The Part of the Festival Nobody Photographs

Talks cost money and sell no extra tickets. They are the first thing cut when a festival's budget meeting goes badly, and almost nobody complains, because an audience that bought a ticket for Saturday night does not notice their absence. Keeping a daytime programme for four consecutive years inside a commercial weekend is therefore a statement about what the festival thinks it is for. C2C Talks runs in daylight at Teatro Regio during the festival, and it sits alongside C2C Curators, a free training programme for young music curators, and a preview aimed at younger audiences based at the festival's Combo headquarters. Together they form the half of the weekend that produces no photographs and most of the long-term value. The curator programme is the one worth paying attention to. The people who will decide what European cities hear in ten years are being selected right now, and the usual route into that work runs through unpaid internships and favours, which filters out everyone who cannot afford to work for free in an expensive city. Opening that door without a fee is the most practical form of access a festival can offer, and it costs less than a mid-level booking. There is a selfish argument for attending too. Hearing promoters, artists and researchers talk about how a night is built changes how you listen to the night itself. You notice the shape of a set, the decisions behind a running order, the reason a room is configured the way it is. It is the part of the weekend you cannot get from a livestream or a recording. If you are going to C2C, give one afternoon to it. The festival will still be there at midnight.

Programme details: https://clubtoclub.it/