LET’S HAVE AN AFFAIR
Stockholm Love Affair is a new festival that celebrates our little Nordic town through a passion for music and community. The inaugural festival this spring is filling a gap in EDM culture that Stockholmers usually get plenty of in the winter and summer months, but not enough of when the snow starts to melt and the trees start to green. Some of the biggest acts in the electronic music scene have been invited to play at this years Love Affair, putting Stockholm on the map.
We chatted with Mattias Hedlund (from Segrén Hedlund) and Anders Boström (festival director of Stockholm Love Affair at Live Nation) to find out more about what we can expect.
What made you guys want to do a festival?
Mattias: After our Into the Valley festival in Rättvik I just felt I wanted more of the festival work. I thought we really needed something similar in Stockholm, something not competing too much with Into the Valley, and that resulted in Stockholm Love Affair. This is how I want to work from now on, and to then be able to do it with old friends and colleagues is just wonderful.
Anders: This is what we do at Live Nation and we’re really passionate about it. And to create a new festival in Stockholm is definitely something we don’t want to miss out on. Stockholm is a fantastic city and deserves events of this kind of calibre to be measured with the other big capitals in Europe.
What kind of vibe can we expect from Stockholm Love Affair?
A: We are used to everything from small gigs to gigantic festivals and concerts, so Stockholmers can definitely expect a festival with a professional set-up. And since Mattias and his crew is doing this with us they can also expect…
M: …a festival with a real club feeling, including some of the best artists in this genre. We will make the experience something special from the beginning to the end so we really recommend people to be there from the start.
In your eyes what makes SLA different from other festivals?
M: Stockholm Love Affair is a hybrid of a festival and a nightclub, where we’ve cherry-picked within both segments. We’ve chosen to book all the artists we wanted, even though it’s extremely expensive, haha. When having a vision, you really want to follow through on it all the way. I’m not so often content with my projects since there’s always room for improvement. But that also encourages me to strive for perfection when working with events, festivals or whatever I do. You can compare it to a surfer always waiting for the perfect wave, even though the surfer experienced several great waves in the past. What I’m trying to say is that this year’s production is based on a collection of all we’ve learnt from making clubs and parties, to small and big festivals, so I believe it’s going to be fantastic and also different comparing to other festivals in Sweden.
With a total of 16 artists over two days, the lineup is a who’s who in the international electronic music world. The artists confirmed for this year are: Adam Beyer (Sweden), AME (Germany), Anja Schneider (Germany), Bella Sarris (Australia), Dj Clea (Sweden), Dubfie (USA), Jamie Jones (USA), Joris Voorn (USA) La Fleur (Sweden), Maceo Plex (USA), Mind Against (Italy), U. (Sweden), Pleasure Kraft (USA), Solomun (Germany), Sven Väth (Germany) and Very Addictive (Sweden).
Stockholm Love Affair, April 1-2
