It is half past nine in the morning at the Institut Barri Besòs in Barcelona. A dozen teenagers have taken over several tables in the building's library. They use computers and mobile phones. The atmosphere is relaxed, although not idle. And they are not chatting, but working on the organization of the second BB Fest, a festival with eight artists on the bill that will be held on May 27 in a room with the same equipment.
We are just over a kilometer from the Parc del Fòrum, which starting May 29 will host another festival, in this case Primavera Sound. And the truth is that BB Fest and Primavera are not only physically close. These boys, first-year students of the Performing Arts baccalaureate, take a unique subject called Create your own festival, which has been promoted by the Primavera Sound foundation, an entity established at the end of 2021, in collaboration with the Consorci d'Educació de Barcelona.
At this early hour, the students (mostly 16 years old, with many more girls than boys) talk about technical aspects such as the rider, ticketing and a possible sponsor to pay for t-shirts; preparing material for Instagram and storytelling for promotional videos. They clarify details, make decisions, and will execute new actions with the help of Blanca Gallo, author of the program for this festival course, and two professionals from the center, Txell Gama and Pau Bou, teachers respectively of music and performing arts, subjects in whose teaching hours this activity has been accommodated.
The Institut Barri Besòs was a pioneer last year in hosting this initiative, and this course is also taught at the Institut Vall d'Hebron and the Institut de Tècniques Audiovisuals i de l'Espectacle. Between all the centers the sum amounts to about 75 students and three festivals. But these figures could increase in the future: “The idea – Blanca Gallo tells us – is to spend a couple of years in each institute and then the teachers from each center continue with the subject, so that we can start it in another.”
The activity program includes 25 sessions of two hours each, to be carried out between the end of October and the beginning of June. Covering in theory and especially in practice all aspects of the organization of an event of these characteristics: choice of musicians, hiring, technical and artistic production, design and communications, logistics... Throughout the course, there are several Primavera Sound professionals who attend classes once to work with students on specific aspects of their respective areas of specialization.
Beyond the execution of a tangible project, this program aims to show doors to students who can guide their future in professions that revolve around music. “Paths are opened up to them that they really would not have known about,” says Txell Gama. In an official artistic high school they don't have to learn things about sonology, for example, or production.” Pau Bou adds in this sense that “there are technical careers linked to the world of entertainment with a lot of job opportunities and a lot of demand at the moment. “Students have options beyond their initial intention when they choose this baccalaureate: to go on stage, an aspiration that is of course very good, although if we are realistic, very few will get to be in front of the cameras or the spotlight.”
The eminently practical approach of the course implies that students acquire specific responsibilities in accordance with their interests and abilities. Student Pau Pacheco likes Frank Ocean, Tyler The Creator, Camarón de la Isla, Rosalía, and C. Tangana. In the future he wants to be a music producer. “Seeing at the open day that they taught this subject here was one of the reasons why I enrolled in this institute,” says this 17-year-old young man who has assumed the role of artistic director of the BB Fest. “At first I had no vision of how a festival was done, only the experience of attending one. But with the talks that the professionals gave us, we were immediately able to see the magnitude of doing something like this, and that it is complicated.”
Complicated and not without scares, as these young people have seen. And just before Easter, no less than three of the artists that the students had recruited fell off the bill. “We contacted a record company that offered us emerging urban artists who sang in Catalan, musicians that we liked and who gave a certain character to the festival.” Until the deal fell through “and we were forced to change everything. We had to improvise a lot…” adds Pacheco, smiling.
Circumstances such as the one described represent, in addition to an obvious problem, an opportunity for students to learn to be resilient, a capacity that is especially useful in the professional festival world. “These kids – says Blanca Gallo – can be leaders. They can manage things by themselves. They just need us to give them the confidence, the opportunity and the means to do so.” Perhaps this aspect, apart from the purely technical, lies in another of the great lessons that you will learn in this subject.
Lasting three hours, with eight artists on the bill and another two in reserve just in case, the BB Fest also includes musical performances (rock, pop-funk, urban, Latin pop-rock, pop), fit kid dance and a live plastic arts performance with music. Beyond transportation costs, the artists – half of the neighborhood – do not get paid, and among the volunteers who will make it possible are sound students from the MicroFusa music technology school. The budget amounts to about 600 euros, which will be covered through own resources (tickets at 5 euros, sale of tote bags...) and the collaboration of the institute itself and a local sponsor who, yes, has finally agreed to pay for the t-shirts that the artists will wear. and equipment on the day of the event.
