Phantom- or growing pains? : On the conditions of playing live music in the post-capital of culture Umeå

When performing music in front of a live audience place factors in greatly, both for musicians and audiences. It is often something most people don’t think of, but it’s essential for having a memorable and safe experience, according to your expectations as either musician or audience member. But what happens when there is a disconnection between place and musician/audience? In 2014 the city of Umeå was announced as that years European capital of culture. To get that title the municipality of Umeå had used the cities great number of active musicians to be rewarded with the title of capital of culture. However, these local musicians did not get to take part in this celebration and were unrepresented in the year long program. Also, in combination with the lack of representation, a couple of beloved local venues used for live music where either moved away from central Umeå or closed down. This led to a period of musicians either having a hard time to play live shows, or playing liveshows on stages where they could perform their music as intended. The lack of an obvious scene for live music also led to difficulties of attracting audiences because of having shows in places around town where people never had experienced live music before. Keywords: Local music, music scenes, place, representation, culture politics