Music Meeting Festival 2024

Focus country: Australia

Nature and spirituality - these two major qualities of Australian art have inspired us for years. Although we tend to live in global village, we still know very little about the culture from this southern land of endless skies. Pandemic brought us even further apart, physically and emotionally. That is why Music Meeting Festival, as an event representing diversity and discovering unknown, dare to reach out for this incredible continent.

Why just NOW? In many ways Australia can be perceived as a microcosmos. First of all - the climate. "Australia is already where the rest of the world very much does not want to be - it has warmed by more than two degrees Celsius in a hundred years" as we can read in a review for a non-fiction report about the country's struggle with climate change ("Black Summer. Australia is burning"). Secondly, we witness an important moment of recognition of Australia's Indigenous people in its constitution. In 2023 the citizens can answer "yes" or "no" to a single question, to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. However, the voice of First People has to be heard not only in their land, but also abroad. Aboriginal culture with its depth, spirituality and enormous beauty reaches hearts of millions. It is high time to support it, to give Indigenous artists the opportunity to present their heritage and to share this unique, but also universal message about ancestors, Homeland, Dreamtime and outback (Australian desert).

There is one very special term in Australian culture that we feel very close to in our narrative about "Endless Skies" at Music Meeting Festival 2024. This term is "yarn": "an Aboriginal English word that describes an informal conversation or storytelling in a culturally safe environment." This is what Music Meeting is aiming for: to create safe space for everyone who wants to tell their stories. And to provide stage for listening to them LIVE, through human, real experience - not digital, no senseless, not online, but in real time and through true contact. We don't know how long we will have a chance to experience this in real.

However, being concerned about the carbon footprint, our planning of such far-away logistics is very careful. Aboriginal artists coming to Europe will have extensive tours and will play their amazing music in several countries, in order to make their travels environmentally, socially and financially sustainable. Moreover, we will work with several Australian artists who are based in Europe (France and Germany) and who will travel to us by train. What is more, one of the Australian musicians featuring next year in two special projects, is Emma Williams - amazing violin player based in the Hague. She originally comes from Darwin, Northern Territory. We will also present a few intercultural projects featuring Australian soloist, consisted of European musicians. Despite advocating for the real live experience, we are not strangers to digital cultures. Our virtual connections will go even beyond music. Through online channels we reached out to Ngukurr Arts Center in in southern Arnhem Land where incredible Aboriginal visuals artists create their artworks. Music Meeting Festival audience will have a chance to become acquainted with their activity and to support these fearless heroes, who work with passion regardless to circumstances.