Sound, Image, Performance. The 2020 Sacrum Profanum Festival Between Real and Virtual Space
Sound, Image, Performance. The 2020 Sacrum Profanum Festival Between Real and Virtual Space

Summary/Abstract: Sacrum Profanum is a festival with a long tradition and one of the flagship musical events of Krakow. The festival—offering the so-called contemporary classics, elec- tronic music, jazz, and other genres—is known for experimenting, presenting bold arrangements and combining traditions with avant-garde. The organizers’ intention to cross borders and explore unconventional forms of musical expression is accompanied by the search for new channels of communication. In 2020, due to the restrictions caused by the pandemic, the Sacrum Profanum festival radically changed its format. From a “live” event, it turned to an online event, but the way virtual space was used was significantly different from the online editions of other festivals. The experimental format of the 2020 festival made it possible to expose the multimedia dimension of Sacrum Profanum, as well as to show its performative and staging potential. It also allowed to test new forms of interaction with the audience and new possibilities of connections between sound and image. The aim of this article is to discuss the exper- imental 2020 onlineedition of the Sacrum Profanum festival, with emphasis on its multimedia dimension. Particular attention will be paid to the impact of new tech- nologies on the reorganization of the festival space and the emergence of new types of festival experiences. The analysis will be based primarily on the material from field research carried out as part of the project “European Music Festivals, Public Spaces, and Cultural Diversity” (www.festiversities.org).

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