The INOTA festival distinguished itself as one of the most extraordinary music events, uniting arts, music, and human connections within the unique setting of an industrial powerplant. Through the 31st-3rd of August 2023 in the town of Várpalota, just an hour’s train journey from Budapest, the deserted Inota powerplant was revitalised to host more than 100 musicians/artists and an estimated 15,000 attendees. As a joint-initiative of the Veszprém-Balaton 2023 European capital of culture programme and the NVC and Centrum Production, the festival was dreamed to invite and unite culture through this artistic spectacular.
To set the scene: the INOTA powerplant built in the 1950s, provided electricity for half a century in Hungary, whist simultaneously functioning as a hub for labour during the country’s communist era. Hosting three remarkable 60-metre cooling towers, a turbine hall, boiler room, and canteen, the venue weaved the industrial past of energy production with the production of arts. Despite the 225,000 square metre area, festival organisers provided an excellent layout ensuring a balanced and manageable area for festivalgoers to become emerged in the plant whilst ensuring their safety. Hosting a variety of electronic music, the festival instantly stood out as something uniquely independent to other events.
Upon entering the festival with two of my best mates, we were instantly exhilarated by the electrified light display that wrapped around the intricate factory structures. Watching the primary outside stage; ‘energy field’ it was surreal to witness its booming music placed next to the three cooling towers that were ignited with intricate light displays and advertisement. The rest of the stages were all inside: Turbine Hall, Concert Hall, and the Canteen. Each of which retaining their own sense of historical originality whilst being transformed into a venue for music. Walking around the festival we were guided by fences and signs cutting of the neglected landscape. These paths neatly and efficiently took us through food trucks and visual displays from local Hungarian and worldwide artists.
The main ‘energy field’ stage was home to some of the main artists to perform ranging from dark postpunk group: Lebanon Hanover to UK electronic sounds from the likes of Overmono and Daniel Avery. Giving a classic ‘festival vibe’ to a powerplant, the energy field certainly lived up to its name, providing large crowds and a thumping range of music. In contrast to this metal framed festival stage, the Turbine Hall hosted the more unorthodox dark and heavy techno set-up. Techno-giants such as Oscar Mulero and Ellen Allien took control of this Berlin-club-esque industrial room thumping out mixes that you could feel through your chest. The atmosphere in this room provided relentless movement and energy maintaining that uncontrollable desire to dance that was integral to keeping the festival moving onward to 7am.
The concert hall furnished a different approach to electronic music, taking the more ambient and peaceful route. From Max Cooper to the Hungarian local, Gábor Lázár, audiences who purchased the Concert Hall add-on ticket indulged in emotional and mentally intense electronica and visual performances within the setting of a theatre. With rows of padded seating and theatre curtains hung up to the side of the stage, it was clear to imagine how this was used within the power plants commune as entertainment for the workers. To sit in those seats and watch an electronic performance for entertainment made me really ponder on how surreal and unique of an experience this festival was. Not every day you get the opportunity to watch great music in an abandoned Hungarian nuclear powerplant…
Finally, the canteen stage based within the dining quarters of the power plant pumped out many young aspiring local Hungarian DJ’s mixes and gave a fun and bouncy space to dance in. However, the secret beauty of the canteen venue was in fact the secret garden, again providing light displays but this time through trees and greenery. In the very back of the garden was a chill space hosting bean bags and hammocks that accommodated those that needed some time to relax or to take something to pick them up (vitamins of course).
The most notable feature was the festival’s ability to sneak in visual arts within the power plant without taking away from its brutalist nature. From lit up trees and casual RGB lighting, each aspect of this design was crafted for a naturally mesmerising setting. For example, rubble from past abandonment had been experimented with and lit-up to create and incredible deep red mess of steel, rock and earth that shimmered next to the boiler room experience. Within the boiler room, the ‘onion lab’ Barcelona based studio explored the semi-abandoned power plant using a 4D scanning software to translate 3D data into touch design and create a digital landscape of the room. Using this, the team was able to generate laser lights and strobes to transform space with new energy and create the most insane and unforgettable light show that emersed viewers into the very brutalist nature of the plant’s architecture. Furthermore, lightshows going up the middle of the cooling towers created hour long queues just to view the 5-minute sensation, Sections of galleries showcased local fine art and graphic works from the local area providing a great space for young artists to lift their talent.
The idea of this festival was to combine his derelict space with art and unite it within community and culture. The outcome was unimaginable, never in my life would I think I would be raving at an abandoned soviet style power-plant in the middle of Hungary to some huge names within the electronic music scene. To be able to project feelings within music is special, and especially special when done so without lyrics to captivate those emotions. Whilst this can be dependent on your state of mind, people and all sorts of variables, this festival provided one of the most uniquely incredible platforms and events that I could imagine I would attend. Not to mention how pleasantly surprised I was of the visual arts team that bought a whole new aspect to the weekend for everyone to appreciate and explore. The future is uncertain for this festival as it was only taken afloat by funding from the capital of culture programme, however, midway through working on this article I was surprised to see a day event taking place in the turbine hall mid-July providing hope that the festival can grow and maintain its positive momentum in the future.
Article by Freddy Alexander
