After the Desculonizatión Showcase at the beginning of July, the Balance Festival from September 30th to October 3rd really gets going again. It’s the fifth anniversary and we’re giving away two festival tickets.
It can’t be repeated often enough: The Balance Festival is one of the most exciting series of events that have taken place in Leipzig over the past five years. With its mix of avant-garde art, empowering workshops and discourses as well as progressive electronic music, it opens the horizon to international sub-scenes once a year. As diverse as the program is: the critical and artistic examination of social issues and technological influences on people and communities runs like a red thread through the Balance Festival.
In 2022 it will take place for the fifth time and will extend over a long weekend – this year with a focus on “In:Visibilities”. After the previous issue discussed how club culture can recover from the general Corona crisis, the anniversary issue looks at a “new” present in which the crisis mode is more or less constant and internalized.
“Social conditions, wars, discrimination, hierarchies and patterns of exploitation structure everyday life and leave little room for encounters that allow invisible wounds to heal peacefully”, says the manifesto of the 2022 Balance Festival. The focus here: club rooms. Because they have been offering retreat and development spaces for a long time and can do so “help to meet reality with headwind, to let go, to deconstruct everyday dystopias and finally to celebrate well again. The aim of the festival is not only to see and be seen, but also to feel and sympathize, so that we can approach the utopia we strive for without ignoring reality.”it goes on.
Allowing and addressing the excessive demands of current troubles, but at the same time letting go and celebrating together – that is what this year’s Balance Festival stands for.
We have summarized what awaits you from September 30th to October 3rd here – you can find the entire program with detailed information here:
Friday 30 September 2022
4 p.m. – Workshop on awareness in club culture – Garage East
The workshop is aimed at visitors to club nights and festivals and shows how they can support in discriminatory moments. Registration required.
6 p.m. – Festival and exhibition opening – Garage Ost
The exhibition “In:Visibilities” focuses on the everyday life of our post-pandemic reality. Works by Anna Ehrenstein, BBB_ (alla popp & Alex Sahm), Deborah Mora, Ksti Hu, Lion Sauterleute, Oded Yones, Un-Zu Ha-Nul Lee, Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi, Roxana Rios, Tyler Cala Williams, Erik Peters, Jordan Edge, and Virginia Vivaldi. The exhibition is until October 3rd.
8 p.m. – Opening concerts – UT Connewitz
The duo BBB_ of alla popp and Alex Sahm performs its premiere of the immersive interactive gaming performance “Songs of Cyborgeoisie” – a kind of sci-fi opera with 12 scenes, virtual landscapes and futuristic sounds. Loraine James, Namasenda and Leipzig native Birthcore will also play that evening.
Saturday 1 October 2022
2 p.m. – Waacking Initiation Workshop – Sports Floor South
Introducing Waacking, a social and empowering dance that has its roots in the black gay clubs of 1960s California and expresses one’s identity on the dancefloor. Registration required.
2:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. – Three panel discussions – Garage Ost
Three discourses deal with the topics “Riot and street fighting: Urban social movements as extended class struggles”, “The post-patriarchal society” and “Visibilities in club culture”.
4pm – NFT Workshop – Garage East
allapopp and Ksti Hu give an introduction to the functionality and potential of non-fungible tokens (NFT) for club culture.
23:59 – Club night – Institute for the future
The long Balance club night brings together a wide variety of genres – it’s going to be wild and sweaty high energy techno, rave, ghetto house, footwork, breakbeats and booty bass with Vani Vachi, Cera Khin, urtrax, AGY3NA, DJ Swisha, DJ Fuckoff, Gili, Cleo SNK, AENIS & gal.
Sunday 2 October 2022
4 p.m. to 7 p.m – Two panel discussions – Garage Ost
The third day of the festival starts with a panel on the music industry in Mumbai, later the question of the extent to which club culture can network globally and show solidarity will be clarified.
7:30pm – The Darvish – Garage East
Empowering dance performance exploring gender identities and artistic expression.
11pm – Club night – Mjut
On the second Balance Night, various interdisciplinary artists will appear, creating a new club experience visually and performatively as well as with progressive sounds and sex-positive pop. Featuring Cobrah, Juba, Muxxxe, Métaraph and Somali Vendetta.
Tickets x raffle
Are you just as hyped by the Balance Festival as we are? Then either secure a ticket – at Tixforgigs there are single tickets for the concerts and club nights or the festival ticket. The exhibitions, workshops and panels are for free.
Or take part in our raffle – we are giving away 2 x 1 festival tickets: Send an email to dance @ gladfroh.de by September 25th and tell us what you definitely don’t want to miss.
Source: https://www.frohfroh.de/38960/kritisch-empathisch-hedonistisch-das-5-balance-festival
