Reflections on 2021 and Grauzone festival 2021 the online edition
2021 was something different and it brought plenty of opportunities as well as the challenges upon us.
While we were lucky to have Grauzone festival 2020 take place as one of the last festivals just one month before the coronavirus forced all festivals, concerts and other cultural activities to shut down, the year 2021 taught us how the unexpected is the only thing we could be sure to expect. The eight edition of our multidisciplinary festival took place online for the first time ever. In a short amount of time we had to rearrange the entire festival. This did not come without its own challenges but the online edition also brought us many new opportunities which we learned a lot from.
Instead of the usual attributes we know from years of experience with arranging a large-scale physical festival, the production of an online edition shone a new light on how to put together a festival. We almost felt like we’d assumed the roles of film directors. For example, in order to capture the atmosphere and the acts in an appropriate way, we had to learn about stage lighting in relation to the decor and set design.
One of the highlights was Amenra’s beautiful and intimate acoustic set recorded in Johan Tahon’s church studio setting in Zwalm, Belgium where he crafts plaster and ceramic sculptures on a daily basis. Working with a Belgian crew at the special location also brought us new contacts from and strengthened our relations outside the Netherlands for which we are grateful. The unique performance was recorded specifically for this eight online edition of Grauzone festival and as a total surprise to us, the recording went viral, bringing entirely new audiences to us from outside the Netherlands.
The goal of the online edition was not to just make a live recording of each act to be put online, but rather to create an experience that combines music with the arts. Artists were invited to participate in the live concerts, for example the psychedelic set pieces by artist Daphne Karstens and the light decor by Roeland Schuijren in collaboration with Spill Gold’s incredible performance or the performance by members of Kikagaku Moyo & Bo Ningen, composed especially for the Grauzone online edition. Spanish artist Susanna Inglada created beautiful artworks which transformed Global Charming’s show into an integrative art and performance piece.