We're doing this with ice in our stomachs and hoping for a strong audience, says the artistic leader Peter Pontvik.
This year's festival (4 to 8 June) is five days instead of the previous six. The costs have risen significantly without the grants following – only Stockholm City Council decided to increase the grant this year – which will be felt by a festival with many international artists.
The most pressing problem is inflation, we pay in euros and it has become much more expensive. Flights and hotels have gone up between 30 and 40 percent.
The Bach Cousins
This year, the Italian Baroque Orchestra Accademia Bizantina will open with a Vivaldi program. The Belgian vocal ensemble Vox Luminis will perform motets and cantatas composed by the entire Bach family, not just Johann Sebastian but also his cousins and grandfather.
They are world-leading, just like Accademia Bizantina.
The program also includes didgeridoo – played by Matthew McGrath who has been trained by the Lardil people in Australia. And at 11 pm, the Swedish folk musician Erik Rydvall will start his concerts on the nyckelharpa for an audience that will be lying down on mattresses.
Guest Scene Discontinued
Already last year, the future was "written in the stars" according to Peter Pontvik, and the festival's guest scene for early music at Musikaliska in Stockholm is now discontinued.
Next year, we will be 25. What is required is that both institutions and patrons recognize the deep value of having a festival at the highest possible level. One must acknowledge the activity so that it can survive.
