Europavox 2010 - The Whole Story

Almost all Europavox 2010 ambassadors

Seems like this lazy blogger is getting used to living normal life in Finland again, which means it’s time to write about the Europavox festival experiences before memories start to fade. Earlier this spring I wrote about 50 words telling why I should be the one to go Europavox. I was one of the two Finnish winners. In all EU countries, similar contests were organized and eventually more than 50 people were chosen to represent their countries as ambassadors of Europavox.

Early in the morning of Thursday May 20th we took our flights to Paris and continued by bus towards Clermont-Ferrand where the festival was to be organized for the fifth time. Most of Thursday was spent in the bus trying to get some sleep and gather energy for the festival and even more getting to know each other. There were too many new names and faces to keep in mind so people called each other by their countries. We arrived to the festival very late missing most gigs. All I saw on Thursday was a couple of songs from Tokyo Sex Destruction. To my surprise, I didn’t feel very interested in the gigs then nor in the following days. This was for the simple reason that there were 50+ new interesting and open people I wanted to get to know.

During the following three days, we had some activities in the afternoons and of course all the happenings in the festival area in the evenings. We had a small conference about music and politics in the Internet, some walks around the beautiful city of Clermont-Ferrand and a trip to an ancient volcano in the area. As ambassadors, we were video interviewed at times about Europe and we also got to interview some artists performing in the festival. I interviewed the Greenlandic singer-songwriter Nive Nielsen, the Danish band The Kissaway Trail and the only Finnish band at the festival, Joensuu 1685. I will try to write about Joensuu 1685 separately later since I had a chance to do a longer interview with their bassist Risto backstage after their gig.

Nive Nielsen [photo by Eleni Hoefsloot]

Nive Nielsen is originally a real Inuit from Greenland now living in Canada studying and making music. She began writing songs after receiving a red ukulele from her boyfriend in Canada. She still plays the same ukulele these days and had it with her on stage at Europavox as well. Among other things Nive talked about her belief in ghosts, a fact I surely thought to be a joke when read it from myspace, but not anymore. Apparently it’s not that rare in Greenland to believe in ghosts and she has had some strange experiences leading to the belief like stones flying inside her car. Nive’s honest and charming character remained from the interview to the gig later that night. It was a very positive experience although I felt there was a bit of a contradiction between the shy and inexperienced-looking singer and the other musicians who seemed very professional.

As I said, I wasn’t too excited about most gigs and probably missed a lot of good performances. Still, there were some shows to remember. Seeing The Black Box Revelation for only a couple of songs convinced me of their great live energy and duo power. The Requesters put up a great party while JJ was even more confusing than in Helsinki five months ago. Bigott surprised me with his great voice and a band that seemed to be full of interesting personalities, although there was no doubt who was the leader of the bunch.

Russell Marsden (Band Of Skulls) [photo by Eleni Hoefsloot]

Band of Skulls impressed most ambassadors, including me, with their energetic garage rock performance and probably made the most solid rock gig of the festival despite the fact that they constantly reminded me of a dozen other bands. Nevertheless, they do have great songs and a fantastic attitude. After Band of Skulls, Peter Hook’s tribute to Unknown Pleasures didn’t feel very rewarding. Yet, once they got to actually playing Unknown Pleasures, I had to admit Hook’s voice wasn’t that bad at replacing Ian Curtis. The moment they came back on stage to perform "Love Will Tear Us Apart" was naturally magical but otherwise I have to say I was somewhat disappointed.

Peter Hook [photo by Eleni Hoefsloot]

Joensuu 1685 and The Kissaway Trail were both great as expected. Perhaps the biggest surprise for me at the whole festival was The Moroccan singer Hindi Zahra who performed self-confidently with an equally talented band. Her music combines beautifully elements of jazz, Arabian and African music, folk, blues etc.

Peter Doherty was the last artist in the program I had a glance at but I left after a couple of boring songs. The main venue was of course full during his gig but it seemed a lot of people wanted to see the much talked about rock star rather than listen to the songs. I was very pleased to find myself soon watching a local folk musician sing his songs outside in a tiny stage. Once again I have to say that instead of the gigs I enjoyed a lot more hanging out with the other ambassadors, reporters or local musicians from the wonderful Kûtu Folk Records label.

On our last night I slept less than an hour and I wasn’t the only one since the last night deserved a proper party. Monday consisted mostly of sleeping in the bus, at the airport and in the plane. Despite the sunburns and the sleepiness that I was left with, I have to tell you: If you have the chance to visit Clermont-Ferrand, to visit Europavox or especially become an ambassador of Europavox, I promise you will enjoy it.