{"id":560,"date":"2015-09-17T17:47:03","date_gmt":"2015-09-17T16:47:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/testes\/?p=560"},"modified":"2020-09-14T21:53:57","modified_gmt":"2020-09-14T20:53:57","slug":"festival-para-gente-sentada-the-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/?p=560","title":{"rendered":"Festival para Gente Sentada – the preview"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

The first thing you need to know about Festival Para Gente Sentada<\/a><\/b> (FPGS) is the
\nmeaning of this long name. It translates quite literally to “Festival For
\nSeated People” and this should be enough to make you understand how much
\nthis festival values a comfortable and intimate music-listening experience over
\nthe massive-crowd and wild-party experience offered by most live music events. Over
\nthe past decade, this festival has prided itself on its carefully curated
\nline-up (including names like Bill Callahan, Sufjan Stevens or Low*) that
\nattracts festivalgoers for the music itself and not for some other gimmick.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This year the festival moved from Santa Maria da Feira
\n(a small town between Porto and Aveiro) to Braga. This move allowed the
\nfestival to grow and evolve a little into its biggest and most ecletic edition
\never spreading all across Braga’s downtown. The main stage is the jawdropping Theatro
\nCirco (a century-old theatre in the heart of Braga) and it will accommodate the
\nbiggest and most sounding names from the billboard. But that’s not all there is.
\nThe small downtown stages, spread across the city, will feature a handful of
\nup-and-coming portuguese acts and the very hip and modern GNRation (an old
\nmilitary headquarter recently turned into a culture hub) will surely make us
\nforget all about Theatro Circo\u2019s comfy chairs and make us dance well into the
\nnight in a sort of after-hours party. <\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n
\n

Braga\u2019s Theatro
\nCirco, easily one of the most beautiful venues in Portugal<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Onto what really matters: looking at this year\u2019s
\nline-up we can’t help but feel that the festival played it a bit safe \u2013 the
\nchange of setting was probably a big enough risk already – and chose to somehow
\n“recycle” some of the names from NOS Primavera Sound. At first this \u00a0might sound like a flaw but, when you really
\nthink about it, this might actually be great news because, the truth is, we
\ncan’t get enough of Howe Gelb<\/b>’s
\nbohemian-gentleman charm and, in this year\u2019s NOS Primavera Sound, we actually
\nhad to cut Yasmine Hamdan<\/b>’s set
\nshort to go see Giant Sand<\/b>’s concert in full. This will be a great chance to see them both again and we’re pretty
\nsure both acts will benefit from moving into an indoors venue.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n
\n

Giant
\nSand\u2019s Howe Gelb covered in kitties and Yasmine Hamdan covered in glittery tulle.
\nWho looks more adorable?<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So there you have it, the first two things we wanted
\nto highlight for you: Giant Sand’s borderless
\ncountry songs and Yasmine’s
\nhypnotizing middle-eastern pop\/folk. Throw in Bruno Pernadas<\/b> – whose first album was a great critical hit last
\nyear – into the mix and the main stage is set to have an incredible first day. Also,
\nmake sure not to miss Mdou Moctar<\/b> on
\nthe GNRation stage – his touareg<\/i> music
\nis bound to transport everyone into the shifting sands of a scorching desert.<\/p>\n

\n

Moving on to the second day’s headliners: have you heard
\nthat Mercury Rev<\/b> are releasing a new
\nrecord? It’s true they haven\u2019t been the most active or relevant band for a
\nwhile so we can’t really say we’re hyped for it but we do know they can still
\npull off great live shows (Optimus Primavera Sound\u201912 anyone?) and it’s hard
\ndeny the greatness of songs like “Opus
\n40”. We’re cautious about our expectations towards their performance
\nbut we’d be lying if we said we weren’t the least bit curious. <\/p>\n

Speaking of new releases, FPGS also has some fresh talent worth checking out. We\u2019re talking
\nabout Sun Blossoms<\/b>, the dreamy lo-fi
\nbedroom project of young Alexandre
\nFernandes that has just released his first LP (check it out<\/a>).
\nAlso, even if they can\u2019t really be considered new-comers on their own, we have
\nto mention Rui Carvalho\u2019s (known as Filho da M\u00e3e<\/b>) new collaboration with Ricardo Martins<\/b> (drummer from the
\nnow-extinct experimental rock duo Lobster) for a really promising album set to
\nbe released this year. The advance single from their joint-venture is called \u201cTormenta\u201d and it totally sounds like a
\nclash of titans, really ominous and sort of distressing but also somewhat
\nexotic, making us want to hear more as soon as possible \u2013 this will be our
\nchance.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n
\n

Mercury
\nRev\u2019s Donahue and Grasshopper posing with fancy cocktails while Rui Carvalho
\nand Ricardo Martins toast to their new collaboration<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We have absolutely no doubts that DJ Coco<\/b> will throw one hell of a party, we just don\u2019t really care
\nabout his set or any of the other DJs. We love to party but partying all night
\nis not why we go to this festival. We go to this festival because of our love
\nfor the singer-songwriters that mean something to us. We go to this festival
\nbecause (when we\u2019re not busting dancefloors) we\u2019re just a bunch of sappy fellas
\nand there\u2019s nothing wrong with that. We understand that it\u2019s nice to have an
\nafter-party to really make the ticket price worth it for the festivalgoers and
\nwe\u2019re sure lots of people will love the chance to party late into the night but,
\nto us, that\u2019s not really what Festival para Gente Sentada is\u00a0all about. <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s check how everything plays out next weekend. See
\nyou then.<\/p>\n

JR<\/p>\n

* Also, Devendra Banhart. <- this was the mandatory
\nmention of Devendra Banhart on all pieces about Festival Para Gente Sentada<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first thing you need to know about Festival Para Gente Sentada (FPGS) is the meaning of this long name. It translates quite literally to “Festival For Seated People” and this should be enough to make you understand how much this festival values a comfortable and intimate music-listening experience over the massive-crowd and wild-party experience […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[134],"tags":[1650,217,1639,1543,288,636,753,988,1642,1353],"class_list":["post-560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live","tag-dj-coco","tag-festival","tag-festival-para-gente-sentada","tag-filho-da-mae","tag-giant-sand","tag-howe-gelb","tag-mercury-rev","tag-preview","tag-sun-blossoms","tag-yasmine-hamdan"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t