Faith underlies the spirit and energy of The Gathering. The first tenet concerns attitude. Hence the selfreferential title; consciousness is obligatory. Large scale music festivals, events and parties are becoming increasingly perfunctory across the island: Lean backward, purge and escape. The Gathering proposes that there is too much at stake: Lean
forward, purge, transcend, crash and resurrect. The distinction between escapism and resurrection is that between sedation and restlessness. Offering neither easy listening nor existential comfort, The Gathering is an experience about experience itself. Via the senses the critical faculties are stimulated, triggered and celebrated. A replenishing of radical desire; arousing dormant demons.
The environment is tailored in preparation for this ritual. The graphic design, sets, mood and location are carefully considered to aid and amplify these tenets as affectively as possible. A culture of now, an immanence to the urgent present. Yet also a tribute to the prehistoric origins of music. An acknowledgement that the same impulses spawned timelessly, transversing time and space into the contemporary. Culture as fetish, commodity, identity or nostalgia is thwarted. A temporal tear is opened into a dimension beyond language, reason, norms, categories and narratives.
The second tenet concerns community. Hence, again, the self-referential title. Drawn not by hype, glitter, ads or spectacle, the gathered are there for each other. Market lingo (public relations, sponsors, budgets, profits, etc.) is anathema. Friendship and word of mouth goes a long way. Everyone involved contributes what they can. This ensures a material reality that is horizontal in spirit. Dialectical tensions collapse in kaleidoscopic euphoria. A collective ritual takes place.
The Gathering Peter Eramian
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