On 7th and 8 th July 2023 at the Parco Dora in Tourin, The electronic music is the very protagonist. This edition of Kappa Future Festival hosted 40 artists for a total of 24 hours of music divided within two days, each starting from 12 am till midnight.
FutureFestival born in the 2009 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Futurism, has always hosted the most important artists of the musical world, becoming in 2015 the first format in Italy introducing the cashless technology, a new system that allows you to buy inside the festival area only by means of a prepaid card that substitutes cash. Thanks to the success of the previous editions, the festival has been mentioned on the Times newspaper, as the main event of the year conquering the attendance record from abroad, hosting up to 62 different nations. More than 50.000 people has come from all around the world to enjoy one of a kind experience. …What can you breathe inside the Parco Dora? The feeling of being part of something huge.
This was the alien Line Up:
Day 1 – Saturday 7 Luglio
JAGER STAGE: APPARAT DJ Set, ERIC PRYDZ, JOSEPH CAPRIATI, KÖLSCH, LOLLINO, SOLOMUN, THE MARTINEZ BROTHERS, TIMO MAAS
BURN STAGE: ANDREA OLIVA, DJ TENNIS, EATS EVERYTHING, GIORGIA ANGIULI Live, PATRICK TOPPING, RICHY AHMED
FUTUR STAGE: ADAM BEYER, AMELIE LENS, MARCO FARAONE, SAM PAGANINI
DORA STAGE: BODY & SOUL, FRANÇOIS K, JOAQUIN “JOE” CLAUSSELL, DANNY KRIVIT, Live Performance JOSH MILAN (from BLAZE)
Day 2 – Sunday 8 Luglio
JAGER STAGE: FATBOY SLIM, JAMIE JONES, KiNK Live, LUCIANO, MARCO CAROLA, SETH TROXLER, STACEY PULLEN
BURN STAGE: ADRIATIQUE ,DJ RALF, HOT SINCE 82, JACKMASTER, PACO OSUNA
FUTUR STAGE: DERRICK MAY, ILARIO ALICANTE, PAN-POT, ROBERT HOOD, RØDHÅD
DORA STAGE: MR FINGERS Live aka LARRY HEARD, MOTOR CITY DRUM ENSEMBLE, PEGGY GOU
It mustn’t be that easy to figure out how to organize a timetable able to valorize both the stages and the artists, but FutureFestival did it. Instead of focusing all the “bigs” at the end of each slot, they achieved a heterogeneous distribution among the entire day. Given the high number of Dj’s, in this edition has been set up another stage: Jäger (its name already suggests what kind of music this area reserved…).
Within 12 hours of music is quite difficult to find lazy spots, if a stage presents someone that we for example don’t like, we have other three possibilities to find someone else that makes us fell half that good. There is no discrimination, some headliner are playing at 15 on the Main Stage while others at 22. This strategy provides entry from the very beginning of the festival, collecting the most fancy and variegated audience in all groups of ages , from 18 up to 50 years old.
Due to the huge turnout of this edition, the entrance has been divided into gate A and B, two endless walkways equipped with turnstiles and security, each of 20 meters. The inspection made by the police was maniacal, besides the search and the metal detectors, each person had to be checked by the search dogs that where looking for drugs and explosives. I red on the newspaper that only during the first day, more than one kilos Hashish and 500 pills where seized. After more or less one hour waiting in line, you could finally access into the festival’s area.
The location plays an important role inside this adventure. Parco Dora offers 450.000 square meters of space, with a river that in the past was not accessible due the factories. Nevertheless the decontamination, this park reminds the industrial life typical of that part of the city, by keeping most of the pre-existing building, like steel hangars and chimneys. Stationed between grass and iron, the stages where build all around the area. The main one (Jäger) was characterized by this huge open-air rectangular hall, with an iron roof on a cement floor, a minimal structure decorated only by means of speakers all around the ring. The other stages where looming on grass and mulch, giving the possibility to chilling in the sun, listening to a “softer” sound, drinking a cocktail or a beer sold by the several stands spread all around the area. Peculiarity of this allocation where the ways used to link the different location. The organization created a sort of path through the ruins and the rubbles, reviving what might have been the industrial life at that time.
Despite the massive success and the maniacal organization, I think that the “Sound” factor was a bit overlooked. Due to the different normative about the breaches of the peace, FutureFestival, different from the others editions, adopted a peaceful political by reducing drastically the volume. It’s incredibly frustrating to see 20 meters line array towers and 70 subwoofer playing as an open-air theater. Ignoring the sound feedback between the stages, perhaps because was required a better and more precise acoustic intervention for that situation, it was unavoidable to listen to the surrounding area instead of the music.
Techno music is a very standard and metric genre, the entire construction is based on the subdivision of the piece into: Intro, Breakdown and Drop, the “pumping” part. Elements to appreciate this music are the volume and the pressure that, together, play an important role on the perception… even a cheesy composition can sounds amazing with the correct amplification. From this point of view the Kappa FutureFestival was a flop, the only solution, to get the sound from one source, was to get closer to the stage, among the most fiercest ravers, surviving the bumps and the jabs. Really to appreciate have been the visuals, that through projections and screens have colored this unique adventure.
Kappa FutureFestival remains, without a doubt, a great experience to meet fantastic people and to have an electronic contact with the world. Waiting for the next appointment…
