Ekko Festival announces 2011 lineup

How did Ekkofest get started? It started back in 2002 I think. It was me and a friend, at that time we were visiting a lot of other electronic festivals. We sat down on a Sunday after a hard night of partying. I really can't remember what festival it was, but we sat down and talked about how festivals were programmed and how nice it would feel to be at a smaller festival. We talked about how we would do a festival, how we would program it musically, and also how we’d do the interior, the atmosphere. Basically we were complaining about what we hadn't liked about the previous night, then we said, "well, what the hell, we shouldn't complain, we should just start our own." So the smaller size is important to you? Yes. I'm from Bergen, I was brought up in a small music scene. Bergen has a very close scene, everybody knows everybody, so we wanted to bring a festival with an international program. It's not a big festival, it still isn't—it's more trying to compile something that we can stand for, that we like. Would you say it's Ekkofest’s role to introduce Bergen to more international acts? Yes, definitely. The audience in Bergen is very small, and they mostly like to go see Norwegian artists. Even if the artists are big internationally, we have to introduce them to the audience in Bergen, because many of them won't have heard of them. Robert Henke, for instance, is a hard sell. There’s not many people that know Robert Henke here—Monolake maybe. Same thing with Pierre Henry, that will be very hard to market in Bergen. That's why we combine them with local artists—so people come out to see an international artist they've never heard, because the event also has something local that they know. That's the reverse of how it works in most cities—usually the international act is the draw. Right. Is marketing international artists one of the main challenges of the putting on the festival? Well, when you try to program an event, you spend all your time finding the right artists, but the audience doesn't do the same: for them it's a hobby. So for us, it's a balance between finding something that appeals to everyone and our own wish to produce something that's unique, and that we're happy with. Like I said, Robert Henke's ATOM is an amazing project, but it might not find a very big audience in Bergen. Basically, Ekkofest is not Mutek. Is Mutek a model for Ekkofest? Program-wise, Mutek has always been an inspiration. It's inspiring to see that someone could put together a program that to me seems based purely on quality. There are too many festivals that program based on what's going to sell, and try to minimize the risk. Of course you have to do that as well, but you have to focus on quality first, that's what inspires. Those might sound like big words, but it's true! And in Bergen minimizing risk means booking local artists. Yeah, it does. Our core audience will always show up if we book local acts. How do straight-up house and techno artists like nd_Baumecker go over in Bergen? Andy is an interesting case, he's a longtime friend of mine and longtime friends of Ekko Fest. He played the first one back in 2003. There's always been a really strong connection between Bergen and Berlin, and also Bergen and Berghain and Panorama Bar. There's a historical link between the two cities, and also, Berlin was one of the first cities to have direct, cheap flights to Bergen. So there's a connection there, and the music scene here has taken a lot of inspiration from Berlin. There's even a government program that lets Bergen artists stay for free in Berlin for two months working in a studio—the city pays for it. What are you looking forward to most at this year’s festival? I'm really looking forward to the opening night with Planningtorock and BBF. I think it will be good to finally experience a Pierre Henry show. That's something I've wanted to experience for years but haven’t had the chance.