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Hans Henrik Albek
Band applications for the SPOT festival took
up quite a lot of room in the offices of ROSA
– in total 731 Danish and Nordic bands
applied this year.
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Mail bags and boxes stuffed with applications and CDs from Danish and Nordic bands took up a lot of space at the offices of the Danish Rock Council, ROSA, on Wed 18 Jan, the application deadline for the SPOT festival. 731 is the final number of band applications now that the many letters and packages from applying bands have been registered.
There is a marked increase in the interest in joining the line-up at the SPOT festival, an increase of 44 percent, to be exact. Last year, 506 acts applied – and this year is the third in a row that ROSA receives more than 500 applications.
'Above all, we are impressed by the comprehensive production and amount of energy and ambition that the music community shows here. During the following days, the selection committee will get its hands full in selecting the best performances. It is positive that the confidence in the SPOT festival as a platform hereby is accentuated', says Gunnar Madsen, manager of ROSA, which organizes the festival.
'However, to me it is slightly concerning that, on the one hand, we are to manage more than 40 percent more than last year and, on the other hand, that we notice a declining level of support from the goverment. I hope the 'fresh air' that the Minister of Culture, Brian Mikkelsen, allegedly wanted to breathe into Danish culture with the comprehensive reform of support for the arts, will also show in a renewal of the support for rythmic music. Evidently, I also have in mind the SPOT festival's basis as a promotion platform, just as it was described in the recently released Rambøll report. In any case, we are going to do everything we can to carry through SPOT 2006 to everyone's satisfaction.'
The external selection committee, from left:
Mads Mulvad, Carsten Holm, Jesper Brodersen
and Pernille Rosendahl.
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An external committee has now begun to select bands among the many applicants for the SPOT festival, and, once again this year, the committee consists of three competent people from the Danish music environment: Carsten Holm from the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, who, for a number of years, has been the host of the corporation's live radio transmissions from the festival and who is the daily radio host on P3 Public Søndag. Also in the committee, Pernille Rosendahl, the former key character of the late Danish success band, Swan Lee. Lastly, the committee comprises Mads Mulvad, the manager of the regional music venue, Studenterhuset in Ålborg. In addition, Jesper Brodersen from ROSA is the secretary for the committee.
Last year, the SPOT Festival featured 107 Danish and Nordic concerts.
The first of names for the festival – that takes place June 2-3 in and around Musikhuset Århus and Ridehuset together with other central music venues in Århus – will be released next month, and the complete program should be ready at the end of April. |
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