Magneet Festival lays claim to being ‘the first crowdsourced festival of its kind in Europe’. Inspired by Burning Man – the annual self-reliance experiment, whose 2013 edition commences in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert from Monday, 26 August – and seeking to add to such established endeavours with a specific focus on contemporary trends and technologies, Magneet developed out of an idea which the artist Jesse Limmen put into practice several years ago at the Landjuweel Festival in nearby Ruigoord. As part of the festival, Limmen asked members of the audience for some physical contribution – be it a song, a poetry recital, an improvised dance, any spontaneous creative performance – in return for a free beer.
Extending across four weekends from August to September, Magneet Festival aims to advance this concept of audience participation. Indeed, the ‘Magneet Philosophy’ is summarised as ‘No Spectators, Only Participators’: the festival’s potential audience members are encouraged to become the festival itself. People can sign up to the Magneet website via their social media accounts, then pitch initiatives for performances, stalls and workshops. Provided the idea is achievable, visitors to the site are then able to vote for their favourite initiatives, with the festival’s organisers helping to make them a reality.
So Magneet Festival features a diversity of musical artists and musical sets, dance, outdoor theatre, performance art, and art installations; a range of stalls selling everything from vintage food, smoothies and churros to jewellery and feathers; and practitioners offering a shave and a beer, a new life for old clothing, and how-to lessons in graffiti. While this variety is a characteristic of the festival, each day is given a broad theme, with focuses on jazz, hip hop and R&B, techno and electronic music; a day devoted to the colour pink; and one day set aside for walking barefoot on the festival’s artificial sand.
Magneet Festival is located on the eastern tip of Amsterdam’s Zeeburg island. As is the case with Burning Man, the festival has a ‘leave no trace’ policy, meaning everything constructed over its course must be dismantled and the area left as clean as – if not cleaner than – it was prior to its use. Visitors can set up tents at the nearby Zeeburg camping site. The festival’s grand opening is this evening; and the festival will continue across every Friday, Saturday and Sunday until Sunday, 15 September. Tickets cost €12.50 a day; or €75 for unfettered access.
http://www.magneetfestival.nl/
amsterdamarm 