With the demise of the acclaimed Accelerator festival and the Jazz Festival moving indoors, the Stockholm festival summer looked a little bleak. But knights in shining armour Luger are preparing to present the new Stockholm Music & Arts festival, with an abundance of treats for the music and festival lovers of the capital. As for the “& Arts” segment, we’re still to find out, but the musical lineup with Björk, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Marianne Faithfull and Antony & The Johnsons has us well impressed.
What’s your idea behind the festival and how did it all come about? I suppose this is meant to be a recurring annual festival?
Of course. Stockholm is better off with a summer festival or two. That you mention Accelerator and Sthlm Jazz in particular is significant – we were behind Accelerator and now we have had a close dialogue with Sthlm Jazz in tandem with the creation of Music & Arts. To take a 30-year-old festival tradition on Skeppsholmen towards a more high octane pop music direction.
Yes, Skeppsholmen has been one of the strong selling points of the jazz festival and will be missed. How important is the venue in this concept?
Skeppsholmen is super important for us, what a little island that is – it’s bubbling with cool activities. As temporary neighbours we have a chance of embrace all that.
How do Luger view festivals in Stockholm? From what I’ve heard Accelerator never made any money even when the sold-out Münchenbryggeri hosted some great events. Would it be possible to stage a larger festival in Stockholm?
Good question. Accelerator, like all our festivals, was never done to make money. We did something we saw as important. We had 22,000 people at Where The Action Is and 50,000 people at Sonisphere and that is pretty big. Having a large festival might not always be desirable, but you’re right, it’s kind of complicated staging a larger festival here in the capital.
What do you have as personal highlights for the Stockholm Music & Arts festival?
I’ve happened to hear some of Anna von Hausswolffs new material and it blew me off my chair. If she plays any second from that it’s worth the entry fee alone. Otherwise it’s Buffy Sainte-Marie and obviously Tinariwen with Jose Gonzalez.
