Concept – Festival of Sensations
What is the Festival of Sensations?
Our aim is to offer a diverse program that is both participatory and invites guests to just watch and enjoy. Participants can/should be creatively involved themselves. We want to create a safer space for sensual development and bodily expression, aiming to deconstruct and overcome taboos and shame.
The “Festival of Sensations” is a queer-feminist and body-positive festival that will take place over a period of three days on the 26-28.8.22. A total of 400 people should experience queer art here with all five senses (sight, smell, taste, hearing and touch). A wide variety of queer artists from all over Europe will create participatory spaces of experience that are more necessary than ever in a post-corona society. The guests can not only watch performances, talks, art and theater, but can also – taking the necessary health safety measures into account – become artistically active themselves.
After 2 years of pandemic, it is essential for society to get to know and love itself and others anew. The body-positive approach to the event creates a basis for this and provides tools in the form of workshops, courses, talks and interactive games to gently reconnect with yourself and others.
The festival should also offer the possibility of networking – together instead of alone and in the fresh air instead of on the Internet.
The concept was created out of the desire to give queer art a platform and to put it in the center instead of just on the sidelines. We strive for a safeR space for sensual development and physical expression and create ideal framework conditions through our diverse program, which is both participative and just invites you to watch and enjoy.
Numerous workshops, performances & theater productions, live music, DJ sets, a costume corner, talks and discussions will take place on the topics of sensuality, sexuality, gender, utopia, love and connection as part of this festival.
There are seldom places where we can do what we want. Places where we can freely pursue our wishes and forms of expression, where social norms can be filed.
The “Festival of Sensations” is an event that creates such a place: A colorful circus-like, body-positive space, a playground for adults.
Disclamer:
Sensations is made by and is mainly aimed at LGBTIQ+ people.
We are aware that sexual orientation and/or gender identity are only one of many marginalized affiliations – people are not only queer but also experience other forms of marginalization, among them black people and people of color, people with disabilities, old people, fat people, neurodiverse people, people with a migration history or people who are read as migrants, people with low income or low education, etc. When organizing the Festival of Sensations, we strive to take into account the specific needs that arise from different experiences of discrimination and to create the most accessible space possible.
On Festival of Sensations there is no space for:
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people who think there’s only two sexes/genders
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people who “don’t see color”
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people who think that fat people should just exercise more and are unhealthy
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people who think kinky people are sick/perverted
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people who deny disabled people their sexuality
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people who think that poor people are lazy
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people who think that migrants are homophobic and assaultive
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people who think that cis men are the real victims of patriarchy
In our society, queer and fat people as well as people with a migration background often experience the feeling of being excluded, they are stared at and judged. This festival wants to create a safeR framework in which they can express their needs and expressions creatively and artistically. Queer art should be celebrated and the network strengthened. Together instead of alone and in the fresh air instead of on the Internet.
The focus of the event are the three Cs: Consent, Care and Confidentiality – the consent of all those involved, consideration and confidentiality. There is also enough space for your own creativity, experimentation and self-expression. We invite our guests to contribute creatively and not only to consume, but to become part of it.
The non-profit art and culture association “Los Lassen” – Letting go is planning this three-day festival in Hainburg an der Donau in 2022. The venue is a property owned by the Manamana Association, where, depending on the currently valid Corona measures, between 400 visitors are planned. The festival works with a queer-feminist approach and wants to bring the 5 senses to the participants.
Our Team
Sensations is made by and is mainly aimed at LGBTIQ+ people.
Our team consists of young and competent people who want to create a brave space for marginalized groups (LGBTQI + community, BIPoC, disabled people, people with a migration and / or refugee background). We are convinced that queer art does not (yet) have enough space, but because of its emancipatory nature it makes the world a better one.
The event is conceived by the organization team from several events (The Parallel Universe, The Intimate Revolution, Lighthouse Festival) and with partnered associations (Kopf Hoch, Academy for Mindfulness and Intimacy), and thus combines sustainability, art and the queer community . Now they want to bundle their knowledge and commitment and implement this unique concept.
