Eric Burdon and The Animals on Wyspa Słodowa: “The House of the Rising Sun” and a celebration of the guitar

On 1 May, Eric Burdon will perform on Wyspa Słodowa with the iconic The Animals, while Guinness Guitar Record participants will play together one of the greatest hits of all time, “The House of the Rising Sun”.

This year’s 12th Guitar Guinness World Record, part of Thanks Jimi Festival, promises to be particularly interesting. Every year, the event gathers guitar fans from across Poland and Europe in Wrocław’s Market Square. Its main attraction is a joint attempt to break the Guinness World Record by playing “Hey Joe”, made famous by Jimi Hendrix, together. The festival becomes increasingly international each year, as shown by international media broadcasts and the popularity of its online coverage. Scenes from Wrocław’s Market Square are broadcast by Al Jazeera, RTL and America’s largest network, CBS, among others.

The Wrocław event’s growing popularity is unsurprising, especially since several thousand guitars playing a legendary song together make an enormous impression. “What makes our event special is that festival participants are also its performers,” says its creator, Leszek Cichoński. “I hope this year we can beat the record we set in 2012, when no fewer than 7,273 guitarists joined us in Wrocław’s Market Square. The Guitar Guinness World Record brings generations together, and this year we are placing particular emphasis on families playing together. So alongside our signature ‘Hey Joe’, participants will play a hit by this year’s star that every generation knows: ‘Dom wschodzącego słońca’,” reveals Cichoński.

Thanks Jimi Festival is about more than breaking a record, however. The event is accompanied by concerts featuring outstanding rock stars. This year’s headliner is Eric Burdon, frontman of British group The Animals, who introduced British music to transatlantic audiences alongside The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Dave Clark Five and The Kinks. Their biggest hits include rock classics “Sky Pilot”, “Monterey”, “It's My Life”, “Don't Bring Me Down” and the aforementioned “Dom wschodzącego słońca”, which guitarists gathered in the Market Square will tackle.

The Animals’ history is exceptionally turbulent. Their beginnings date to 1958, when the musicians performed as the Alan Price Rhythm and Blues Combo, although the name soon changed to The Animals. The group split in late 1966. Two reunions followed, the latest in May 1983, when the original line-up appeared together for the first time since the split. This led to “Ark” and a worldwide tour, which included a December 1983 Wembley concert captured on video. The group finally broke up at the end of 1984.

Since then, Eric Burdon has performed both solo and as Eric Burdon & The Animals. Ranked among the greatest singers of all time by The Rolling Stone, he has 31 studio albums recorded with The Animals and the other groups he has worked with over the years. His extensive discography also includes 13 live albums, alongside hundreds of concerts worldwide. His Thanks Jimi Festival appearance will be an extraordinary opportunity to see an international music legend live.

The Animals will play on Wyspa Słodowa on 1 May alongside the previously announced British hard-rock legends Uriah Heep.