A decade has passed since we launched the first edition of the Intonal Festival.

What began as a collaboration with the legendary experimental music festivals CTM (Berlin) and Unsound (Krakow) was an effort to make Malmö an actual part of Europe. So, if you didn’t know before why this year’s tagline is, “10 years of oversized ambitions,” you do now.

Have we succeeded in nudging our hometown towards the resemblance of a passable continental destination? Absolutely not. In the 2018 Intonal manifesto, we stated that Malmö’s inhabitants could best be described by Shania Twain’s hit song “That Don’t Impress Me Much”. That still holds true. Intonal never turned into a miniature CTM or Unsound, and that’s precisely why the festival is still alive. After a few editions, we realized that the festival’s core strength lies in its intimacy. A celebrated international artist sharing a beer with a local DJ or joyously dancing next to a festival attendee was a closeness that had to be deliberately safeguarded. Intonal became a community of its own – a sanctuary for experimental minds.

Looking back at recent festival manifestos, the tone has grown both increasingly defiant and humbler. The political and cultural climate in Sweden and Europe has visibly deteriorated since the festival’s inception, while the once subversive experimental music scene has been afflicted by, “the infiltration of neoliberal industrialization, marked by PR, administrative exploitation, and epidemic narcissism,” (Intonal 2024). However, maybe it’s unbecoming to voice these concerns when, at the same time, a wave of actual fascism is sweeping a globe already several degrees too hot. It just feels small.

And yet, we must remind ourselves that we are small – an intimate festival, yet an important one for our (admittedly growing) community each year. “An oasis glimmering on the horizon for all of you who crave oddity, intimacy, and energy but are unable to take the beaten paths,” (Intonal 2022). “A place for music, performances, and people who don’t fit in anywhere else,” (Intonal 2019). “A safe haven for freaks and eccentrics,” (Intonal 2020). This is what we do.

For our ten year anniversary, Intonal features new international collaborations, performing arts takes a bigger role, and there will be more bands, grit, and punk. We also welcome back some of the most beloved artists in the festival’s history.

10 years of oversized ambitions. 10 years of outrageous grind. 10 years of necessity.