Text: Katrine Kynde Knudsen
Four years ago, UMTO – UngeMiljøernes TakeOver – didn’t exist at all. This year, over 50 young people from the organization are ready to take over one of the most central cultural venues in Aarhus, as they are entrusted with the responsibility of preparing Ridehuset to welcome musicians and festival guests on Saturday, May 4th, during SPOT 2024.
However, this significant task, involving planning, curation, setup, and execution of the stage area, doesn’t fall on an inexperienced team. In fact, this is the third consecutive year that UMTO is part of SPOT Festival, after managing the stages in Rå Hal at Godsbanen in both 2022 and 2023.
Marie Qvist is one of UMTO’s members. She talks about the organization’s wild growth:
“In 2022, Fermaten in Herning and SPOT brought together several youth environments from Jutland and gave them Rå Hal to create something cool during SPOT Festival. And that’s how UMTO was created,” she says and continues:
“Because the execution in 2022 went so well, UMTO quickly grew bigger. We have gained many more members, and we have been co-producers of several major cultural events – such as Kulturmødet Mors, Aarhus Festuge, and now, for the third time, SPOT Festival.”
UMTO shows the cultural scene what young people are capable of
When UMTO’s members dedicate their time and effort to collaborate with SPOT Festival over the next two months, it’s with a tried-and-tested structure. Marie Qvist, who is the production manager for the event this year, explains that the experience of the last two years has undoubtedly helped the organization find its form:
“New challenges still arise, of course, but things like production plans, booking, and stage setup have become easier because we’ve done it before. We know from experience that we can handle this,” says Marie Qvist.
UMTO’s great self-confidence also seems to have rubbed off on the cultural scene as a whole. According to several members, it’s clear that the industry has started to recognize the abilities of young people – and that has influenced the organization’s goals for the future.
“In the short term, our goal is, of course, to have fun and create a mega cool party at Ridehuset in May – we want to live up to last year, where we had more than 2500 people come through, and everyone had a good experience,” says Marie Qvist and continues:
“But in the grand scheme, UMTO’s goal is to show the cultural scene that young people are competent and capable of a lot when given the chance. Somewhere in there, the dream is for people to stop seeing us as ‘youth actors’ and just recognize us as actors on equal footing with all sorts of other cultural organizations,” concludes Marie Qvist.
Tekst: Katrine Kynde Knudsen
For fire år siden eksisterede UMTO – UngeMiljøernes TakeOver – slet ikke. I år står over 50 unge fra organisationen på spring for at overtage en af de mest centrale kulturlokationer i Aarhus, når de under SPOT 2024 får ansvaret for, at Ridehuset er helt klar til at byde musikere og festivalgæster velkommen lørdag d. 4. maj.
Den store opgave, der omfatter både planlægning, kuratering, opbygning og afvikling af sceneområdet, tilfalder dog ikke noget uerfarent hold. Faktisk er det nu tredje år i træk, at UMTO er en del af SPOT Festival, efter at de i både 2022 og 2023 stod for afviklingen af scenerne i Rå Hal på Godsbanen.
Marie Qvist er et af UMTOs medlemmer. Om organisationens vilde vækst fortæller hun:
“I 2022 samlede Fermaten i Herning og SPOT en række jyske byers ungemiljøer og forærede dem Rå Hal til at lave noget fedt under SPOT Festival. Og sådan blev UMTO skabt,” siger hun og fortsætter:
“Fordi afviklingen i 2022 gik så godt, voksede UMTO sig hurtigt større. Vi er blevet mange flere medlemmer, og vi har været medaktører til flere af de helt store kulturevents – for eksempel Kulturmødet Mors, Aarhus Festuge og nu for tredje gang SPOT Festival.”
UMTO viser kulturlivet, hvad unge kan
Når UMTOs medlemmer i løbet af de kommende to måneder lægger deres tid og kræfter i samarbejdet med SPOT Festival, sker der altså med en efterhånden afprøvet struktur. Marie Qvist, der i år er produktionsansvarlig for eventet, fortæller, at de sidste to års erfaring uden tvivl har hjulpet organisationen med at finde sin form:
“Der dukker selvfølgelig stadig nye udfordringer op, men sådan nogle ting som produktionsplaner, booking og opbygning af scene er blevet nemmere, fordi vi har prøvet det før. Vi ved af erfaring, at vi kan klare det her,” siger Marie Qvist.
UMTOs store tiltro til sig selv virker samtidig til at have smittet af på kulturlivet som helhed. Ifølge flere af medlemmerne kan man tydeligt mærke, at branchen er begyndt at få øjnene op for de unges evner – og det har påvirket organisationens mål for fremtiden.
“På kort sigt er vores mål selvfølgelig, at vi skal have det sjovt og lave en mega fed fest i Ridehuset til maj – vi vil gerne leve op til sidste år, hvor vi fik mere end 2500 mennesker igennem og alle havde en god oplevelse,” siger Marie Qvist og fortsætter:
“Men på den store klinge er UMTOs mål at vise kulturlivet, at unge mennesker er kompetente og kan utroligt meget, når vi får lov. Et eller andet sted er drømmen, at folk stopper med at se os som ‘ungeaktører’ og bare anerkender os som aktører på lige fod med alle mulige andre kulturorganisationer,” afslutter Marie Qvist.
