With elongated factory halls where live shows are presented like a streamlined human machine, Positive Education is an unpretentious but thought-through festival in south-eastern France. This year's added day venue makes the festival an experimental melting pot in the old coal mining town of Saint-Étienne, a labyrinth of steel, glass, and concrete, just like the city.
Unlike the average festival of this size, Positive Education arose out of the efforts of local musicians in 2015 and, therefore, seems to have integrated a natural sense of community. When picked up from the airport, the driver, who usually works as a technician for the festival, plays a SoundCloud set which grabs our attention. The artist turns out to be a friend of the driver and the opening act of the Friday night programme at stage three: Lyon-based DJ Toé. During that specific night, she provides a captivating half-time ride and in a future-oriented style that sets the tone for the rest of the festival's programme.
The Positive Education labyrinth stretches from a three-stage night venue to this year's added day venue, where genre-transcending performances, (live) DJ sets, panel talks and workshops occur. Every evening is led by a musical theme, with ambient on Wednesday, rock on Thursday, hip-hop on Friday and a free-of-genre programme on Saturday. With the venues located in the middle of the city within only a six-minute walking distance of each other, the city's character becomes apparent.
The unpretentious factory city Saint Étienne has historic specialisations in coal, silk, steel, and weapons and owes its brutalist and industrial architecture to this past. Today, the city is known for its distinctive blend of old and new. The festival’s night venue is located at what once was the city's industrial centre and what is now called 'Cité du Design', which also hosts the International Design Biennial. In this first week of November, this unpolished scene is staged within a fall-coloured scenery and slightly low yet cosy temperatures.
At the venue, Positive Education's passionate and dedicated crew is notable. The ingenious live show system at stage three, where pre-set tables full of gear appear on the left side of the stage and disappear on the right in a fluid, circular movement, is carried out by a team of about ten people. Between the sleek changeovers, they find their tiny slots to dance before reuniting with their orchestrated changeover spots again, working like an oiled machine.
At this stage, with minimalistic yet impactful light design by Vortex Crew Ltd, Dutch producer Loek Frey is having his live show debut at the peak of the night. If you are into textural sounds, this is the place to be. It's brain-tickling music with peculiar rhythms that grab the mind and don't let go easily. The curation of live shows at the festival is remarkable and lives up to the festival's name. . Positive Education is not afraid to challenge young producers to create and perform their very first live show here, like with Mary Lake's live appearance one year ago.
Not debutants, but with equal brain-stretching capacities, are Space Drums Meditations, local hero Vardae, and renowned legend Monolake. The Ableton co-creator carefully checks upon the four-point sound system, walking through the room multiple times during his soundcheck before performing a joyful appearance on stage. As expected, the sound of his live set is flawless as he presents us the immense range of his musical spectrum.
At this stage, with minimalistic yet impactful light design by Vortex Crew Ltd, Dutch producer Loek Frey is having his live show debut at the peak of the night. If you are into textural sounds, this is the place to be. It's brain-tickling music with peculiar rhythms that grab the mind and don't let go easily. The curation of live shows at the festival is remarkable and lives up to the festival's name. . Positive Education is not afraid to challenge young producers to create and perform their very first live show here, like with Mary Lake's live appearance one year ago.
Not debutants, but with equal brain-stretching capacities, are Space Drums Meditations, local hero Vardae, and renowned legend Monolake. The Ableton co-creator carefully checks upon the four-point sound system, walking through the room multiple times during his soundcheck before performing a joyful appearance on stage. As expected, the sound of his live set is flawless as he presents us the immense range of his musical spectrum.
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Experimentation thrives at the day venue, too. Producer and DJ Upsammy and visual artist Jonathan Castro Alejos stand out here with a live AV show on a screen so detailed that the icey layers almost seem like a hologram. Odd sound structures and melodies find their way through an intriguing combination of IDM and experimental, making the crisp visuals truely come to life with radiating energy.
On other days, a contemporary underground scene finds its destination here with metal rappers and live analogue performances in the middle of the crowd; a crowd that is only to be found at the very end of the factory hall, circlered around the artists and banging their heads within a reserved manner. It resembles a free party in an abandoned warehouse, perfect for the progressive music that it accommodates.
This progressiveness is also apparent in this year's added panel talks, where the deeper layers of the electronic music industry are unravelled, providing an extra brain dimension to the festival. Club and festival bookers of De School and Sónar elaborate on the art of booking and touch upon their role of educating the audience while satisfying the average visitor. In another panel, producers discuss their creative process and producing tracks that you only partly like to keep the creativity flowing.
'Nothing like this in France', we often hear from various French artists and visitors. With a nicely balanced programme of debutants, familiar faces, future-facing artists, and more commercial music, Positive Education carefully creates a festival for all. As we leave the halls, we find a tucked-away poster of a spin-off concept that will launch in 2024 with a curation so adventurous that it already makes us desperately start longing for summer.
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