People often ask me what conditions must be there to create an excellent event. At a time when many are talking about timely planning, a brilliant idea, accurate target audience research, technology and sustainability, I want to note something more fundamental. Something without which nothing at all makes sense. This will probably also serve as a suggestion not only for event organizers but also for their clients.
1. F R E E D O M. To create something truly meaningful and, I'm not afraid of this word, beautiful, give the author freedom of expression and creation! Do not break their wings with the desire to fix something, cut something, with phrases... Yes, yes, it's beautiful, but it needs to be 10,000 or a million cheaper. Each such step not only requires additional work, but kills the idea at the root, demotivates and creates the desire to perform mass hygiene.
2. C O U R A G E. At a time when there is a lot of talk about the need to create bold projects, about how important it is for an artist to be able to swim against the current, not to create what everyone will consume, but what they believe in, to rock the society's boat, to provoke discussions, to grow in their own change , not everyone is ready to jump into this well of courage. Courage is needed not only for those who create ideas, but also for the clients to accept them, not to be afraid of being misunderstood, not to be afraid of risks, of criticism, not to be afraid of leading institutions to coordinate them, educators and curators to guide them.
3. Y O U A R E N O T G O D. Very often, not only producers, but representatives of creative industries in general are extremely arrogant. They believe that everything can be controlled and that with good planning and a great team, success is inevitable. At best, we are talking about weather conditions and similar units of measurement that are beyond our control. But I will say with full responsibility that this is nonsense. And the riskier the project and the more extraordinary the solutions, the more nonsense they become. The audience that will consume, watch, evaluate, enjoy is a living organism. Its mood changes not even by days, but by minutes. There have been countless times that the reaction of the same audience to the same performance by the same artist has been drastically different. We can do anything and we should, but a healthy dose of self-criticism will help, remembering that we are not God. We can plan, but sometimes there are higher forces that simply laugh at plans and predictions. And this is not a disaster, but an opportunity to jump next time standing on the edge of a cliff. And not because someone is standing behind you with a gun or pushing you down, but because otherwise it is impossible to learn how to fly.
