On Saturday 30th April SPOT Festival 2016 expands with several stages by and IN the river in the heart of Aarhus, together with other venues across the city. It will be a series of cultural opportunities – including numerous free events.
The expansions by the river have seen the light of day due to close cooperation and partnership with the City of Aarhus, which has agreed to a three-year cooperation deal that aims to rethink Aarhus as a cultural festival venue. As a result SPOT Festival 2016 will be present and visible all over downtown Aarhus, creating a unique musical atmosphere and flooding its residents with an abundance of cultural opportunities. Like the river runs through the city, music will appear in different locations all the way from venue Voxhall via department store Magasin and a stage IN the river (!) to Dokk1 (see top illustration).
– Saturday is a day where the city is full of people, so there’s a chance for us to get the music out to a large crowd. We have access to great music and would like to share that. We want to present the city as an alternative festival venue. For SPOT it’s about marking our strong brand, but for the city itself it’s about showing how many strings it can play on in supporting the music, says head of SPOT Festival Gunnar Madsen.
“The River Stages”
Saturday April 30
Department store Magasin will act as venue to Denmark’s biggest songwriting camp ‘Aarhus Calling’. Drop by to experience talented Nordic songwriters with international class blend in with the department store’s Saturday buzz. Read more about ‘Aarhus Calling’ here.
The SPOT Royal stage in the middle of the river in front of Magasin will let the music out in the city’s shopping atmosphere on Saturday afternoon. The programme will act as a taste of what SPOT Festival has to offer – including both Danish and Nordic artists with international potential.
Dokk1 is Aarhus’ new multimedia center. Under the theme “Music is language” it will serve as a setting for a versatile programme compiled in collaboration with Folkeuniversitet Aarhus – the focus will be on exploring how music works as an instrument for language and communication. The many rooms of the beautiful building will host concerts as well as debates, movies and lectures. Among the musical contributors in Dokk1 are Kill J, Ida Gard and Moddi (NO).
The cafés/bars Castenskiold, FF, Sway and Fidels are going to present a musical set-up for Saturday afternoon in cooperation with SPOT Festival and other contributors from the Danish music scene. Follow the announcements for the line-up at spotfestival.dk/en.
The garden behind Voxhall og Atlas will be the venue of the day party FolkSPOT, where focus will on the Nordic folk scene. Including a performance by MC Per Vers who will freestyle on electronic folk music.
The other activities:
Thursday 28 April – Saturday 30 April
As has been the case the previous years Musikhuset Aarhus, SCC, Godsbanen (Åbne Scene), Radar, Headquarters, Voxhall and Atlas are our main stages, with more than 150 concerts on Friday and Saturday. In addition, the newly opened venue TAPE presents a string of acts throughout the festival, including a full program on Thursday.
Friday 29 April – Sunday 1 May
In the area by Ridehuset and in the garden in front of Musikhuset the whole city and the international music tourists are invited to chill-out in the ‘OPEN FESTIVAL COURT’. Here it will be possible to enjoy food and vinyl markets, various DJs, a lounge environment, etc.
Sunday 1 May
In collaboration between the art cinema Øst for Paradis and SPOT Festival, Sunday will offer a wide range of movie and music experiences. Øst for Paradis provides the movies and SPOT brings in the music for the breaks with in-between showcases.
Also, read more here about some of the exciting and innovative special events during the festival – focusing on rethinking the ways of expressing music.
