The future of the free annual techno festival at Hart Plaza in Detroit over the long Labour Day weekend at the end of May, originally the Detroit Electronic Music Festival, subsequently the Detroit Electronic Movement Festival, but known to techno enthusiasts as the "DEMF", had briefly appeared to be in doubt following an announcement in late January that Derrick May (Transmat), who had taken the role of lead organiser for DEMF in the last 2 years, would not be participating in the organisation of a festival in 2005.
However news filtered out in the last couple of weeks in the local Detroit press (and indeed earlier on the websites and message boards that constitute Detroit's "electronic underground") that techno pioneer Kevin Saunderson has signed a 3 year contract with the City of Detroit to promote the annual techno festival. Since Derrick May owns the copyright to the "Movement" name, the festival will be known as "Fuse-In Detroit: Electronic Movement". The official festival website, www.fuse-indetroit.com has just gone "live".
While in the past the festival has received civic funding from the City of Detroit, Saunderson will receive no such sponsorship for his festival organisation, and indeed May cited heavy financial losses and the stress of finding adequate sponsorship for the festival as one of his reasons for stepping back from organising DEMF this year. Given the lack of civic sponsorship and the late start to organising this year's festival, Barbara Deyo (the festival's publicity director) said that one option might be to make this year's festival a ticketed event with passes in the $5-$12 price range. This would be in contrast to previous festivals which have been free admission.
The festival will have a different feel with Kevin Saunderson at the helm. Deyo noted in an interview with a local Detroit newspaper that Saunderson's aim with FUSE-in Detroit was to have "more live acts, a wider variety of music. Kevin really wants to show the crossover between genres, and broaden the festival's horizons." FUSE-in Detroit will run 12pm-12am at Hart Plaza on May 28th, 29th and 30th. RA will keep you updated as more news emerges.
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