about
BIG BANG is an exciting music festival for young audiences for whom several major cultural centres in Europe will transform their venue into an adventurous musical labyrinth. On their journey, the young audience are faced with and will experience a colourful musical program of concerts, installations and workshops. With BIG BANG musicians from different genres and styles explore the best way for kids to present their music. BIG BANG is not just a festival for young audiences but also involves them as participants. For each session, an professional musician opens a dialogue with young singers and instrumentalists and shares the stage with them.
The festival builds on the legacy and achievements of the children's music festival OORSMEER founded by Wouter Van Looy in 1995. With OORSMEER, he created a platform for artistic modern music programming specifically for children, in which contemporary styles of music have a place. The first session at the Arts Centre Vooruit in Ghent, immediately proved the success of the original festival concept. In recent years OORSMEER has enjoyed equal success and popularity in many cities across Europe including Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, Hasselt (Belgium), Utrecht, Den Bosch, Amersfoort, Leeuwarden (Netherlands), Lille, Angers (France), Zurich, Bern, Winterthur ( Switzerland).
With BIG BANG, OORSMEER begins a new chapter. Zonzo Company, the organization behind OORSMEER, gathered six European partners and in 2010 formed BIG BANG - the European music festival for young and adventurous audiences. With the support of the European Union, the structural cooperation between various cultural centres in different regions of Europe became a reality. Together they defend a joint mission, to present the richness of music in an imaginative and adventurous way that is accessible to children.
The programming of each edition of the festival is led by Zonzo Compagnie duo Wouter Van Looy (artistic director) in close cooperation with local partners. The original festival concept of OORSMEER, will be thoroughly re-examined, challenged, and used as a springboard of inspiration by the European partners. In the wake of the festival, there will be regular meetings to exchange ideas and projects as well as setting up co-productions.
