PRESENTING: JETLAG FESTIVAL 2019 - UTOPIA
Everyone knows the word Utopia. We use it as a stand-in for all sorts of unrealistic fantasies. From Plato's State to World Communism, to our own naive daydreams and wishful thinking, all of it is Utopia.
Meanwhile, initially Utopia was the name for an island. A mythic island of peaceful, just, and joyous life, invented by Thomas More, a renowned philosopher who greatly anticipated a better world.
The Ancient Greek meaning of "ou-topia" is “non-place", or a non-existing place. But linguists consider that it also could have been "eu-topia", or "a good place", which is a proper metaphor for the bright future.
Back to More’s Utopia - an island that has everything. But why an island? Because it is a separate reality, an autonomous zone, an immediately better world.
Utopia is really the best teacher. From it, we learn to strive for the impossible and to make it happen.
JetLAG has always been Utopian. To feature Lenya Fedorov at a Russian open-air "slyot" was a utopia. To make the unprecedented, unrepeatable miracle-like gathering happen again was a utopia, too. To eventually find a loud-night-set-friendly campsite in the natural wonderland of Peaceful Valley was utterly utopian. And so it was to produce a huge annual festival with no sponsors or grants, building merely on the collective enthusiasm and commitment of its people, getting bigger, better, and tastier every year. To achieve the unique effect of creative co-working between three generations, two or more cultures, many different value systems and lifestyles: if this is not utopian, the concept makes no sense. But we did it. And together we will do more.
Welcome to Utopia, I-Topia, S/he-Topia, Whoever-Are-They-topia! Welcome to the We-topia that we create together. Welcome to JetLAG, a perfect space for all of us to make apparently utopian dreams come true. And to conceive new ones.
