Orbits is a new intimate festival organised from the 21st to 24th of June 2018 in the surroundings of the São Gião camping park in Portugal. Read the details about the festival, and get in the mood with a promo mix made by Fjäder at the end of the article.

The area of the São Gião in Portugal was almost completely demolished last October in a massive fire, but now it is back on its feet and provides the unique surroundings for the ambient and experimental performances of the Orbits Festival, delivered by the following artists:

A Sacred Geometry / Amulador / Aurora Halal / Blind Observatory / Burnt Friedman / Chris SSG / Dasil / DJ Deep / Edfemin / Evigt Mörker / Fjäder / Gusta-Vo & Tiago Fragateiro / Hiver / Hydrangea / Jacopo / Jane Fitz / Kinetic / Marco Shuttle / Nørbak & Sepypes / Peter van Hoesen / Re:ni / Retina.it / Ruuar / Sebastian Mullaert / Shackleton / The Lions / V I L & Temudo / Wata Igarashi / Yagya / Yassine

Organised for the first time, Orbits takes important actions in order to support sustainability and solidarity. The festival is a member of a sustainability program that targets bringing all of the native forest back after the tremendous fire and helping the local entrepreneurs to get going again. The festival guests can contribute on the program by buying the products sold at the festival and thus supporting the locals.

Another dimension for sustainability are the festival venue and decorations, that are partially made of the pieces of wood that have remained from the fire.

The organisers of the festival are the ones behind the whole Orbits concept, organising well-curated club nights at the club Gare Porto in Porto. Besides the local acts, the club nights have invited international names such as Luigi Tozzi, Edit Select, Alfredo Mazzilli and Moddullar on stage. Monument spoke with the crew about the forthcoming days in the unique premises of São Gião camping.

Hi Orbits crew ! It’s the premiere year of the festival, where did the inspiration for organising the whole thing come from?

Hello Monument crew! After many years of attending to music festivals, we decided to put one together ourselves. A small but special one, as you can expect from a bunch of dedicated heads who likes to see happy people dancing together in the nature. Events like Boom, Labyrinth, Paral•lel and Terraforma inspired us a lot for the sense of community, music and visual set up they are famous for. We wish Orbits to be a good combination of those factors, to please our guests spirit and senses.

How about the stages – how many there will be, and how are the acts separated?

Initially we thought about having two stages, but along the way abandoned the idea of separating the crowd! We will have just one stage with a tight sequence of artists and focus all the energies on a unique flow. Music moves within a wide range of genres touching ambient, idm, bass/dubstep and psychedelic techno but having a coherent ‘deepness’ factor in the sound aesthetic.

Orbits also presents a wide range of visual acts. What should we expect?

Orbits visual aspect is curated by a crew of professionals. We feel extremely lucky to be able to work with the deco designer Echo Higuchi and set designer Bruno Capucho which will take care of stage appearance and scenography, combined with the 3d motion graphics of João ‘Data’ Beira. The wood wizard Ras Rasmusson is going to create some crazy installations, while our choreographer Mariana will perform and dance throughout the 4 days. Tiago Cerveira and Luis Antero are curating a small gallery with sounds and pictures from the surroundings of the festival, as they are both originally from the area. Orbits wants to be a multi-sensory experience and we think to have all the elements.

Something else about Orbits you want to share with Monument readers?

Be prepared because there won’t be much time to sleep! Our timetable, soon to be released, is pretty full and cover most of the 4 days with speakers ON. Obviously you can take it easy sleeping longer in your tent or relax in the nature, just try not to miss all the fun!