Behind every great music festival stands a passionate founder. Whether that founder is one or many people, there is always a beautiful ambition that starts with an idea and blossoms into a gathering. In this exclusive interview with Bosque Hrbek, founder of Symbiosis Gathering, he shares his mission, philosophies, "human animalism" and much more, divulging the seeds of the mind that grew this gathering.
Morena: Who is the core team that puts together Symbiosis?
Bosque: A gathering of this scale with so many moving parts and facets definitely attracts a certain type of person. Over the last decade, the gathering has been produced by a revolving cast of friends and family and at this point it is hard to name "the core team" of this large scale collaborative experiment. There are probably around 50 people who make Symbiosis what it is and if they did not take part it would not be the same. This includes key crew members, artists, musicians and then all the way down to that one naked dancing guy and after this year that number will for sure grow to an even larger cast of characters.
Morena: What is your mission and philosophy on music festivals/gatherings?
Bosque: The mission has always been to bring together numerous different subcultures who have a similar ethos, but normally might not share common space. It's an amalgamation. The philosophy behind Symbiosis has always been to create not just another music festival, but something novel. Rather than have music be front and center, we wanted the goal to be the creation of a community. The music is just the vehicle to get us toward that ideal community. The inception for SG came from traveling around the world and spending time with all sorts of different communities and cultures. We saw how people who came from completely different worlds gathered together and shared and created so much together and we wanted to bring a gathering like that back to the U.S.
Morena: How did you arrive upon the name Symbiosis?
Bosque: It came out of the overall mission. Things like Balance and Harmony were thrown around, and then while meditating on it (hanging upside down) it just landed into my head. It's nice to bring this word which resonates both harmony and balance back into the conversation, as many people don't generally have a reason to use the word. We are informed by our environment and I like to think of an environment where there is talk of symbiosis, of living with all elements balanced. It's also funny as I was scrolling through Wikipedia a few years ago and saw that the word symbiosis was rooted Greek for the meaning of "together" and "living" which is community. So at the same time by calling this event Symbiosis we are bringing it back to its root meaning of community.
Morena: What has been one of the biggest struggles with the gathering and what obstacles have you overcome?
Bosque: Honestly, it's a challenge to find a venue where many thousands of people can gather. Land is the key: creating a context for the environments we dream up, finding a place to actually do what we want to do. Space, traffic, as well as noise are all huge considerations when doing large mass gatherings with sound systems. Most important of all, it needs to actually be somewhere we want to be. A beautiful place in nature. Plenty of room. A welcoming local community. Having produced different incarnations of what we are doing at five different locations and more than one continent has been a struggle, but also a gift at the same time. We've embraced the nomadism. There will always be times when the name or the event travels. The upcoming 2017 Oregon Eclipse is one example, but at the same time we feel we may have found our home now. The venue we are in, Woodward Reservoir, is a great canvas to create the event we've always wanted, and our relations with the local authorities and the nearby community is strong.
Being an international gathering people come from all over the world to participate and take part in the magic. Of course it is curated and organized, but also there is a bit of magical thinking, watching what happens when you put this person next to the person with whatever complementary or symbiotic art form they may have. So rather than producing a show, we are organizing an experience. Bringing in all the ingredients and then letting some of those things actually take life and mix with other aspects, that can be both very challenging but immensely rewarding. This is one of the things that people may not notice about Symbiosis and what makes it fun for us because even before the event we don't know what it will be. In some ways, we approach this production less as a movie set or theatrical production, and more as a disaster relief kinda thing. And then of course there's the money and financing aspect. Gambling is hard work!
Morena: Are there any changes or improvements you are working on? What does the future of Symbiosis look like?
Bosque: We are always looking to improve things at the Gathering as well as bring new things into the mix. Part of it is trying to make the Gathering as user-friendly as possible. This is the first time we will be coming back to the same venue since 2007, so this is an opportunity to change things from the last year in a way that we have not been able to do in a long time. Layout, crowd flow, stages, entrances and exits, experiences, and so many other things are being reconsidered and remixed from a place of knowing the land rather than just guessing how to use the land. We curate the music in a fashion that keeps people moving between stages, making for a far more dynamic experience for both production and attendees. We are also working on including more non-musical elements into the show, both educational as well as more fun and games.
In the near future we are continuing to align with more celestial events if it is the equinox like we always have in September or if it is an eclipse. This is one of the things that makes us different from other festivals. In 2017 there will be a total solar eclipse passing through the US, and we are finalizing a site as we speak that will bring together many collectives from around the globe to truly create a unifying moment. More news coming very soon!
Morena: What is your favorite color and animal?
Bosque: When I was a kid it was purple, then it moved into browns, burnt orange, and maybe green. Black has been a color I wear a lot. What does favorite mean anyway?
As for an animal, humans are pretty interesting. Either I can never get enough of them, or I totally can't stand them. Growing up going to festivals and concerts, being in crowds, people-watching, and being unified with so many people but also trying to maintain one's individuality at the same time, that's always interesting. Creating a place for people to gather and share in our animal humanism, or human animalism has always been fun.
Morena: How and when was the "We Are Symbiosis" series born?
Bosque: A few of us were sitting around talking about what makes this Gathering different from all these other festivals and we kept coming back to the people. From there we deepened the conversation, into who among us are symbiotic with our community in some way, or have a symbiotic relationship with our art form and work, or quite simply had really interesting stories to tell. As we've mentioned, there are many aspects of festivals that are similar from event to event, but what really makes Symbiosis special are the people who come together in collaboration and co-creation. So the series was born. We hope to keep it rolling out to show and share the vast diverse group of people that participate in creating this community.