Swedish spelmans (women) conventions have not been a major focus for us, but after three days at the convention this employee found that it could be in place, partly because of this publication’s focus on improvised music, and in a comment during the convention from someone who also had a background as a jazz musician: “Why can’t we have as much fun and excitement at jazz festivals?” .
In short, the Ransäterstevnet is an event where a few thousand (23,000 at most) people of all ages gather to hear concerts, dance, (this can be combined!) play together in varying constellations (mostly fiddles), party, chat and generally be with old and new friends. There are often many of the latter category as well (more on this below), over the course of a few intense days. The most eager arrive on Wednesday evening, and Sunday is mostly a day to pack up and go home.
The event takes place in Ransäter’s homestead in surroundings that are ideal for the purpose. There are four good indoor halls with stages, and space for a few hundred audiences, which at most concerts consists of a large proportion of keen dancers – sometimes a little at the back of the hall with those who just want to listen sitting on the floor in front. Large parts of the program are defined as dance performances, where the audience is expected to mostly dance.
Many concerts are scheduled on the four stages; in addition, there are open times where anyone can sign up for dance performances in half-hour sessions. On Saturday in Norrra Logen, for example, there were 27 bands/ensemble/musicians who had signed up for dance performances, and the event committee had a difficult task of selecting the 16 that had space between 2000 and 0500.
No disadvantage to playing last – still full until the venue closed – before many continued to jam for a few more hours. To put it this way: when the appetizer/brunch opens at 10, there is no queue.
With space for dancing also at the concerts, the distinction between the programmed concerts and the dance games becomes fluid, also in the sense that it is not necessarily only the pure amateurs (but they too!) who take care of the self-registered dance sessions. Highlights (among many; for me) there were Ellika Frisell – who has been at the forefront of Swedish folk music since Filarfolket in the 1970s – with Mexican-born Rafael Sida on inventive Latin-inspired percussion; and Leif Stinnerbom / Mats Edén, also a well-known radar couple from the same period, but less visible as a duo after Leif started his career building up the Västanå theatre near Sunne. In other words, to catch the highlights, it is not enough to read the programme booklet – you also have to follow the playlists that are set up that afternoon.
However, it is not the concerts and dance sessions that are the main motivation for most people for Ransäterstemman; but the many informal jams around. The large camping area is a continuous sounding mass almost around the clock, with a free flow of musicians eager to play between the initially more fixed constellations of groups and environments that have Ransäter as one of their fixed, annual holidays, in line with Christmas and midsummer, but with a completely different content and program.
There are some important prerequisites for such an event to be successful. Partly the event technical knowledge that has been built up through the long history of the event – the first took place in 1971 – and partly the purely physical prerequisites.
Ransäter Hembygdsgård works perfectly; four large concert/dance arenas with a large open outdoor area between; large camping area with room for thousands of visitors; 20 cabins for the VIPs – i.e. the musicians who are hired for concerts and courses – a swimming area by the Klarälven – everything well put together.
Some reflections from someone with as much background in the jazz community as in the folk music community
What is it about Ransäterstemman, which they largely share with many other folk music festivals, also in Norway, that jazz festivals lack?
A lot, and not everything is as easy to define. But one thing is clear:
The audience is active much of the time; either with dancing or their own playing. At jazz festivals, the audience’s activity is largely limited to passive listening to concerts, and somewhat more active social conversation with accompanying food and drink.
Great interaction – both in activity (playing, dancing) and socially between musicians and audience, and between musicians at all levels in the more or less well-defined hierarchies of status.
Great interaction – both in activity (playing, dancing) and socially between musicians and audience, and between musicians at all levels in the more or less well-defined hierarchies of status.
Affordable prices for concerts and courses, combined with cheap (albeit simple) accommodation in the form of camping for most people, and simple cabins for the musicians, mean that the normal thing for both musicians and audience is to be present for the entire event.
At most Norwegian jazz festivals, the price level for tickets and accommodation is such that few (younger, whatever that means today) jazz musicians can afford to be present for the entire festival, unless they have a gig there – and then usually cover their stay in connection with their job.
Jazz was for many years (also) linked to forms of socializing around social dancing; reasonably parallel to folk music. At Ransäter, dance is still alive as a form of socializing, with room for personal expression and far from any display of archaic, museum-like cultural forms. Perhaps it can be said that jazz today places more emphasis on the genre as an art form than as a form of socializing.
In many ways, I could wish for a jazz parallel to Ransäter and similar Norwegian possible role models, not only because it is personally interesting, fun and stimulating, but because it provides some development opportunities for musicians that today’s jazz festivals have little room for.
The pockets and spaces for jamming that exist are of course brilliant. Anyone up for the challenge?
