Spectaculare Festival connects music with other forms of visual art such as film, theatre, video art, and photography. The aim is to present the latest trends in the field of audio-visual culture. The festival was founded in 2014 by Radio 1 DJ and music promoter, Josef Sedloň.
What is the thought or creative process behind selecting acts for the Festival?
Josef: “It’s very spontaneous, sometimes someone suggests me an act or I will listen to an unknown artist and I will bring them, or it could be an artist that has performed before and I’ve grown to respect their art so I invite them again. It’s so spontaneous, sometimes I’m inspired during the year.”
Ewan: “Spectaculare festival has been so far a festival about music. Josef and Jakob and the other people from the team asked me if there was a dance performance or a live theatre performance that I would recommend. This gave me the chance to bring to the festival some artist that I had spotted during my travels.”
Are you already thinking of next years acts?
Josef: “Not Now, I also do music infinity which I run throughout the year, So I mostly prepare for Spectaculare in the second half of the year”
Ewan: ”I would hope to build next years festival in reputation as a multi-discipline festival, this is the first time that there is so much dance in the festival. I Hope that we will get the reputation of doing something new and that next year we will have even more financial support to bring even bigger names.”
Is there a point where you know a project is going to be a hit?
Josef: “Sometimes I think this way and it doesn’t work out that way with various projects I have done, for example with the festival, Catching Flies or Poteh whose music is more accessible and are quite popular/commercial but the sales have not been as high as we expected, on the other hand, Ambient music is the one which has sold more tickets, so it can be quite unpredictable.
Ewan: Is important to know when the audience is pleased with the work that you’ve presented. But when you’re working with artists that are taking new directions, you should give to these artists the chance to listen to their inner voice and not the audience applause.
Do you have a prediction for the Prague Arts Scene?
Josef: I think Prague will be like the new Berlin, not so much London, London for me is like Babylon (laughs). I used to travel there a lot in the 90s and I found it to be too much. I like people who like to push boundaries, I’m quite open-minded and for me it’s important to find music that is healing, not to create something that is ineffective or simply creating for a shock factor.
Ewan: I’ve been saying this for years, The old repertory theatre system has got to at some point crack or slows down because it eats up a lot of the public resources for performance. And I think there are far more interesting and experimental directions that the arts can go, and they aren’t necessarily going that way because so much of the funding is going to more of the old style theatres.
What advice would you have for up and coming creatives in Prague, or those thinking to move here for their creative careers?
Josef: “I would definitely encourage them [to pursue creativity and the arts]. Prague is very beautiful and it is a cultural city with a rich history. Artistically we are a capable people, we were suppressed by 50 years of communism and it leads people to fear and be less open-minded, So I do feel we need to encourage more people to be creative because in Prague we are capable people. I think we have a lot of potentials to build the arts scene,
Ewan: “Don’t be too shy with the language, my experience was that I had to move out the expat scene for a while, and it’s far easier now to do what you want to do as a creative person. Eastern Europe is really neglected. There’s still a lot to be discovered.
Interviewed by Lilato Madiri & Roberta Zoch.
