What The Hell 2015 – fans' meet up review

Wydarzenie składało się z dwóch części – spotkania w mieście, na którym mógł się zjawić dosłownie każdy oraz zamkniętej imprezy objętej floręsowym dress codem.

Kinga Wichlińska

We’re pleased to announce that yet another date gets to be added to our fan club’s annual calendar – a day which will surely be remembered and celebrated in years to come! You made that Saturday the hottest day of summer (it was actually 40 degrees Celsius on that day). Once again, we, Polish fans, showed what we’re capable of and together we managed to do something absolutely groundbreaking. On 8th August, in sun-drenched Warsaw, Polish First Official Florence + The Machine Fan Club Meetup & Party WHAT THE HELL took place. To begin with, we’ve got to say that it has never even crossed our minds that everything that happened on that day was actually possible!

The event was made up of two parts: an open-air meeting, which anyone could attend, and a private party with an obligatory Flo-related dress code.

At the meeting, with more than a hundred fans attending (!), we decided to take advantage of the lovely Vistula bank landscape to prepare a birthday gift for one special person responsible for all the commotion – Florence, that is!

We did prove that nothing is impossible and so a hundred fans, much to awe of groups of bystanders, performed the How Big How Blue How Beautiful dance. Now, how cool is THAT? You can check out our moves below.

It is time to say something about the ultimate drawing card of the day, which was our WHAT THE HELL Party, with 160 fans attending. At 7 p.m., Warsaw district of Zoliborz was overrun with hordes of dressed-up people. What were the outfits like, you might wonder. Name it: Ceremonials-like dresses, vintage hats, shiny capes, flower crowns, wigs, Gatsby’s girls, even The Great Gatsby himself, too! With countless bags of our traditional glitter and a slightly less traditional amount of champagne involved, the entire club swayed and jumped to Florence + The Machine’s music. There were dances and there was joy, there were hearts moved and tears shed, and, even more importantly, there was a genuine feeling of unity. For those few hours we managed to bring an entire world to life. A world where we all belonged. A world where no one but us could belong. A place so distant, so incomprehensible to other people. Our own place.

When we left the club at 4 a.m. there was only one thing on our minds – it might have been the first, but it sure as hell hadn’t been the last Polish Florence + The Machine fan meeting.

Below, you can read a review from the event written my Monika. You can also visit the photo gallery with pictures from the event: HERE and you can take a look at pictures from our special photobooth HERE.

Stay tuned and see you next time! Thank you!

Translation: Daniel Wdowicz

Warsaw – the capital city of Poland, the place where the third polish concert of Florence and The Machine took place and that Saturday – one, huge frying pan. The meetup of our fan club was scheduled for one of the dog days, but nobody would ever think about resigning.

The place where we were all supposed to meet was the gate number 2 in front of which we were waiting for Orange Warsaw Festival over 1 year ago. We were a few minutes late so when we achieved the spot there already were a group of people gathered in the nearby “stadium forrest”. Excitement was growing and I couldn’t help but run when I saw familiar faces. There were people who I can talk to face to face just a few times a year so every opportunity is a gift.

We were standing there – hugging and laughing, while our admins were distributing meetup wristbands. The design is adorable – gold and black with some FATM sybols and “The first polish meetup of Florence and The Machine fans” written in HB font. Then the girls said some basic information about what we were going to do etc. They led us to the stairs in front of the National Stadium to make a photo. There were like 200 people! We were given fan club stickers with our logo which is incredible and everybody was proud to have on a phone, wallet, whatever. After that we set off to the beach on the Vistula river. The day before the girls had chosen a great spot under a huge bridge – we could hide from the sun and there was even a wind (!).

The plan was to make a flashmob and dance How Big How Blue How Beautiful. Frankly speaking I feared that half of those people would say “Naaah I will not dance, it’s ridiculous”. Much to my (and I guess the admins’ too) surprise everybody was keen to take part in it. We repeated all the moves with music together and started recording. There were a few captions, our cameraman (that is Ada – one of the admins) went on the bridge and recorded us from the top – pretty cool, huh? The girls said that there was no doubt that the band would share it when it’s done. We were also assured that the Machine knew about the meetup (then it turned out that @roadwhores and Rob liked fanclub photos on instagram, Chris also commented on it on Twitter, which is CRAZY!).

On the beach a guy from polish radio (Radio ZET) turned up and announced a contest. We had been informed earlier about it and the prizes – two posters and vinyl record of HBHBHB – all signed by Florence herself. First of all we had to throw some money to a can because it was all about charity action. Then we needed to send a text with an answer to the question “What is the date of Florence’s birthday and what is her Chinese zodiac sign?”. Six fans who were the fastest got to the final. There was a quiz. It was a great fun though.

After everything which was planned we left the beach, unfortunately. We were hungry and it was scorching hot. Every one went their own way and we were about to meet at the party. When we were back in the hostel we needed some time to chill out, but then we started getting ready for the What The Hell Party. As you may know everyone had to dress up like Florence or the Machine. There were girls in Ceremonials dresses and capes, Lungs glitter faces and Gatsby’s old sports. On our way to the club we were meeting on the tram stops more and more weirdly dressed flows. People were asking us “What’s that event?”.

On the spot Hannah Giannoulis (Ada) from luvluvluv welcomed us and asked for the tickets, her assistant was checking everyone on the guest list and lady from Ceremonials cover (Ola) was receiving parents’ permissions from adolescent participants. Then Florence who had just returned from the concert in Cafe De Paris, still wearing the outfit from Valentino (Michalina) led us through the club to show where we can leave our stuff and where the dance floor was.

Every detail was perfect. There were posters promoting the meetup, bunting, projector with concerts and fanclub projects and the most importantly – people! Different but the same, all connected by music.

The admins said that we had to wait few more minutes unlit everybody came and then they would invite us to the tiny stage. It was the beginning of the party so nobody would expect that in no time everyone would let their hair down. Nonetheless the DJ played Drumming Song – it made the dancefloor hotter than hell! After that the girls came onto the stage and officially welcomed us on the What The Hell Party. They started revealing what would be going on there. First of all – photobooth. Everyone was allowed to use it for free and take photos. Furthermore all the pictures would be then available online. Second of all – they announced that later on there would be a quiz and charades. They also mentioned that on the projector there would be some concerts and fanclub stuff as well. And last but not least – posters. It turned out that two posters which were almost white (just our logo in the middle and note about the meetup) were at our disposal. We were supposed to write on them some quotes, wishes, draw something and it would be handed to Florence. And it wasn’t over of surprices! The girls asked who didn’t have ticket for Florence and The Machine concert in Łódż (12.12.12) because they had got two from FATM’s management. They had to choose winners randomly – it was the fairest solution.

The party kicked off officially. Imagine pretty casual night in the club with friends. Add to this vision the flows only, glitter, fancy outfits and Florence and The Machine’s music. It was the greatest thing in the World. You could talk to other flows, meet some new friends, meet friends that you had already known but never seen in reality, fangirl, make a war Flobert vs. Florabella and so on. It seemed that it could last forever.

Then it came time for the quiz. There were two teams – Flobert and Florabella. The admins were the hosts – Ada was a master of ceremony, Michalina and Magda was writing down the points. We were asked plenty of phychoquestion like what were favourite Flo’s and Isa’s crisps, who had sewed the lungs for Lungs’ cover, what was the best band to play one the first date according to Flo, where the launch of Lungs had taken place and so on. Well it’s obvious that Flobert won the battle but to the team’s surprise the loser got prizes – Florence’s biographies – An Almighty Sound by Zoe Howe. Of course tthe whole Florabella team already had the books so they gave it to the flows who didn’t.

At midnight the girls started bringing on the stage bottles of champagne and we spontaneously started singing “Happy Birthday” (in polish ofc) and three other ridiculous songs. It just felt right to thank them for this great event, work and effort. However, besides celebrating the successful meetup they also wanted to announce the winner of the outfit competition. It was Adam Cąderek who looked just like Rob at Bestival 2010 – green shirt and trousers, golden cape, glitter on the face and he even had a fake guitar! The prize was the LOVE Magazine with Florence on the cover and bottle of champagne which he showered on us. Congrats again!

We were having a whale of time. I still can’t believe that I could participate in such a great party. We were all the on the dancefloor screaming our heads off with Florence and The Machine lyrics and not comprehending what was happening. Anyhow it couldn’t last forever, unfortunately. When Dog Days was played I knew what it meant – the end. When the music stopped filling the room, the girls went on the stage for the last time, thanked us for support and involvement. We gave them a great applause and just stood there because who would leave? They thanked us again and again, wished safe way back home and so on, but we couldn’t move as though we had been glued to the floor. Finally one girl approached our admins and started hugging them. We followed her. There were last pictures, last hugs, laughs, last words and it was all over.

No words can describe the atmosphere of this fan club. We are a family and such an event is like Christmas when everybody finally can gather. I believe that it will never change and meetups like this will be every year until the end of the World.

Monika Trzeciak