STOCKHOLM, May 25(Greenpost)– Music Tech Fest (MTF) is a three day long festival of music ideas. It began in London in 2012 and has since toured Berlin, Boston, London, Wellington and Paris. Now it has come to Umeå and Sliperiet at Umeå University, Sweden. The mission is to create new music formats and invent new musical instruments, software and experiences through experimentation and play – exploring technology, voice and movement, according to news reaching here from Umeå, northern Sweden.
Sliperiet invited Music Tech Fest founder Michela Magas and director Andrew Dubber to Umeå in 2014 and asked them to bring the festival to the city to host a Music Tech Fest for the whole of Scandinavia. As a result of that visit, they decided to move their home-base and global festival headquarters from Britain to the newly opened innovation centre at Umeå University and Umeå Arts Campus.
“We were so impressed with the culture, intellectual energy and lifestyle here. This is where we want to live,” says Michela Magas.
“MTF is an interactive meeting place for artists, performers, researchers, entrepreneurs, academia and the music industry. The festival has brought together partners like Warner Music, SoundCloud, BBC, Sonos, Spotify, Shazam, among many others,” says Marlene Johansson, director of Sliperiet who co-hosts the festival.
She also points out that the festival means a lot to establishing Sliperiet as it attracts international bloggers, hackers, artists, media and industry seeking to interact and co-create with talents and businesses in the Nordic region. The vision is to produce an annual Music Tech Fest Scandinavia in Umeå.
“Sweden is the world’s largest music exporter per capita. Umeå is at the forefront of music, design, art and innovation. It’s a buzzing city and a fantastic weekend destination surrounded by some of the most breathtaking nature you’ll ever encounter – it also just happens to have the fastest broadband connection in the Western world. Umeå is the ideal platform for MTF Scandinavia,” says Andrew Dubber.
The festival is open to the public and is free of charge.
Music Tech Fest Scandinavia is:
• An interactive music experience where the line between stage and audience is blurred.
• A weekend-long workshop where people can invent and explore new ways of creating music.
• A collaborative co-creative space for the future of music.
• A playful and groundbreaking experiential milieu.
• An international meeting place for musicians, hackers, artists, makers, music industry professionals, creative people, technology startups, music lovers and geeks of all kinds.
The program includes:
• Back-to-back performances and live demonstrations of music tech throughout the weekend on the main outdoor stage
• 24-hour hackathon competition in music technology and instrument invention
• Volvo Kids Hackathon – where children learn to build and perform with creative technologies
• Toontrack Trackathon competition for music producers
• Jam Camp where anyone can pick up and instrument and play
• Innovations in music and technology
• Presentations, demonstrations and hands-on exploration
• Academic symposium
Music Tech Fest is being held in collaboration with Sliperiet and Umeå Arts Campus.