Movement '09: revisited, recycled

The numbers keep going up for Paxahau and its three days of electronic love on the Detroit riverfront.

In a press statement released this week, the Ferndale-based promotions group said that 83,322 people visited Hart Plaza during the three-day Memorial Day Weekend for Movement, the annual electronic music festival that featured nearly 100 performances on four stages.

“Movement 2009 was an overwhelming success on so many levels,” said festival producer Jason Huvaere. “People loved the lineup of performances we were able to put together this year. Our sponsors and vendors really stepped up this year despite the tough economy. The recycling program surpassed last year’s totals for collected items. And we had great weather the entire weekend, which definitely contributed to the record breaking turnout. As far as events like this go, in our eyes it could not have gone any better.”

Since Paxahau began producing Movement in 2006 attendance at the festival has steadily increased each year. An estimated crowd of a little more than 40,000 people attended in 2006 and nearly 45,000 attended in 2007. In 2008 nearly 78,000 attended and for the first time ever festival attendance was tracked using turnstiles. This year hand-held clickers were used to count attendance.

Electronic Music fans in attendance at Movement 2009 proved to be an environmentally-friendly group. Four tons or 8,000 pounds of recyclable materials were collected over the course of the three-day festival. This year’s total surpassed 2008 totals by 5,000 pounds.

Paxahau partnered again with Recycle Detroit, a non-profit organization founded by Detroiter Sarah Kubik. The hard-working non-profit had a team of 100 volunteers, utilized 40 recycling stations and successfully convinced nearly 2,500 people to commit to be more environmentally conscious.

“We were very pleased to have Sarah and her Recycle Detroit volunteers be apart of Movement again this year,” said Huvaere. “They have single-handedly taken the festival’s recycling program to the next level. Recycle Detroit is a great organization.”

Paxahau assembled an exciting lineup of local, national and international performers, but it was the announcement of Techno Music legend Carl Craig being named Creative Director for Movement 2010 that dominated the conversation on blogs and among groups of festival-goers all weekend long.

“We have received nothing but positive feedback from the announcement about Carl,” said Huvaere. “His involvement will strengthen the future of the Movement festival in Detroit. Carl is a musical visionary whose ambassadorship is unparalleled. We are extremely excited to have him involved at this level.”

In his new role Craig will be involved in various creative aspects of Movement and serve as an ambassador for the Movement festival as he travels the world performing for throngs of electronic music enthusiasts.

The new partnership between Movement Detroit and Movement Torino officially started as Movement 2009 ended. Together they hosted the festival’s closing party at Capital Square in downtown Detroit.

The two groups will work together to promote each other’s festivals. Movement Torino, which takes place in October, was being promoted at this year’s festival with flyers and the Movement Detroit closing party. Check out the web site at: http://www.movement.it. Once the Torino festival has concluded, the group from Italy will begin to promote Movement 2010 in Detroit ... and up, up and away we go again.