During four days in mid November, Le Guess Who? takes over the city center of Utrecht with over 200 performances in pop venues, theaters, churches, galleries and warehouses. Satellite events with music, film, visual art, photography and markets appear at cafés, hotels, restaurants, wharf cellars, the central square and the hidden corners of the city. Stages are the music venues of Utrecht (TivoliVredenburg, De Helling, EKKO, dB's, etc.), but also theaters, clubs and the main churches of the city (like for example the Dom Church and Jacobikerk).
The line-up consists of acts that rarely perform in the Netherlands or acts that have their first show there. The first edition in 2007 only featured Canadian acts but nowadays the festival has many international acts that make an appearance.[1] Le Guess Who? celebrates diversity and inclusivity,[2] focusing on artists that feel the urge to explore and expand the boundaries of certain genres and it features non-western sounds, jazz, folk, ambient, drone, avant-garde, modern composed, as well as contemporary pop and rock culture, and many blended forms of these genres.
Initially, the festival focused exclusively on bands from Canada. With the line-up of the third edition (2009) this tradition became less strict and bands from other countries also performed. In 2010, at the fourth edition, the premise of only Canadian avant-garde music was completely abandoned and the programmers began to focus on music from all over the world. In 2007 the festival lasted two days, three in 2008, four in 2009, five in 2010, again three days in 2011 and four days in the following years. The line-ups included:[7]
Le Guess Who? includes several satellite events which take place around the festival in Utrecht, during the main program.
Lombok Festival: a freely accessible festival that celebrates the cultural diversity of the Lombok district, initiated in collaboration with various locations, musicians, key figures and residents of this part of Utrecht. During Lombok Festival, various performances and cultural activities are organized; besides music performances, there are exhibitions, poetry readings, lectures, dance performances and special collaborations.[13]
Le Mini Who?: a spin-off festival of Le Guess Who?. It turns studios, cafes and art spaces of Utrecht into improvised venues for (mainly) Dutch underground acts to play.[14]
Untitled: this satellite event explores the many artistic expressions and perspectives of the artists performing at Le Guess Who?, as well as the exhibitions curated by art and design organizations in Utrecht.[15]
Other projects
In addition to the regular program, Le Guess Who? organizes various free accessible satellite events and education projects. The project Le Feast creates a connection between the city of Utrecht and national and international festival visitors, who are guests for a brunch in several local living rooms.[16]
The festival recently started an education program with schools, in and around Utrecht, where students immerse themselves in the background of a festival artist and create a visual work, then exhibited during the festival in TivoliVredenburg.
In recent years the festival also became a productions unit that releases music records, live videos and more.[17] Examples are Mount Eerie's live album "After" (recorded during the artist's live show at Le Guess Who?[18]) the audiovisual project of Jerusalem in My Heart with a fifteen-piece ensemble from Beirut, or the collaboration between Circuit des Yeux and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra.[19]
