Festival Incubate won’t exist from 2017 on

The festival Incubate in Tilburg will not continue in 2017. The Municipality of Tilburg decided not to provide any more funding in 2017. The organization of Incubate finds it financially irresponsible to continue and will cease its activities.

“Incubate is proud to have been able to create a festival with exciting, creative, cutting-edge arts in the past 13 years, together with its 500+ volunteers and partners. We have thus inspired many other musicians, artists, organizers and festivals, and we hope that they use some of that impact for their own future,” said Miriam van Ommeren and Arthur Janssen on behalf of Incubate.

Incubate was a well-known multidisciplinary festival which attracted thousands of artists and then thousands of visitors throughout the year. The festival had a very broad program: it brought a wide variety of musical styles (from metal to electronic music to jazz), theatre, cinema and visual art. All these happened in bars, galleries and pubs throughout the city. Since their start in 2008 they were able to bring artists like Fields of Nephilim, Psychic TV, Sun Ra Arkestra, Wardruna and Aura Noir. They also created a platform for themes like piracy in the arts, public participation and innovative art. Speakers like Charles Leadbeater, Simon Reynold and Andrew Keen gave lectures on the festival. Big artists like Hermann NitschSantiago Sierra and Wendy White were invited. But also small and upcoming artists got a chance to expose their art.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9InF-ZgSGU

The organization says it’s heavily disappointed that the Municipality of Tilburg chose to lose this world-wide renown festival. They hope that the municipality will choose to use the released money to good, accessible art and culture for the city and the region. Incubate won’t organize any more festivals, but will still exist for now.