From the 14th till the 21st of September, the inner city of Tilburg will be the center of independent culture. For the fourth time the ZXZW-festival will be held in over 30 locations in the Dutch town. From a squat to the mayors room. From music venue to museum.

The main focus of ZXZW is the independent culture and its makers. Expect a diverse view on indie culture as a whole, including music, contemporary dance, film and visual arts. In an intimate climate, over 200 cutting edge artists present themselves to an international public. The festival gives a stage to pioneers from the past and talent for the future. Black metal next to free jazz. Street art next to academic dance.

Among the pioneers are post-punk band Wire, noise artist Z’EV and free jazz ensemble Sun Ra Arkestra. ZXZW has a special Sun Ra-program. The Sun Ra Arkestra will play six exclusive shows during the festival, each day focusing on a different period, a Sun Ra exhibition, workshops, lectures and movies.

Young talent can be found in Cadence Weapon, Goldielocks, Otto von Shirach, Ponytail and Jeremy Jay amongst others.

Besides music, the ZXZW festival also presents modern dance, movies and art. There will be an exposition on the works of photographer Peter Beste, a concert posters convention presented by the American poster Institute (API) and guerillaknitters Knitta will decorate the city of Tilburg.

ZXZW also gives you dance and theatre in its most bastardized form. A Place That can Be Filled shows the diversity of dance and modern movement. The individual choreographers all have a background in modern dance. But, like ZXZW, they like to push the boundaries to create an unpure danceform including performance art, singing and theater.

Week tickets (55 euro for 15-21 Sept.) and weekend tickets (25 euro for 19-21 Sept.) are available via www.ticketmaster.nl.

ZXZW doesn’t need slogans. It doesn’t want to be labeled. ZXZW wants to clash cultures. ZXZW isn’t just a ‘festival’, it’s a community of independent minds, a spot where curious people meet. It stretches further than the festival terrain, further than the boundaries of Tilburg. ZXZW not only creates a community through digital media but it also creates a whole new festival vibe.
Visitors and artists from all over Europe recognize ZXZW as their space. Germans rent a bus to come to Tilburg. An American moviemaker befriends an Italian composer and start a new project. The discovery is the product. The artist, the visitor, the journalist, the volunteer and the organizer are an integral part of this feeling.

History
ZXZW started in 2005 as an two-day festival with 47 artists. It focused merely on artists that never got the chance on other Dutch podia. Within three years it developed into a festival which spreads over 8 days and over 200 artists. The unique mixture of independent music, arts, theatre and movies generates massive national (Nieuwe Revu, NRC-Next, Volkskrant) and international press (e.g. Belgium, Germany, America, France, England and Israel).

Venues
ZXZW wants to bring independent culture to a bigger audience. Therefore it uses a lot of different venues. Music venues like 013 and Paradox, the library of Tilburg, galleries and museums like De Pont and Ruimte X, a synagogue, a bowling alley, the mayors room and a lot of café’s in the center of Tilburg. For one week a whole city will be dedicated to independent culture!


For more information:
www.zxzw.nl,
http://zxzwblog.com
www.myspace.com/zxzwtilburg
www.youtube.com/zxzwtilburg
http://www.last.fm/user/zxzw