LXM Festival

LXM Festival is a techno and house festival that began in December 2019 at FIL, Parque das Nações, Lisbon. LX Music, Tiago Baptista’s electronic promoter, built it after about fifteen years of nights in the city. Resident Advisor posted it on 4 November 2019. Time Out Lisbon placed it Friday to Sunday, 13 to 15 December, at Feira Internacional de Lisboa, Rua do Bojador. The hall faces the Tagus, in the Expo 1998 quarter. Friday opened at 18:00 and ran to 08:00. Boris Brejcha closed that night with high-tech minimal. Baptista told Time Out that Brejcha was exclusive to LX Music in Portugal and that other artists left if another agent paid a thousand or two thousand euros more. Ann Clue, Deniz Bul, Theydream, Der Dritte Raum live, Wehbba, Alex Stein and Midinoize filled Friday. Techno measured the first ear in a trade-fair hall.

Saturday doors opened at 16:00. Paul Kalkbrenner played live. Art Department DJed house. Recondite, I Hate Models and Benjamin Damage live took the same day. Summer Festival Guide called Recondite acid and placed Damage on 50 Weapons. Sunday ran as a matinee from 14:00 and stretched into the morning. Marcel Dettmann, Ben Klock and Rødhåd, almost all Berghain residents from Berlin, played in daylight, before 01:00. Paula Temple, Dax J, Answer Code Request live and Etapp Kyle closed the run. Visit Lisboa also listed dub and tech house beside techno. Adiel, Glove, Himan, John-E, Steve Menta and Trigger sat on the Resident Advisor bill. The Tagus gave the view. The hall gave the volume.

Viral Agenda posted the prices. Friday 13 sold out in the third wave. Saturday and Sunday cost 44 euros until 12 December. The three-day pass cost 75 euros and included LX Music’s New Year party. In the last wave a day ticket rose to 60 euros and the pass to 90. Visit Lisboa put the range at 38 to 64 euros and the minimum age at sixteen. The promoter mail sat on the LX Music domain. The venue is Lisbon’s exhibition centre, Edifício FIL. Parque das Nações sits east of the centre, by Gare do Oriente. People arrive by metro, suburban rail or on foot from the Expo towers. Time Out asked readers to ready their shoes for three days of dancing at Christmas.

LX Music had spent nearly fifteen years bringing electronic nights to Lisbon when it built LXM. Baptista said he had built artist careers in the city. Brejcha, he said, was the exception: the techno that then moved the most people in the world. The festival fitted one December weekend, not a summer camp. Three sessions split the hall: Friday’s long night, Saturday afternoon and Sunday’s matinee. Brejcha’s high-tech minimal opened the cycle. Kalkbrenner’s live set measured Saturday. Berghain residents measured Sunday daylight. I Hate Models and Paula Temple hardened the rooms. Art Department opened the house. Der Dritte Raum and Answer Code Request brought German live sets. Etapp Kyle brought the minimal. The fair hall swallowed the bass. The river stayed outside the walls.

No second LXM run at FIL is verified. LX Music kept putting on single nights in Lisbon. I Hate Models later returned to other rooms of the same promoter. Photon Lisbon marked two decades of the brand. That belongs to the club diary, not to this festival. LXM stays in that December of 2019. The festival domain is kept. FIL still sits on Rua do Bojador. Parque das Nações still sits on the Expo plan. Lisbon pins the map. Portugal pins the country. The Tagus pins the water. Baptista and LX Music pin the producer.

13 December 2019 opens the cycle. 15 December 2019 closes it as a matinee. The 75-euro pass and the sold-out Friday pin the box office. Sixteen years pin the door. Berghain, 50 Weapons and Brejcha’s high-tech minimal pin the ear. Gare do Oriente and the metro pin the access. The fair hall, the river and Lisbon Christmas pin the character: a three-day techno and house festival in an exhibition hall, without a forest camp and with the Tagus a walk away. Ben Klock and Marcel Dettmann played by day. Dax J closed. Midinoize and Theydream opened local slots. Wehbba and Alex Stein filled Friday. Recondite took Saturday. The FIL bass carried into the park. Lisbon winter was mild for a closed hall. The Vasco da Gama Bridge sits east of the park. The Oceanário and the cable car sit on the same Expo plan. Santiago Calatrava designed Gare do Oriente. The New Year party sat on the three-day pass. Sixteen was the door age. High-tech minimal is the name Brejcha gave his own strain. The FIL halls are indoor; December rain stayed on the river side of the glass.