Krakow’s Unsound festival has unveiled a ban on photography, with the organisers behind the Polish week-long music event releasing a statement telling punters to just say no to snapping pics with their cameras or mobiles.
The festival, which funnily enough this year has the theme ‘Interference’, will have a “discreet” official photographer for recording a few special events, but won’t be issuing any press photo passes or having video footage taken. Unsound will, however, be allowing NTS Radio to make audio recordings of performances, hoping to shift the focus away from the visual spectacle.
Unsound Artistic Director Mat Schulz in a statement said the aim of the ban is to have the audience focus on the present moment and not distract others:
“We want to question the automatic tendency to place photos and videos of concerts on-line, be it on social networks, music websites or video streaming platforms, to put some tiny glitch in the constant bombardment of images, today’s main tool of communication. The ban will not be policed by security guards, this is going to be a community action – if you see someone next to you filming, ask them politely to stop.”
Oh, boy. Thanks, Dad. We really hope a Polish music festival ain’t too similar to an Aussie one – can you imagine asking the drunk dude next to you wearing a flag as a cape to politely put his iPhone away? Unsound takes place from 13th-20th October and will features performances from Andy Stott & Demdike Stare, Juliana Barwick, Mykki Blanco, Forest Swords, King Midas Sound and Venus X.
(via Stereogum)
