A message from the artistic director D. Kimm

The Festival Phénomena is the unusual creature born of the Festival Voix d’Amériques (FVA), which we produced between 2002 and 2011. It is, indeed, a new Festival, but with a seasoned team and a solid network of collaborators.

Of course, some among you will be nostalgic for the FVA, even disappointed that we decided to change. We hear you. It is never easy to see that which we love change.

We needed a change to move ahead and improve what we truly care about: to offer original and breathtaking propositions that are at once avant-gardist and touching; make way for the improbable encounter; and above all, provide a stage for interdisciplinarity, which is not only an accumulation of disciplines, but a way of doing things that takes us out of our comfort zones by cherishing experimentation and transgressing norms.

Phénomena will offer a platform for those who explore and invent, even with limited means. Over the last few years, it seems as though all activity sectors have come to be guided by an obsession for everything big. Big festivals, extravagant budgets, costly infrastructures, full page ads in newspapers, television spots, records here, records there… As though there were no salvation outside of the mega.

For our part, we will leave the mega to those who need it. We have chosen the small, human, delicate, secret, intriguing and disturbing. We want to make way for sincere and different voices. This desire is being given shape through small venues, a soulful neighbourhood, independent artists, crafts-oriented productions, and low budget creations that are nevertheless wildly imaginative. All this is being presented at a VERY reasonable price or, in some cases, free of cost.

All are welcome, intellectuals and neophytes alike, regulars and newcomers, young and old. I’ll be waiting for you, as I will personally be opening the door!