Atlantic / Nowy Harem

This is the venue that KPW held their shows in 2017, and later from 2022 onwards.

As of 2024, the current name of this venue is Klub Nowy Harem (New Harem Club). It's the second (hence "new") location of music club Harem. That venue was located in Gdynia's Waterfront shopping center, previously known as Gemini, which was demolished in 2019.

History

Before 1990

The building itself dates back to 1934, erected to host an art gallery by painter Marian Mokwa. That makes it not much younger than the city of Gdynia itself, built in the 1920s and gaining its town priviledges in 1926. The art gallery was dedicated to marine art, by Mokwa and other painters. Later, a cinema was added to the art gallery, to draw more visitors. That cinema was named Lido.

Just before WWII broke out, the cinema closed because of a fire caused by a malfunctioning chimney. When Germans occupied Gdynia, the art gallery was closed, but its cinema function was retained. The name was also changed to "Goten" (Goths, as in the medieval Germanic people), along with the city itself, renamed from earlier "Gdingen" to "Gotenhafen" (Harbour of the Goths), to purge any Slavic history.

After the war ended, the new authorities reclaimed the building from Mokwa, and renamed the cinema to "Wolność" (Liberty). The repertoire at that time was only Soviet movies, e.g. Sekretar Raykoma. Later, the cinema was rebranded again, to the fairly neutral "Atlantic". Other names proposed at that time were "Moskwa" (Moscow) or "Leningrad" (today's St. Petersburg). This version of the cinema functioned till 1990.

After 1990

In the newly democratic, free market but poor Poland, the cinema was closed (like many smaller cinemas all over the country). The building was used as a movie warehouse, then leased as a thrift shop selling second-hand clothes. Some time later, it was replaced by a supermarket, well located in the center of Gdynia. An internet cafe also functioned there at some point in the 2000s.

2014: Music club

This state lasted for more than 20 years. In the late 2000s, Sławomir Łuba, a music promoter and creator of Gdynia's successful music club Pokład, was interesting in opening another music club in the venue. Not much came out of these plans, until 2014 when Pokład closed down. That year, Łuba and partners managed to reopen Atlantic as a music club. It operated successfully until late 2017 (which is when KPW first held events there), then sat silent and empty for a number of months. In 2018, it was again Łuba with new investors who renovated and reopened the club.

However, after a few months they decided to lease the building to a new tenant, which turned out to be club Harem, seeking to relocate from Waterfront. Under the new name, they reopened on October 13, 2018. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, not much happened there in 2020 and 2021, but with the restrictions lifting, concerts and other events were again held.

KPW's return

Between 2018 and 2021 KPW did not use the location, as they had a bigger venue to host their shows: the Hall Of Games. In 2022 they returned to the club and since then held most events in there, starting from Arena 18 (excluding shows in other cities, such as Pyrkon in Poznań).

References

Events

2025

2024

2023

2022

2017
  • Nowy Harem in late 2024.
    Ville Paananen
  • Cinema "Atlantic" in the 1950s. The banner above the entrance says "Soviet cinema days".
    MojaGdynia.com