Revelland started its 2023 with two weekends focused on accessibility, inclusivity and music.
All the partners, artists, experts and collaborators of Revelland gathered in Utrecht and Valencia between the end of March and the beginning of April.
In Utrecht, at the kick-off meeting, musicians, partners, professionals, inclusion board and communication staff met in person for the first time and, on Saturday 25 March 2023, we discovered the world of Sencity Festival, arrived at the 20-year mark.
The following week, artists and experts met again in Valencia for three days, to find inspiration and new approaches to live performances.
Through these live meetings, the scope of the project became clearer. Behind the theory and stories, there is reality, there are faces and voices of people, so the value of these actions is understandable and visible. Through the two weekends in Utrecht and Valencia we understood the possibilities of this project and we are looking forward to discover the results of the process.
Now it’s time to get to know artists, partners, experts and collaborators of Revelland and their role in the project!
Meet the artists
Listen to Bratři from the Czech Republic, One Eat One from Italy, The Anahit from Hungary, Lyra Valenza from Denmark, CUT_ from the Netherlands and K!NGDOM from Spain.
It will be these six ensembles of musicians who will develop and experiment for the first time, in front of audiences at major European festivals, with a new form of inclusive performance. During 2023, supported by experts and inclusion boards, they will learn new inclusive practices to be enriched with their own sounds and personality and become unique. This journey of enrichment and development will continue until, in 2024, starting with the showcases at the next Sencity festival, the performances will be taken to the stages of the project’s partner festivals.
Meet the experts
Coordinated by the composer and creative director Stephanie Singer, Revelland’s artists will work with the expert of experience design large scale Gideon Berger; they will also focus on Niche music experiences with Nwando Ebizie; they will find new ways of expressing their art through the expert of scent Sarah McCartney and the chef and food expert Adam Thomason; finally, the experience of the creative director Asher Young and the inclusion of visuals from Vitamin complete the lineup of experts!
Through these professionals, Revelland has brought together many different skills and a multidisciplinary team, to develop live performances capable of revealing themselves to as wide and diverse an audience as possible.
Meet the partners
Possibilize (Netherlands) acts as a platform that creates opportunities for ambitious project leaders who want to organise groundbreaking projects, such as Sencity, the international music event for the deaf, hard of hearing and hearing. It is the Lead partner and constituted the deaf inclusion board. Together with Disability Studies in Netherlands (DSiN), Possibilize will conduct research on the level of inclusion of festivals, the impact of this project and future steps.
Vitamin (Spain) is a creative studio based in Valencia. They are professionals with different backgrounds such as engineering, programming, fine arts, architecture, audiovisual creation, marketing and cultural management. For the Revelland program, they are partnering up with other creatives as well as offering up their expertise in the expert section.
Maria’s World Foundation (Bulgaria) aims to improve the quality of life of people with intellectual disabilities and the life of their families and help them achieve their full potential as individuals by providing access to high-quality services, developmental training and possibilities for gainful employment that are suited to their needs. For Revelland, Maria’s World Foundation is responsible for providing feedback and input on inclusive matters, mainly focused on people with intellectual disabilities.
EASPD (Belgium) is the European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities and represents over 20,000 support services for persons with disabilities across Europe. They promote equal opportunities for people with disabilities through effective and high-quality service systems. EASPD is responsible for providing Revelland input on inclusive matters, mainly focused on people with intellectual disabilities and for the dissemination of the project.
Live DMA (France) is a European non-governmental network supporting live music associations. By nurturing the exchange of information and good practices between its members and working as a collective voice for the sector, Live DMA aims to enhance the recognition of live music venues, clubs and festivals all over Europe, as essential cultural, economic and social operators. LiveDMA is responsible for the dissemination of Revelland.
KeepON Live (Italy) is the first Italian national association for live music venues and festivals, promoting original live music and its social and cultural value, representing more than 100 organisations all over the country. KeepOn Live is responsible for the communication and the dissemination of Revelland project.
CWB Productions (Ireland) is a full-service production house that specialises in creating dynamic and engaging content. CWB Productions is committed to realising creative projects of all scales, to allow artists and creative technologists to evolve and develop their concepts into realities and is responsible for the tour management of Revelland: managing all the communication between the festivals and the bands.
Meet the inclusion boards
The Deaf inclusion board is made up of a group of people who will be at the side of the whole team to represent one of the audiences to which the live performances developed within the project will have to reach most strongly: deaf people. The inclusion board will carry the demands and sensitivities of this audience and thus help the musicians to better develop their live-act project.
The Intellectual disabilities inclusion board, within the Revelland project, will experience music festivals: how are they organised to accommodate people with different disabilities? What barriers still need to be broken down and what are the fronts for improvement? The inclusion board is ready to experience everything by taking part in the project partner festivals!
Meet the festivals
Most of the festivals that will be explored by the project’s protagonists and that will bring Revelland performances to their stages need no introduction, but we invite you to explore them, get to know them and follow their transformation towards an increasingly inclusive way of experiencing music:
Sziget Festival – Hungary
Cooltural Fest – Spain
Colours of Ostrava – Czech Republic
ESNS – Netherlands
Roskilde – Denmark
KeepON Live – Italy
In the next year, all the participants will periodically meet to find new ways to create accessible live performances. Keep following us!
Revelland is Co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
