Hey Hivers and EU4YANs!
Last weekend we completed our first edition of the EU4YA Street Music Festival in Berlin! It's truly remarkable that we were able to pull such a festival off given all of the circumstances. The idea for the festival first sprung up in late May, when we first met with the AG City west and spoke about doing a version of our EU4YA showcase/workshop in Charlottenburg. They had shared their intent to "make the west of Berlin cool again", and knew that our groups could help them achieve that goal. Having spent years traveling around Europe playing different festivals, we could cherry pick some of our favorite formats, while also learning from the mistakes of festivals past. This was a true recipe for success!
The festival took place from 15-17 July, 2021, and we estimate we had somewhere between 5-10k visitors throughout the course of those 3 days. This number is quite hard to track, and not truly significant given the format of the festival, but none the less, it's impressive for our first run! This week we are the talk of the town, a lot of people are still buzzing about what took place in Breitscheidplatz last weekend and already we are fielding calls about next year and possibly organizing more events. It's a great sign for the future of our collective!
**More About the Festival: **
*In the last few decades the cultural landscape of Europe has developed quietly in a wonderful way. One of the cornerstones of European culture is the “piazza culture”, which stands for the diverse art forms in large public spaces.
EU4YA emerged from the need to help shape the meaning of a European cultural identity and to legitimize the integrative cultural renaissance. Berlin’s place as a cultural capital of continental Europe, is in large part because of its role in this cultural renaissance.
The EU4YA Street Music Festival represents a colorful and diverse Europe of today and believes that the streets of Berlin are the ideal setting to initiate such a festival. West Berlin was once a major force in the city’s cultural movement. In the last few decades, as massive commercial development became a priority for a rapidly growing city, the cultural scene has migrated further and further east. What the pandemic has shown us, however, is that the relationship between culture and industry is symbiotic.*
"BE EXCELLENT TO EACHOTHER"
Luca Shredding his new guitar!
Daiana being her powerful self during their set!
