festnoise | Music & Festivals

Jun 29

Jun 29 Backstage for an itinerant music festival

The beach of Portimao in the Portuguese Algarve witnessed an example of efficiency and design when last summer during the Afronation and Rolling Loud festivals a new backstage, designed by the Spanish architecture office Langarita & Navarro, was unfolded in the sand of its beach. The aim of the project named “Olimpo Nômade” was to provide the festival with a practical, lightweight, durable, and foldable infrastructure that can be stored and transported in a minimal number of containers, preserving its aesthetic relevance for as long as possible, without sacrificing a certain fantastical monumentality.

The project is an itinerant city for the performing artists at a music festival. “Olimpo Nômade is the place where the musicians get ready before their performance, where they can relax and chill out with their peers after the concert or session. It is a lightweight, foldable, and transportable ‘galactic’ city that, wherever it is unfolded, serves as the support and backdrop for memorable experiences and legendary gatherings.

“The aim of the project was to provide the festival with a practical, lightweight, durable, and foldable infrastructure that can be stored and transported in a minimal number of containers, preserving its aesthetic relevance for as long as possible, without sacrificing a certain fantastical monumentality.

“The project consisted of a series of devices that serviced the needs of the festival while also creating a collection of important squares and exterior areas for rest and recreation, offering protection from the sun with a series of different palms and fishing nets. An oasis of sand and palm trees saw a grand complex bring a stretched doughnut, bubbles, and a reflective palace that are able to disappear into the surroundings.”

“The doughnut is a living room; a continuous, white, edgeless, inflatable structure spanning five hundred square meters, intersected by a yellow cylinder and triangular prism that serve as air vents as well as emergency access and exits. Inside, a calm patio with palm trees. A camp of bubbles serves as the dressing rooms. Each one of them is formed by two different-sized bubbles; one providing space for the changing room and the other, with a large skylight, a common area to share with friends and members of the crew before heading on stage.”

“The palace groups three dressing rooms for the headliners. A perfect, mirrored cube on a 9 x 9 x 9m scaffold structure, pierced on each side by 3 x 3 x 3m voids that serve as private terraces and independent accesses. On the roof, a blue-carpeted viewpoint with reflective balustrade seems to fly above the surroundings. A strange and otherworldly object.”

“The aim of the project is to provide the festival with a practical, lightweight, durable, and foldable infrastructure that can be stored and transported in a minimal number of containers, preserving its aesthetic relevance for as long as possible, without sacrificing a certain fantastical monumentality. A portable Olympus for contemporary gods.”

Simply amazing. An example of design, responsibility, sustainability, commitment and good management that unfortunately we don't see as often as we should and which all festivals should take note of.

All photos including cover photo by photographer Luis Díaz