It’s the simple things that work…
So, The Blue Festival just finished in Aalborg (link) and it seemed at least to me to be a huge success. It’s incredible how well it works - it is so simple a design - and yet so powerfull.
For those of you that don’t know what the Blue Festival is about - it is a jazz and blues festival spanning af week with lots of small concerts spread out across the city of Aalborg with both local and international artists. These bands play both small stages put up especially for the occasion and at night also all the local beerhouses and bars. I’m a huge fan of blues and dabble a bit in it myself.
What is so beautifull about these events is that all the concerts are free. The only money you pay is to support the event and you do that by buying your drinks at the bars that line the scenes. So, you get to go around listening to a number of different bands - try out the different atmospheres and there are several advantages to this form of festivals:
First of all - you get to hear a lot of names that you’d probably never go to hear if you had to pay for it. A lot of less-known bands thrive on this - and audiences get to appreciate the less-than-mainstream music. These bands don’t get to play a lot of gigs in Denmark normally - and are usually very focused and basically play their behinds off.
Secondly, since there are 5 or so stages - there is something for everyone almost all of the time - you can go around trying out a band. When you find out that it maybe isn’t really your style - you just go to the next concert. You don’t feel as compelled to stay the full concert since you haven’t paid to get in - and you basically do what is fun for yourself with no regards to how much you are spending. And bands get to try out things they might never have tried otherwise. One concert had three guitarists and one of them trashed a string. The two remaining just improvised a number that they thought might work. People are a lot more forgiving when they know that it’s free.
And all the people you meet are friendly and very diverse - you have everyone from every walk of life - and they get along. You can only get normal beer - and the atmosphere is very relaxed. I can’t remember ever seeing any trouble - and they have no security. Of course the police is alerted that there is a lot of activities - but still, spirits are high and everybody is happy whereever you look.
The only ones getting paid at the end of the day are the huge number of bands - there are maybe 20-30 volunteers that do this because they want to support the event. Local bars serve cheap supper and prosper from all the guests that spend. So thank you everyone for a great week. I’ll definetly be back next year. My fianc? took a couple of pictures capturing some of the excitement here.