CONVENANZA

“It seems impossibly fitting, and perfectly weird, that in order to celebrate the life and vision of the late DJ and counter cultural evangelist Andrew Weatherall, once a year pilgrims from all over the world make their way to Carcassonne, a fortified medieval city in the south of France that was home to the Cathar heresy and that is now the spiritual home of gnostic sonics. There is no other festival – no other experience - quite like it. Travelling there over the years has literally altered my DNA. I listen to music, specifically dance music - this music of coming together, this music that dissolves difference, this music of affirmative yea-saying - in a completely different way thanks to Convenanza. There is a warmth to the crowd that I have never experienced anywhere else, a feeling of everyone being on the dance floor, or just hanging at the many beautiful restaurants and bars, together, as one, that is incomparable. The sets that take place outdoors in the castle have been some of the most magical real-time experiences of my life and the way the festival has expanded to take in a literary salon, as well as smaller sets in the Le Bar à Vins, seems perfectly in keeping with Weatherall’s vision of a cross-cultural happening on the very margins of the music industry, not to say of consensus reality. Together, Bernie, Martine, Lizzie, Rusty and Sean have re-visioned the festival as a place of pilgrimage that ensures Andrew Weatherall will live forever, because Convenanza makes it so.”