“This year we are returning to our roots,” says Armands Siliņš, the host of the Sanssouci festival, without hiding that due to the pandemic we had to consider moving the festival to next year.
However, “Sanssouci” will be! Different. With an element of interactive play and the opportunity for everyone to organize their own “Sanssouci”. Armands Siliņš and Ilze Bergmane, a member of the board of the organization “Spirit of Adventure”, tell about the news that is expected in the seventh year of the festival.
Signe Lagzdiņa: Armand, how would you describe – what exactly is “Sanssouci” and what has changed in you since the first festival?
Armands Siliņš: Basically, every year comes with something new. There are sections that remain and for which the heart becomes calmer, but at the same time there is something new each time that re-energizes.
Do you think people change with Sanssouci?
Armands Siliņš: I have noticed that the audience is changing –
as I say, everyone has their own “Sanssouci”.
Some come once and no more next time. And the opposite happens. There are people who try to come here for five years, and then finally get somehow. Our team is also expanding from time to time – new sections are coming. This year, for example, is the digital side that draws young people. Ilze, who was already last year, has joined the game this time and is becoming more and more involved.
Ilze, who are you in Sanssouci?
Ilze Bergmane: For me, “Sansusi” is an adventure – both in nature and in the world of music and art.
Last year, one of my biggest surprises was how different Sanssouci is, how much you can find yourself in it.
But adventure is probably anything we do in life, and in doing so, we choose to really enjoy it for real – especially if it is something new or done differently than everyday. In my opinion, in the context of “Sanssouci”, adventure is the whole festival, only in this case we may intensify it by creating concrete experiences. If you look, for example, from the point of view of art – it would be a show or an individual performance. I see our games as something similar. If you allow it, it’s a kind of performance in which you are the main person.
As for the digital side. In his seventh year, Sanssouci will be able to enter any person’s yard, penetrate anywhere, as long as someone wants to, and open their smart device. Armand, would this have happened at all if not in such circumstances with Covid-19?
Armands Siliņš: It must be admitted that already in previous years we have received invitations to broadcast the festival digitally, because there are people who do not go to the festival purely physically, because they are somewhere else. But we have always tried to avoid it by positioning “Sanssouci” as a special experience to be experienced on the spot.
But – yes, came to the “crown” and told to think again (laughs). Then we also started thinking about what “Sanssouci” might look like digitally.
It was clear that it could not be a single camera broadcast from the back rows of viewers, and we have created several ways to broadcast it. We have come to three: one will be the footage – such as our “pianist fights”, which are available on the platform “LMT Straume”. The second type is a specially designed digital stage, where, according to experts, a rendered animation is placed on top. The third way – people are involved in the event itself.
What is a rendered animation?
Armands Siliņš: Sounds very complicated, but the idea is to use the simplest possible technologies available to us on a daily basis. For example, we’ve come to use backing in ‘zoom’ video conferencing. This technology will be quite similar, only it will be adapted to a specific concert and specific compositions. The group of artists will work to make it visually in line with the musical material.
But will the music be what will sound in reality?
Armands Siliņš: Yes, all will be live and live broadcasts.
Of course, these are also new challenges for us – to understand how these things work together, how tuners and illuminators work with the digital broadcast team.
We have spent quite a long time looking for solutions.
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