I arrived back to rainy Berlin today after a visit of our friends at Live Performers Meeting in sunny Rome. Trapped in the organisation mode for our festival I paid a lot of attention to how the things were planned and organised there. I was happy and relieved to see the similarities in approach, planning and improvisation of the whole LPM crew and the VisualBerlin family here. Love and passion for the artform and a big interest in community building are the main keys to make it happen. I picked up a few tricks here and there and exchanged experiences with the LPM team. In comparison to the last Live Performers Meetings this year it was a very straightforward and relaxed atmosphere with a very good mix of interested and sociable artists - where I never had the impression that too many things happened at the same time or I'd be anxious that I'd miss something - a feeling I remembered from the years before.
The artists and performers at LPM were very interested in our festival here - some will definetly also come here while others were sad that they won't be able to attend. I put up some posters at the Brancaleone venue and spread flyers and once in a while caught a glimpse of curious artists reading our line-up or discussing Berlin related issues. A few people approached me and asked questions or simply wanted to tell me how much they liked the eye-catching design of the promotion material (props to fRED & E-Gruppe!)
I saw amazing audiovisual performances and great VJ-Sets. My favorite shows were definetly the epic metal duo Throw Up from France with their hand-drawn animation and collage based visual storytelling - and of course the jaw-drop digital hardcore show of Lance Blisters, who will also play at our festival!
Mille grazie to Gianluca, Ioann, Marco, Valeria, Donatella & Co.