Well, people, here we go! “Events fall at places”, as we say. The festival camp “9to5.Wir nennen es Arbeit” will take place in August (23rd to 26th) at the Radialsystem V located on the Spree. We expect it to be an exciting weekend filled with extraordinary input, quaint contacts, brilliant bands, smooth showcases and uplifting experiences.
The idea emerged during the discussion on our bestselling book Wir nennen es Arbeit- The new digital bohemians. Work the Way you want to live. The book is an essay on living and working beyond permanent employment. Briefly, the festival is a fair for people who wouldn’t attend fairs. A platform of self-organisation, interactive crossover formats and networks for people who would like to work the way they’d like to live. The festival adapts to the rules of self-organisation.
The festival team consists mainly of people from the ZIA: Jörn Morisse (Bands and Press), Kathrin Passig (Ideology), Sascha Lobo (Sponsoring), Sebastian Sooth (Organisation and Financial Management), Lisa Rank (Texts), Moritz Metz (Webpage), Martin Baaske and Thomas Weyeres (Art design), Holm Friebe (Responsibility). We’re all in, and you will be too. For now, start planning your summer holiday around the festival. We are counting the days and on YOU.
Organising such a festival feels a bit like building the Airbus A380. The single components are produced at different locations and screwed together for the first time on August 23rd. Still, we hope to make the bird fly!
For example, Moritz and Holm worked together with the guys from iRights.info to ensure qualified copyright competence for Friday’s film screening. That’s important for backing up the solo-self-employee and protecting him from getting his neck broken by fiscal authorities or vicious solicitors. Copyright being both 21st century’s blessing and curse. Well, we’ll have to cope with it. The team of iRights will be showing how an improved copyright could change the world for good.
First things first: We were really pleased about all the back up we received our followers. Thanks to Anja, Christoph, Julia, Nicole, Maj-Britt, Marie, Robin, Sebastian and Sylvester. Everyone looked a bit puzzled when we first met. Anyhow, after the obligatory “meet and greet” we really got into things. Ideas popped up, were discussed and condemned again.
At the end of the day, we are all excited like children the night before Christmas. The festival will be a thrilling experience (for children, too) Journalising the meeting, we realised how difficult it is to pin down ideas, to peg them as this and that, and to put them into place. We’re really happy about meeting people that feel inspired by the idea of the festival. And that’s what it is all about: complimenting one another to ensure performance and satisfaction.
As already mentioned, the festival will be held at the fancy Radialsystem V, the new edgy culture venue in Berlin located at the banks of the River Spree. The fully remodelled pumping station offers a pleasant atmosphere and comfortable working conditions. We will install workstations all over the place, on the sun deck, at the banks of the river Spree, in the central hall or in the studios. Space, electricity and WLan for your own laptops is available.
So far, we’ve sold numerous tickets. We can proudly announce that we’ve received many registrations from smaller towns and even villages we’ve never heard of. By the way, where are Neu Wulmstorf and Sulzfeld again? To see who is also attending the festival simply check wevent.org and the 9to5-group at Plazes.
Program
The festival will be filled with many exciting and interesting events such as lectures, showcases, bands, panels, consulting, theatre and performances, films, DJs, workshops, live-working, audio plays, boats, sun deck, and many leisure activities.
The festival kicks off on Thursday when we’ll burn money. The program will focus on alternative economies and subversive strategies. Tom Hodgkinson, Bernd Cailloux, Jörg Schröder, Barbara Kalender (März Publishing) will be discussing the question of how to reinvent the wheel. Additionally, the visionary group monochrom from Vienna will be performing later that night.
On Friday it’s all about money and getting things done. There will be a discussion on music and economy held by Gudrun Gut (Monika Enterprise), Lars Lewerenz (Audiolith), Christine Rösinger (Flittchen Records) and Thees Uhlmann (Grand Hotel van Cleef). After that, the night of small bands and big labels continues with ClickClickDecker, Britta, Jeans Team, Ampl:tude, Sir Simon Battle, and a lecture on economy held by the great sophisticated Berlin Bunny Lecture with Peter Glaser and Veronika Mirschel (Verdi).
Saturday it’s world improvement day. Frithjof Bergmann, Pecha-Kucha and Ping-Pong-Country will provide useful guidance. Ideas of social commerce and collectivism are to be applied in practice.
More workshops and lectures on all three days will be held by Helmut Höge, Mercedes Bunz, Tim Pritlove, Imke Keicher and Kirsten Brühl (Zukunftsinstitut), Markus Beckedahl, Kathrin Passig and many more.
Last but not least, a few important remarks: All over the weekend there will be lots of possiblities to (net)work, party and a variety of leisure activities. If you intend to work at the festival and a desktop is required, please do give a note so we can organize the supply of workstations.
Accomodation is available on request. Please bring along your own sleeping bag. We’ve also arranged child minding facilities.
We look forward to seeing you in August.
(Please note that this is not a through-and-through international and bi-lingual festival. All events and showcases, except for those by native English speakers, will be held in German.)
