“The competition did everything it could, pro-government media tried to interfere, but we achieved a huge success,” said Tomasz Sakiewicz, president of the station, speaking about Wystrzałowy Sylwester (“Explosive New Year’s Eve”) with TV Republika. The mayor of Chełm, where the event took place, pointed out in turn that such large-scale events held in a relatively small city restore a sense of dignity to its residents.
The night from Wednesday to Thursday was filled with exuberant celebrations in Chełm. Explosive New Year’s Eve with TV Republika drew crowds into dancing. The station’s president, Tomasz Sakiewicz, summed up the event on the program Gość Dzisiaj (“Today’s Guest”).
“The best New Year’s Eve on this planet. We started New Year’s Eve at all because Poland begins in Chełm […] Millions of people in front of their television sets, several thousand people in the town square, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, on YouTube and online. A huge success,” he said.
As he added, “the competition did everything it could – some kind of crisis teams, they brought in stars, spent tens of millions. There was hate; some intellectually disabled person on Onet was asking, ‘Who is this New Year’s Eve against?’ Against no one – for you, for the public, so that we can be together.”
“We wanted to celebrate with everyone, because joy is above divisions, and we want you to be with us in good times and bad. When we celebrate, we all celebrate together. We don’t look at political colors,” the head of Republika emphasized.
“Restoring the Dignity of Residents”
The mayor of Chełm, Jakub Banaszek, stated that a New Year’s Eve celebration is not a place for doing politics, which is why there was none.
“Unfortunately, many people, or many media outlets, had a problem from the outset with Republika organizing New Year’s Eve in Chełm for two reasons: Republika, because of the competition, and Chełm, a smaller city. Until now, a monopoly on organizing such events was held by large or well-known cities like Zakopane. New Year’s Eve celebrations had never been organized in small or medium-sized cities like Chełm, and this is also about restoring dignity to our residents and showing them respect,” he said.
Banaszek stressed that the residents of Chełm, like those of all Polish cities, are open.
“Yesterday’s celebration showed one thing: incredible attendance. Here on site, several thousand people, in a city of fewer than 60,000 residents. I read that in Katowice there were over 20,000 residents, in an agglomeration of over three million, while in a city of just over 50,000 there were almost 15,000 of us,” he noted.
The local government official pointed out that the event in Chełm had an incomparably smaller budget than major events that received funding from state-owned companies.
“Every New Year’s Eve in Poland is co-financed by local governments, but only the City of Chełm, the Lublin Voivodeship local government, and Republika were reproached for this, while no one mentioned that even larger sums were being committed to other, competing events,” he said.
“And what did we show yesterday? An amazing atmosphere, great fun, a beautiful, well-directed spectacle, music that swept crowds into celebration – here in Chełm, but also millions in front of their television sets,” he said.
“Everyone Found Something for Themselves”
Editor Sakiewicz did not hide the fact that preparations for the event took several months.
“The initial preparations began two or three months ago, and the legal ones even earlier. All of this was very open, in fact, because the media reported on it. The media that support the government interfered as much as they could, tried to intimidate local officials, but it didn’t work. We succeeded, because people want to celebrate with us, people want to be with us. When there are millions of people who want to be with us, nothing can stand in the way,” he declared.
“Stars came here from all over the world, we had a laser show, which others often didn’t. It was indeed an incredibly technologically advanced undertaking, but we also tried to find music that you would like, that would reach your hearts. And I think we succeeded, because one person likes this, another likes that, but generally speaking, everyone found something for themselves,” he said.