Youth set to prove its worth at Schoolwave
There’s the annual Rockwave Festival, then came Shockwave – an impromptu one-day event that was hastily thrown together as consolation for a Rockwave that was marred by bad weather – and now comes the first-ever Schoolwave Festival. Scheduled for late next month, Schoolwave will feature budding local high school musical talent. Just over 100 bands, engaging 452 youngsters active mostly in the rock and hip-hop scene, were recently auditioned for approximately 20 places come showtime on June 18 and 19 at the open-air Technopolis venue in Gazi (100 Pireos St). The lucky 20 or so young performers will be short-listed by a panel which will include the veteran music authority Yiannis Petridis, a source of contemporary music information for generations of music lovers here – long before the new-age media explosion – through his long-running program on state radio. Also sitting on the panel will be members of two leading contemporary acts, the pop-rock band Raining Pleasure and hip-hop act Active Member. «The 16 hours of listening is not tiring at all,» remarked Petridis, on his mammoth task as a member of the panel. «It’s satisfying just to know that the music heard is by kids who probably don’t watch Fame Story,» he added, referring to the widely watched reality TV show whose music contestants perform heavily streamlined material. Schoolwave is being organized by the Athens Municipality, the magazine Schooligans, and MESO concert producers, who, incidentally, are preparing their annual street performances around various parts of Athens for Music Day, on June 21.
