Next week, Lucavsala, Riga and Latvia will be swept by the Positivus wave
The loudest and most visible event of the year in Latvian popular music life - the Positivus festival, which will take place on July 15 and 16 at a new location in Lucavsala - has quietly arrived. Ģirts Majors, the head of the concert agency Positivus Music, is optimistic about the festival and its future, although there are also reasons for some worries and reflections.
The decision to move to Lucavsala is confirmed to be the right one
About nine months ago, like a bolt from the blue, the news broke that after thirteen years in Salacgrīva, Positivus had decided to start a new era and move to Riga in 2022. There were many reasons for this, one of the main ones being that Salacgrīva's Fishermen's Park had exhausted its (and the festival's) capacity, there was simply no room for growth, and Ģirts Majors' team clearly wanted to prove themselves in wider waters. "The real conclusions will probably only come after the event, but at least so far there have been no unpleasant surprises at all. The more we work, the more we plan, the more we are convinced that Lucavsala is a special place where we can create and make a lot, because this area is optimal for such an event. It creates a feeling of wilderness, of being away from the city, while at the same time being so close to the very center of the city. We are just falling more and more in love with the place," says Ģirts, reflecting on the decision.
20,000 visitors a day are expected
Lucavsala is a very large area, and the maximum capacity of the big events held there, such as the Ed Sheeran or Rammstein concerts, was 40,000-50,000 visitors, but Positivus is counting on up to 20,000 people a day. This means that there will be enough room for growth for a very long time. "Tickets for the festival are bought very late - usually half of the festival tickets are bought in the last few weeks. So we can only predict the total number of tickets sold, but the figures at the moment are going towards that number [20,000 people a day]. Historically, there has only been one occasion when one day of the festival was completely sold out, and Saturday will be better attended this time, and always has been, but I think tickets will still be available even on the very last day," Ģirts encourages the undecided about their plans for the week ahead.
Has the Positive Festival become "hip-hopized"?
There are two concerns about the format of Positivus 2022: 1) the visitors felt that much of the magic was in the fact that the festival took place surrounded by untouched nature, where experiencing the rhythm of city life was quite conditional (as much as going to the Salacgrīva petrol station for cigarettes), but Lucavsala is still Riga, and basically its center; 2) until now, alternative and other wild styles of music have dominated PF, but this year it has been completely "hip-hopized". Will Positivus fans find this at all interesting?
"I wouldn't agree that there has been a change [in the festival's format], this is more of an experiment," says Ģirts Majors. "Because of the pandemic, basically nothing has happened [in the concert life] for three years, but in that time the world of pop music has changed a lot - completely different things have become topical. We want to present the current and popular music of the moment, and hip-hop is the driving style of the moment. We haven't had any concerts in this genre at all, but now it has come together so that a large part of the festival program is really from this genre. But does that mean that Positivus has now become a hip-hop festival? Absolutely not!"
Super-hot artists at a super-high price
The head of Positivus Music stresses that the festival's main feature - to offer artists who are hot right now or will be tomorrow - has remained unchanged. "We have always been like this: if we can get a current popular music artist, we are very happy to invite them. Of course, it's not like going to the candy table and picking out the best and tastiest - you have to see what you can get from what's on offer. But this time it has all come together in such a way that we've really been able to get the super-hot names, and we're also putting the pedal to the metal - we're upping all our financial risks and we've taken these super-hot but also super expensive artists to show the market that this festival is being reborn on a new level," says Ģirts. "It's important that the program represents the current artists of the moment, and this year I think we've done that as well as we ever have when you look at Positivus against the backdrop of other European festivals. But next year, maybe we'll look at a different genre."
And also: "I will be interested to see how the audience will receive what is not even remotely similar in the current hip-hop genre in this region - not only in Latvia, but in the whole Baltics. I want to see how the public will receive an artist like Megan Thee Stallion, who is the future queen of pop music. Her style is very far from what we are used to seeing."
Starring A$AP Rocky and Megan Thee Stallion
As for the headliners of Positivus, A$AP Rocky, Megan Thee Stallion and Jamie xx should probably be mentioned in the front row.
New York hip-hop star A$AP Rocky (real name Rakim Athelaston Mayers) has collaborated with almost every major artist in the genre, including Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Frank Ocean, Tyler, The Creator, Skepta, FKA Twigs, London On Da Track, 2 Chainz, Yelawolf and more, also proving his ability to blend the seemingly incompatible, creating popular tracks with artists such as Tame Impala and Moby. A$AP Rocky's greatest trump card, however, is his debut album "Long. Live. A$AP", which came out way back in 2013 (his discography includes three studio albums in total) and sold more than two million copies, but his name still carries enough weight. If nothing else, he can be noted for being with pop and R&B superstar Rihanna, as well as a series of scandals that have required police intervention...
It's a different story with Megan Thee Stallion, real name Megan Jovon Ruth Pete, who is billed by PF organizers as "an absolutely global music phenomenon, a cultural icon and one of the hottest names in female hip-hop". They’re not even really lying (just exaggerating), as she has won three Grammy Awards (for "Savage") and other accolades, but her current project is a collaboration with pop star Dua Lipa on the song "Sweetest Pie". Jamie xx is best known as the leader of The xx, and this band is still well remembered by PF-goers after their successful performance at the 2013 festival.
Other confirmed artists include The Avalanches, Asaf Avidan, Caribou, Thundercat, Yves Tumor & Its band, SoFaygo, Bas, black midi, Black Country, New Road, ansis, Citi zēni, Arturs Skutelis, rolands če, Būū, Edavārdi, Prusax, Viņa, Sudden Lights, Sigma, Elizabete Gaile, Muud, Ods, Zeļģis, Nova Koma, $ourJ, Wiesulis, Tribes Of The City, Chris Noah, etc.
Positivus is not yet affected by the world's woes
It is still very risky to organize big public events: every now and then something has to be cancelled because of the ever-living Covid, life around the world has been turned upside down by the war in Ukraine, and there are transport logistics problems in Europe (cancelled flights, etc.), which means that until the last minute the organizers cannot be sure that everything will go according to their carefully worked-out script. "Some higher power has protected us from all this so far, because [Positivus Music] started its active concert life already in June [with Imagine Dragons at Mežaparks' Grand Stage and Iron Maiden at Arena Riga], and so far all the concerts have taken place. Unfortunately, both the Covid issue and the travel problems in Europe are currently affecting practically every festival, and it remains to be seen whether all the artists will actually be able to make it to the festival. Most of the time, musicians fly out only on the day of the performance, which means that various risks will remain with us until the last minute, but that's the situation in Europe and all over the world at the moment," says Ģirts Majors. "But we should be happy that at least something can happen, and I would even say that this is the main goal of this year - to show that this event can still happen in these conditions."