Sweden’s Way Out West festival adds stage to highlight importance of music in fertilisation

9 July, 2024

Sweden's Way Out West Festival

A music festival in Sweden has added an unorthodox stage to its 2024 summer edition.

The Way Out West festival in Gothenburg has set up a stage/laboratory that will play music from its acts live into a laboratory designed to fertilise sperm and eggs.

Designed by Love Hultén, the stage/laboratory will have music streamed into it from headliners like Queens Of The Stone Age, Pulp and Peggy Gou while the sperm and eggs get to work on fertilisation.

The festival itself quotes a study from Institut Marquès in Spain that suggests music and vibrations increase the chances of IVF success by five per cent – which is the thinking behind the stage and the event.

A press release explains: “This year, Way Out West has added an additional stage to help create future fans of great music by injecting live recordings by the headlining artists into their DNA at the earliest stage possible—before they even develop into foetuses.

“In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a medical procedure that involves joining a woman’s egg and a man’s sperm in a laboratory dish. It helps millions get pregnant every year. Recent studies show that music improves the fertilisation rate during an IVF process.

“So, in collaboration with renowned designer Love Hultén, Way Out West will create a unique, fully functional stage that will play live recordings from Way Out West’s headlining artists for what might be the largest, yet smallest crowd in history: sperm and eggs getting ‘ready to rumble’ in laboratory. The Future Fan Stage will be placed and activated at the Swedish IVF clinic Eliva in Stockholm.”

In a comment to NME, festival organisers said: “Way Out West has been around for more than 15 years. This particular initiative was undertaken for this year’s festival to highlight the importance of keeping the music scene alive and attracting new fans. As a festival, attracting new visitors is obviously something we work with on a regular basis, but for this project we wanted to give the whole concept a spin.

“Our fully functional stage was built by designer Love Hultén, playing music from the headlining artists at Way Out West in an IVF laboratory (but without being connected to any medical equipment, ensuring no interference with the clinic’s standard procedures.) If music can be so powerful that it can help the process (which studies show!) it surely underscores the importance and need to keep the music scene alive.

“Since this initiative is not a scientific project it allowed us to focus on the creative and symbolic aspects – hopefully it will spawn a new generation born with great taste in music that are going to feel the urge to come to Way Out West when older.”

For those away from the IVF stage, Way Out West will offer three days of music from August 8-10.

In addition to the headliners noted above, other acts to perform at the festival include PJ Harvey, The National, Big Thief, The Smile, André 3000, Fever Ray, and Tems. Others performing include Slowdive, Blondshell, and Yves Tumor.

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