Written by Daniel Pinho.
Semibreve, one of the few real gems on the Portuguese music festival circuit, celebrates 10 years bringing electronic music and digital art to the north side of Portugal, in 2020.
With almost every other music festival canceled due to the pandemic, Semibreve stands tall, adapts and makes it happen for the celebration everyone deserves. During the weekend of October 24th and 25th, the alternative version will be transmitted online and will have the Monastery of São Martinho de Tibães as its premises for the physical part of the event (following the guidelines for Covid-19).
As these new rules take place, new ways of presenting the festival are introduced: Laurel Halo, Gustavo Costa, Oliver Coates and Klara Lewis will have a filmed performance exhibited (commissioned by Semibreve), sound pieces and roundtables are also in line at the Monastery. Merani Schilcher and Vinzenz Aubry, winners of the Edigma Semibreve Award, will present “Unknown Territories - Searching for Islands” — a mesmerizing installation that proposes to find real life islands based on the shapes a person creates with its own hands (moving sand) while a camera captures the outline and matches it with a database that will return an island that most resembles the one shaped by the user.
Keeping a festival alive for 5 years is a laborious task, having it last for 10 years (and counting) is Herculean. It seems unfair to have your tenth celebrated with so many restrictions, so many familiar faces that won’t be able to attend, thrilling performances that won't materialize, so many installations and art pieces that won’t be experienced as they were envisioned. But there is a magical place in putting everything together and making it work for everyone under a new set of rules, under a new common reality. So kudos to everyone who is a part of Semibreve!
Daniel developed an interest in music since an early age so his father bought him an acoustic guitar on which he sat, breaking it, a week later. During his teen years he wanted to go to every show and festival around so he started writing articles for online magazines in exchange for tickets. He is also very fond of sneakers. He still can’t have the pair of his dreams but maybe one day he’ll put them on while listening to “Praise The Lord” by A$AP Rocky and Skepta.