Independent music festivals, resilience and SPF 50: two days at the TY-CO conference at the steaming Arroz Estúdios
Words: Miguel Barbot, Photos: Miguel Barbot / Estúdio Ofício (MB) and Luca Villax / Arroz Estúdios (LV)
The TY-CO crew (LV)
As September drew to a close, I was in Lisbon for another TY-CO: Typologies of Community event, a two-day conversation with independent festival organisers from Portugal, Cyprus, the UK and Italy.
It took place in Arroz Estúdios’ new space, in a makeshift conference room set up in the shade, over two of those late-summer days with the thermometer hitting 36°C. I guess this is a TY-CO thing to test our resilience, remember our trip to Nicosia last year?
Happy crowd in a steaming Lisboa up to 35º (LV)
The line-up of speakers brought together some of the people doing genuinely interesting work across Europe, including our dear Hugo Branco of VIC Aveiro Arts House - Festival dos Canais, Break in Case of Emergency, AMP - Jens and Emma from Waking Life, Sérgio Hydalgo from Vale Perdido, Wil Troup from Watching Trees (UK), Constantinos Kyprianou from Ikaria State of Mind (GR/CY), Martha Georgiou from ABR Fest (CY), Steven MacKay from Rare effect, Reset!, and Anna Zó from Music Innovation Hub / Linecheck (IT), who joined the rest of the group by video call.
From left to right: Constantinos, Martha, Jens and Emma. (MB)
Top: Wil from Wathing Trees. After Will, clockwise: Cátia Ciríaco (Arroz Estúdios), Hugo Branco (Vic Aveiro Arts House) and our host Kaitlyn Davies from Well Read. (MB)
A place in the shade to listen to Sérgio’s recount of Vale Perdido
Over the two days we discussed what makes independent festivals resilient and heard plenty of stories that were not always easy to listen to. The truth is that without major sponsors, substantial public funding or ticket prices beyond the reach of working people’s wages, financial sustainability is a thing very hard to achieve. Without institutional weight or deep pockets, everything takes longer, licences are harder to obtain and visibility is limited.
Still, we also heard positive stories about how many of these organisers are diversifying and finding parallel sources of income, from hospitality and European funding to year-round bar takings and even wine importing. That last one struck me as an excellent idea.
Ikaria State of Mind, co-organized by our friend Constantinos from Alternative Brain Rules: a tiny tiny budget, cult following, community driven.
On this subject, you can listen to the episode of our podcast Ossos do Ofício, recorded for the TY-CO project, in which I interviewed Hugo Branco about how he set up a creative centre in the heart of Aveiro and how he organised it to become financially sustainable.
TY-CO brings different cultural communities into conversation — from grassroots initiatives to established festivals — to understand the challenges they face, what they are trying to build, and how we can come together in more sustainable ways.
TY-CO is an EU project funded under the Creative Europe Programme CREA-CULT-2024-COOP-1. The project is a transcultural collaboration between ABR-Alternative Brains Rule (CY), Barbot Bernardo (PT), Arroz Estudios (PT), Loonatiks Design Crew (GR).
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
