Murmuration Festival: Celebrating Intersections
- Visitors
This fall, Murmuration Festival will highlight art, technology, science and musicβand their intersections.
Typically, first-time festivals start small and crescendo, coming into their own a few years in. Not the case with Murmuration Festival: This celebration of the innovation and connection points in art, music, science and technology is debuting in a big way Sept. 23-25 at the Cortex Innovation Community.
Ushering Murmuration into its inaugural year are seasoned innovators Dennis Lower, CEO of Cortex, and Brian Cohen, founder of LouFest.
The multidisciplinary event is something Lower has envisioned since a party celebrating the opening of the @4240 building in October 2014:Β When the RSVP count hit 1,400 peopleβthey were expecting 300βLower says he realized a need to capture that βsense of hopefulness and celebrationβ about St. Louisβ innovation community. At the turn of 2016, the event sprang from an idea to a date on the calendar.
βWhen people see the thinking and creativity coming from the city at Murmuration, theyβll have reason to be encouraged and excited again about the St. Louis of tomorrow,β Lower says.
Not all festivals are created equal, and Murmurationβs unique attributesβa makerβs expo, interactive art installations, a large-scale Rube Goldberg machine and a Future Innovators Zone for kidsβset it apart. And with four main focuses, Murmuration intentionally appeals to a wide audience.
βWhatever youβre into, chances are thereβs a way for you to plug into the festival,β says Cohen. “Weβre also giving people a glimpse into the future of our region. The innovation community is leading the way, and every aspect of it will be represented at the festival.β
The thought series covers topics from robots to βArtβs Ability to Predict the Futureβ with speakers like TechShop founder Mark Hatch traveling in just for the occasion.
As for the music series, artists like Tycho and Flying Lotus anchor the out-of-the-box lineup in creativity and style. All of these offerings center around one mission: to broaden attendeesβ awareness of where art, music, science, and technology intersect, while showcasing St. Louis as a city of innovation.
βThe best outcome that can happen is that people will develop a new appreciation of amenities they werenβt aware of in the arts, music and tech communities,β says Phyllis Ellison, Murmuration organizer. βIf we can raise the visibility of what is happening with startups and innovation across all of these avenues, then it will be a job well done.β
Like a true murmuration (the dynamic shapes starlings in flight create as they swarm together), the ideas, inspiration, knowledge and connections built at the festival can be encouragedβbut they canβt be predicted. Still, Lower hopes that the event continues to move the needle for progress in St. Louis.