Festival C/O Pop 2008 Cologne Germany
The 5th edition of c/o pop, festival for urban pop culture, music fair and conference will take place from 13 - 17 August 2008.
In celebration of its fifth birthday, c/o pop promises visitors another five days jam-packed with music and pop culture in varying formats, while accredited industry guests can look forward to a professional music and media forum comprising the homeliest trade fair in the world, affair c/o pop, and the practice-based, reality-rooted conference c/o pop.
In the knowledge that a winning team should never be changed, the structure of this year’s c/o pop closely resembles the massively successful 2007 festival. The architectonically unique Rheintriadem building just metres away from the cathedral will once again provide c/o pop with a stylish home, functioning as the festival headquarters, trade fair and conference centre, and as the venue for various concerts and events.
2008 will be the second year of the “Europareise” project, an international summit meeting of European festival organizers sponsored by the Federal Cultural Foundation, and of the “Asia-Pacific Platter”, an inter-cultural exchange programme hosted by the Goethe-Institut to promote cooperation between electronic musicians from Germany, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand - the results of which will be presented as part of c/o pop.
The concert programme once again revolves around the Gloria-Theater in the heart of Cologne, the scene of some extreme festivities last year.
But c/o pop also stands for innovation and discovery, which is why every year sees some new and unusual venues added to the list, as well as inventive and original programme formats. This year’s “Deutschlandreise” club night, for example, is based on a whole new concept with a whole new name ("Local Heroes"), and 2008 will also see the festival’s first film screenings, various exhibitions and some top secret special events.
Once again, it’s all about musical openness and a wide musical spectrum. One absolute highlight is sure to be the concert by Swedish singer/songwriter José Gonzaléz (Sat., 16.8., venue: tba), who is coming to Cologne as part of the Europareise c/o pop 2008. The annual c/o pop open air event PollerWiesen, which the Chilean minimal superstar Ricardo Villalobos and Cocoon resident Chris Tietjen are headlining, promises to be equally huge (Sun.,17.8., Jugendpark).
The appearance of the enormously influential British pop legend the TV Personalities (Fri., 15.8., Studio 672) marks the band’s first return to Germany after many, many years and has already gone down as a date not to be missed by old and new fans of the band alike. The French “in” label Ed Banger is sending no less than three acts to Cologne and c/o pop: SebastiAn and Vicarious Bliss (Fri., 15.8., Odonien), and DJ Mehdi (Sat., 16.8., Festivalzentrale - club night). Three of the best acts from Ellen Allien’s label Bpitch Control are heading down from Berlin: Paul Kalkbrenner, Sascha Funke and Zander VT (Thurs., 14.8., Bogen 2), and Hamburg is gracing us with a trio of very different rockers: DJ Koze, first and foremost (Fri., 15.8., Kompakt Total 9, Expo XXI), followed by Moonbootica (Sat., 16.8., Bootshaus, club night), and finally Superpunk (Fri., 15.8. IndieCityNight). The two Swedish Kompakt acts Aril Brikha and The Field plus Vladislav Delay from Finland take us back to Scandinavia - and more we will not say. Yet. So enjoy the suspense and stay tuned for the next instalment!
As it’s still some weeks to go till August, there will be more artists added to the lineup. For uptodate infos click here.
