Earlier this month, Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) along with brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner (The National) announced their innovative music streaming platform, PEOPLE, as well as the inaugural festival that will feature artists from their collective streaming service. Now, Paste reports, Iver and Dessner have released the full lineup for the festival which will showcase over 150 artists including Feist, Channy Leaneagh (Polica), Justin Vernon, the Dessner brothers and Jenny Lewis.
The festival will run August 13-19 at the Funkhaus in Berlin, and, along with public performances August 18-19, features a space for artists to collaborate and create content. According to The Guardian, Bryce Dessner said of the opportunity for artists to record: “The festival has become a way of generating content, though it’s up to the artist whether or not they want to share that.” Although, a space will be available to generate content, the event will not adhere to strict schedules. Instead, it will focus on a more organic approach to invention that relies on the creative impulses of the artists in attendance.
The collective PEOPLE was founded by Vernon, the Dessner brothers, and Nadine and Tom Michelberger, who came up with the idea last year during the Michelberger event in Berlin. In a statement, Bryce Dessner described the concept as a place that “allowed for musicians to come together with the least artifice and just be themselves.” He went on to say, “There was none of the baggage that comes with heavily promoting something. We were able to get in the room with each other and just make stuff.”
Bryce also spoke about the ability for PEOPLE to serve as an ecosystem for work lost in the PR shuffle, saying, “Take a band that releases 10 songs on a record. What about the other 30 songs they didn’t release? What about the way those songs changed? What about the out-takes? All that stuff is fascinating, but it doesn’t have a place where it can live. Hopefully this will be an environment where new types of music, new types of collaboration can pop up that don’t fit in with a standard release. If it’s just National B-sides, it won’t be a success.”
Visit the festival site for more information about PEOPLE festival.
Photo Credit: Owen Ela
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