district Falling interest rates and easing monetary policy across the eurozone and CEEi are boosting investor confidence in the region’s commercial real estate market reveals Colliers in its ‘Beyond Real Estate | Economy’ report Panattoni is to build the Panattoni Park Mainz Süd in Erbes-Büdesheim bei Alzey Axi Immo has presented its latest report “Warsaw Office Market – Q1 2025 The market opened in 2025 on a steady footing with a notable increase in leasing activity and a modest decline in vacancy landlords continue to focus on upgrading existing assets and prioritizing quality over quantity Convenience store chain Żabka has officially opened a new logistics centre in Kąty Wrocławskie The first stage of the development will serve 1,500 stores in the Wrocław area Romanian Post has leased over 5,000 sqm of logistics space in CTPark Bucharest to serve as its temporary regional courier and logistics hub for Bucharest JLL has announced the sale and leaseback of two properties by a manufacturing company in a deal worth over PLN 1 bln Warehouse developer CTP is adding 2,000 sqm to its Clubco coworking development in Brno pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank has extended an investment facility to PineBridge Benson Elliot for the Diuna Office Park in Warsaw The hotel market in Bucharest continued its recovery in 2024 while the ADR has finally surpassed the milestone of EUR 100 Torus has announced its All.inn students’ residence concept that is soon to appear on ul The Polish and Danish governments have entered preliminary discussions for the construction of a tunnel between Szczecin and Copenhagen underneath the Baltic sea The Warsaw - Łódź stretch will be the first section of the High Speed Railway in Poland It is on this route that a new station will be built in Brzeziny a district town hitherto deprived of any access to rail transport Ghelamco has renewed its partnership with Polish railway operator PKP SA and its real estate division Xcity Investment related to the redevelopment of the Warszawa Gdańska train station in Warsaw and managed services provider and owner of data centres in Poland is expanding its colocation project for AI and high-performance computing solutions launched in January this year The company announced that it is working to increase the target capacity of its campus in Poznań by almost 2 times The investment programme until 2030 worth more than PLN 1.5 bln has been approved for Katowice's Wojciech Korfanty Airport The programme will include more than 20 projects with the construction of a passenger terminal as well as taking into account changes to the airport's transport system Electrum is building a 200 MW solar farm for EDP Renewables The project will be built on 245 hectares in the Przykona municipality in the Greater Poland voivodeship The investment is being carried out in record time of less than a year The engineering work is scheduled to be completed in autumn 2023 Mazowiecki province has issued a ZRID permit for Mostostal Warszawa to construct a 12 km section of the S7 expressway between Załuski and Modlin Swiss railway terminal operator Hupac has completed the development of a railway terminal in Brwinów A tender has been announced to reconstruct pl Mostostal Warszawa and Acciona Construcción are starting work on a 10 km section of the S19 from Rzeszów Południe to Babica Development work on another section of the S74 expressway has begun with the signing of a PLN 557.7 mln contract to design and build the 16.4 km stretch of road between the Przełom/Mniów and Kielce Zachód junctions A permit has been issued for the construction of the ZRID S19 expressway from Rzeszów to Babica The European Investment Bank has loaned Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego EUR 250 mln for its Krajowy Fundusz Drogowy [National Road Fund] to build the S3 expressway from Świnoujście to Szczecin A 20.17 km section of the S61 expressway has been opened between Wysokie and Raczki Permission has been granted to open the road tunnel that forms part of Warsaw’s southern bypass running underneath the city’s Ursynów district Czech construction group Geosan has finalised the 100 pct acquisition of Slovak construction firm Váhostav – SK Czech industrial developer CTP is to build a cargo terminal at the airport in Oradea in western Romania after being selected to carry out the project in a tender held in August has won two Prague metro contracts – the refurbishment of Jiřího z Poděbrad station and the construction of the first section of line D of the underground railway Austrian construction firm Strabag has been awarded an EUR 111 mln contract to build a 19 km dual carriageway between Oradea and the A3 motorway Warbud is to rebuild a road bridge over the river Warta in Kostrzyn nad Odrą Spring has very much sprung and everywhere is bathed in the first warm sunshine of the year I have in the back of my mind the terrifying fo .. The Polish warehouse market has finally stabilised after the post-pandemic boom but new challenges and opportunities are on the horizon for the sector UBM Development has been given the go-ahead for the first wooden office building in Poland: Timber Park in Poleczki Business Park in Warsaw The office market in Warsaw is currently experiencing a period of stability in terms of supply and take-up Recent data on overall tenant activity indicates that clients in the cap .. Receive all the latest information from the world of real estate by e-mail the construction of the Aura residential building designed by Robert Konieczny's office KWK Promes According to a report by research company Spectis “Construction companies in Poland 2025-2030” the total revenues of the 300 leading construction gro .. The Globalworth Foundation has provided the authorities in Bucharest with office space for a Covid vaccination centre Panattoni BTS and Commercecon together support the establishment of the second Centaurus Foundation centre in Poland to help horses and other animals intends to focus on operations in other reg .. Six class A office buildings in the PRO Portfolio which is jointly owned by PineBridge Benson Elliot and Sharow Capital have been granted BREEAM In-U .. Who won this year's 14th edition of the Eurobuild Awards The jury and guests gathered at the Double Tree by Hilton hotel in Warsaw chose this year's .. Enjoy the last set of recordings with comments straight from this year's MIPIM we asked experts from our home country for their input will take place on 9-10 April 2025 at the Norblin Factory Event Hall in W .. we invite you to hot episode of the "Eye to eye" podcast The UN Nansen Refugee Award award will go to Poland for the first time According to the office of the UNHCR High Commissioner this year's regional wi .. Czech developer CTP has been granted a EUR 200 mln loan from the European Investment Bank for the roll-out of its large-scale solar panel installation .. while the ADR has finally surpassed the milestone .. Jarosław Szanajca plans to resign from the position of president of the management board of Dom Development at the end of the year and join the superv .. The Polish and Danish governments have entered preliminary discussions for the construction of a tunnel between Szczecin and Copenhagen underneath the .. Viterra has moved into its ​​new 1,500 sqm offices in Olivia Prime part of the Olivia Centre business complex in Gdańsk Panattoni has acquired two properties near Gothenburg The brownfield sites will be replaced by a modern 43,000 sqm facility Contemporary cities are grappling with the challenge of fostering dynamic growth while alleviating environmental pressures Colliers has taken over the management of the Studio B office building located in the Warsaw Wola district The property is owned by Stena Real Estate .. The University of Warsaw has signed a contract with the general contractor for a project at ul The new building will house the faculti .. Velis Real Estate Tech is officially changing its name to Singu adopting the title of its property management product the construction of the Panattoni Park Unterfranken has officially started The woods between Poland and Germany are rife with treasures and evidence of the terrible tragic events that took place there when the Second World War raged for six years And while the land has been peaceful and quiet for more than 75 years now there are still objects under the ground that speak to the conflict waged there objects like a cache of weapons recently found by a group of explorers from Poland who spend their time looking for treasures such as these On the trail of this bounty for more than four years They were given a clue to the loot’s location by a passerby on a bicycle four years ago who took an interest in the equipment and tools the men were using on another project the gentleman told the explorers that a relative had once suggested where a store of weapons could be found “He said his grandfather had shown him a place in the woods where he buried a deposit of firearms in the 1950s,” explained group leader Pawel Piatkiewicz to the local media on November 30th It took several years to get permission to scour the woods outside of Rzepin the team went out with metal detectors and other devices to help in their search It didn’t take too long for them to discover that the stranger had told them the truth the treasures included a dozen weapons from the war nine German service revolvers and German Mauser rifles most “eureka!” discovery was a French made Lebel R35 rifle All the guns are now being cleaned and restored and will eventually go on display in the Kostrzyn nad Odra Fortress which shows important historic items from both world wars Piatkiewicz and his group are not certain who buried the guns, or why, but they advanced a theory or two. Possibly, whomever owned the weapons did not have a legal permit, and decided to bury them rather than turn them over to the authorities. As for owners; they suggest that the guns may have belonged to anti-Soviet resistance fighters who remained active in the region long after World War II – right into the 1950s But the explorers cannot know for sure who owned them or why these treasures were buried in the forest “We can only assume that the settlers who arrived here at the end of World War II might have felt a threat in new Times were very turbulent.” And once the climate calmed down whomever had the guns felt safe enough to dispose of them quickly by simply digging a hole and chucking the weapons into it no one can ever know for sure; the stranger on the bike told them that his grandfather was deceased There have been many discoveries relating to the war found in Poland; it was the first country the Nazis invaded and occupied before the formal announcement of war was declared a notorious diary was supposedly located beneath a palace that holds secrets about where the Germans buried billions in gold bars those who care for the grounds continue to find hidden spoons buttons and other ephemera of the inhabitants of those terrible places Another Article From Us: Researchers Nearly Finished With Excavation of Viking Longship in Norway It isn’t surprising that the explorers found a cache of weapons; the only question now is how many more awful reminders of that global conflict remain hidden under the soil Ian Harvey is one of the authors writing for WAR HISTORY ONLINE