Thursday’s second panel discussion at Mutek involved a group of international curators and festival programmers invited to discuss the festival’s main function as a source of cultural recommendation vs. the pressure to book the most popular acts, as well as what it takes to navigate the private and public sectors of funding, as well as what it means to be part of an international touring community where artists increasingly travel between festivals.

Leo de Boisgisson promotes festivals in Bejing, China and spoke to the importance of community involvement, specifically, in her case, relying on locals and ex-pats living in China.

Mat Schultz from Krakow, Poland has organized events in Eastern Europe, and brought up the role of political economies in shaping festivals. For instance, the government of Belarus wants to have international art festivals not only for the cultural benefit to the local community, but for the cultural capital it brings to their country. Since they want to appear integrated with the rest of Europe, international festivals give them an opportunity to present a public face to the rest of the world.

Olof Van der Winden organizes the Today’s Art festival in The Hague, Netherlands, and agreed with Mat Schultz’s perspective, even going further to say that festivals of this nature serve as “a marketing tool for cities.” He said that since The Hague is focused on being a political capital it’s a “cultural vacuum,” and could use the help that festivals would bring to increase tourism and assist it in making its image more conducive to the arts.

Dan Seligman brought up the need to involve emerging artists and up-and-coming promoters as a way of insuring the sustainability of the community. For instance, younger and newer members bring additional energy and have a fresh perspective that more established promoters may not have.

Kate Lesta of Communikey from Boulder, CO USA brought up the issue of environmental sustainability in organizing festivals. The rising cost of jet fuel it directly affects artist booking and programming since performers and participants fly into a central location from all over the world. Since the festival by its nature consumes a large amount of jet fuel, she suggested utilizing carbon offsets, or relying on the creativity of participants to work on alternative solutions. From a funding perspective, there are funds available to support the “green lifestyle,” and if festival organizers were to take sustainability into account they would have more resources available as well as helping to minimize their impact on the environment.

Relja Bobic runs the Dis.Patch festival in Belgrade and sought to engage a specific niche of the electronic music community by featuring only live PA artists, since traditional DJ culture was already well established in Serbia and the surrounding cultures .

A few themes recurred throughout the discussion. For one, the idea of marginal culture and isolation in some form, and the way in which communities and resources were able to be mobilized on a local and international level to develop a supportive and engaged audience. Along those same lines, interdisciplinary collaboration is also important, as well as creative thinking on the parts of the promoters, programmers, and artists involved in order to overcome obstacles, such as rising fuel costs. An awareness of larger political agendas and economic motivations is also increasingly required for organizers who desire to make their festival a success. Despite the increasingly global nature of locally-based festivals, organizers have to consider the specific contexts in which their festivals operate, whether they are subject to the demands of a niche audience, to the requirements of a sponsor or grant endowment agency, or to the local economy. Even with the challenges facing independent producers all over the world, supportive institutions like Mutek allow them to come together for a productive dialogue and energizes the global community of electronic music.