20 years of OUT.FEST

The perception of time is an integral part of the acts of creating and listening to music. Many of the Musics that have shaped OUT.FEST, in particular, are mechanisms that subvert the passage of time and our perception of it - how long did this concert last? 15 minutes? 1 hour? 3 hours? Each person's answer depends on much more than the measurable fact. We measure the time of a concert mainly by the places it takes us to, the way it alters our consciousness, the number of thoughts that come and go without us realizing, the absence of thought, the body's activity while listening, the distractions around us.

The facts tell us "20 years," but our perceptions (and/or our memory of those perceptions) can simultaneously tell us "10 years," "5 years," a whole lifetime, yesterday. 

The truth is: yes, in 2004, we started something called OUT.FEST, which may have been nothing more than an unthought translation of a deep, underlying impulse of ours, and of so many others, to share music that we love, that we believe everyone should love, and that we often couldn't understand why it wasn't universally loved; from that year 0 to the 2024 we are in now, little has changed, and everything has changed - the impulse persists, but it has been gradually shaped by identity, ideas, ways of doing and undoing, words to communicate, sensitivity, love and disappointment for the city that created it, difficulties and the privilege of being able to overcome them, the audiences, the Music itself, Listening itself, the whole World which is always the same and yet new every day.

Here we are, then, in 2024, for the 20th edition of your OUT.FEST. We mark the occasion, first, by our continued dedication to the Sounds that continue to fascinate us - nothing matters more than this desire to share and thrust them into discovery, honoring the trust placed in our Ears year after year; then, by embarking on the recording of this bit of History in written form, with a commemorative book that, just like this two-decade journey, was built without a set horizon or pre-defined plan; also by occupying the city's most central space with photographs by "our" Vera Marmelo - one for each year of the festival so far; and finally, with a return to our Sunday epilogues, this time expanded into a plural and inquisitive anniversary celebration, in the best spirit of Barreiro, which built us and which we, in our way, celebrate and honor each year.

Five days await us - of Music that cannot be explained but can only be shared. Come with us.