Musical Chairs – a Special Concert during the La Folle Journée Festival

How to entice the greatest possible number of young people to listen to classical music? How to convince them that the concert hall is also for them? The answer lies in “Musical Chairs”.

The organisers of this year’s edition of the La Folle Journée festival have made it an objective to arouse the interest of the greatest possible number of young people to attend the concerts, especially those who hitherto haven’t had much in exposure to classical music. This objective is as much ambitious, as it is nearly impossible to deliver. Despite the fact that the open formula of the festival, an extensive programme of concerts and low ticket prices all serve to make it attractive, there is still a barrier in young people’s minds, which says: “Classical music? No, that’s not for me.”

How, then, to overcome the stereotype which is so widespread among young people, that classical music is inaccessible? The answer to the problem lies in a special concert held as part of the festival and given the name “Musical Chairs”.

A game was started two weeks before the concert, with young people drawn in to participate. The playing area consists of nearly fifty (!) of the most popular Warsaw pubs, clubs and cafés. The mechanism is very simple. Anyone, who finds a specially marked chair in a club or pub has a chance of winning a free ticket to a special concert during the La Folle Journée festival. What’s most important, they will be able to listen to the concert sitting in exactly the same chair which they found in the club.

The special “Musical Chairs” concert is an event without precedent among classical music concerts. On 29 September, an audience sitting on club couches, bar stools and café chairs will listen to a performance by the Motion Trio. The festival organisers have provided for 100 seats, but it is already certain that many more listeners are anticipated to attend.

“It is very rarely that agencies have an opportunity of working together with such a renowned client in the creation of such important cultural events. The opportunity of working on this project is a great honour for us” says Mariusz Pitura, creative director of JWT Warszawa, the agency which came up with and implemented the concept, with support from the Blueberry interactive agency.

Musical Chairs – Special Concert during La Folle Journee 2012 (pdf)