The Zasavje Noisefest International festival, which will take place on 6 and 7 September, this year moves to a new location – the Trbovlje Thermal Power Plant (TET). The festival of experimental music, which has so far hosted more than 130 musicians from all over the world, will this year present attendees with a wide range of international musical and cultural artists in this exceptionally interesting environment.

The organisers of the Zasavje Noisefest International festival had difficulty in finding a location for the festival this year and were feverishly seeking an event venue until the very last moment. This is where the company HSE Energetska družba Trbovlje jumped in to help them, allowing the use of an old engine room of the Trbovlje Thermal Power Plant as the venue.

“After we had been forced to find a replacement location for the festival and had already considered cancelling it, because it was impossible to organise the event in the Trbovlje – Hrastnik Coal Mine this year, the Trbovlje-based company HSE Energetska družba Trbovlje offered its premises. One visit to the location was enough to convince us that this is the right venue, one which reflects the spirit of our festival, with the 360-metre tall Trbovlje Chimney, the tallest structure in Slovenia and the tallest flue-gas stack in Europe, adding to the charm. By doing so, HSE Energetska družbe Trbovlje virtually saved this year’s Zasavje Noisefest International festival, because otherwise it would probably have been cancelled, even though it’s been held for five years in a row,” Neven M. Agalma, the head of the festival, described the difficulties in the organisation of this year’s festival.

“Our support for the local community, local associations and local projects was never in question. Especially when you see that the project, which emerged at the initiative of local composers of modern electronic music, has developed into an internationally recognised music event. The company wants to give to the disused industrial facility a new purpose and an additional value that we had not previously considered, and music is a part of this. There was never a shortage of creativity in Zasavje, with many artists and, after all, the current Culture Minister Zoran Poznič, hailing from the region. As the director of the Delavski dom Trbovlje culture centre, Poznič significantly contributed to the increasing recognisability and growth of the festival,” said Ervin Renko of HSE Energetska družba Trbovlje.

Music and sound enthusiasts will thus be able to enjoy, on 6 and 7 September, modern electronic music in the Trbovlje Thermal Power Plant, which is receiving a new applicable value by hosting the event. With their cooperation, the Zasavje Noisefest International festival and the Trbovlje Thermal Power Plant are not only breaking new ground in modern music, but also in the field of social restructuring of spaces and disused industrial facilities.