* Len Sander and Evelinn Trouble at Zürich Openair 2018 *

gimme a beat with babymonster

Zürich Openair started in 2010, but I attended it and reviewed it for the first time only in 2016, because somehow I was always busy at that particular time with some other festivals across Europe. This year I've decided to keep it local, stay in Zürich and re-visit it. Regardless of my attendance :-), this fairly young festival seems to attracts more and more people every year, not just from Switzerland but also from other parts of the Europe and even world. The lineup is usually very good with a great balance of rock, indie and electronic music and as many festivals nowadays, with relatively balanced fresh, unknown or currently popular bands and some well known artists, perfect for nostalgic crowds. The location of the festival is great and it is easily reachable via train from the town or from the airport. This year the weather was playing autumn at times, but that didn't stop crowds of people attending it and even staying in the camp. I've attended the festival for all 4 days, and as usual didn't just go for concert but also to explore everything else. The organization improved a lot from 2016 and this year the only downer was the weather, but this is something that organizers couldn't do much about it. They did however organized themselves quickly and were giving rain coats with the first drops of rain. It is awesome to see the festival growing and improving, because this means that organizers care and most importantly listen to the festival goers. I loved an overall focus on the local, especially regarding the food and drinks but also related to everything else and even recycling, something that we are very conscious about here in Switzerland. I've seen many great gigs over the 4 days and you can find my day by day reviews and an overall impressions on gimme a beat posts. But since reviewing of the festival as Gimme A Beat means that I explore the *female factor* of the festival, in tonight's show I will focus on Len Sander, über cool band from Zurich and Evelinn Trouble, Swiss artist out of space. My 3rd day of the festival started very early, but I didn't mind, because I wanted to catch Len Sander and their early gig at 3pm. The festival grounds were still recovering from Thursday nite storm, but this didn't stop curious audience joining with the first sounds. The band owned the stage, they sounded great and looked comfortable while going through the songs of their last album. Some time after the gig, i had a chance to sit down with Blanka Inauen, the band vocalist, for an interview. Comfortable vibe continued, while Blanka told me about their underground (literally!!) beginnings and the band story until today. We also talked about creative process behind their music and how on Len Sander's latest album *The Future of Lovers* Blanka changed the focus from the mind toward the feelings and more of the whole body, emotional experience. Another artist that I will focus on tonight with this review is Evelinn Trouble. I discovered her back in 2013 at m4music Festival and immediately liked what i heard: her voice, songs as well as her stage presence. And I liked her even more after I had an itw with her. Now in 2018, it was a time to revisit her music and hear from her what happened in the meantime. Her gig was the first one of many I've see on the last day of Zürich Openair and it was as expected, playful, intense and energetic. Linnea (Evelinn Trouble's real name) seemed in the good mood, happy to be there and with the band; chatting with an audience and even directed them(us) at one point. After the gig we had a chance to sit down again for an interview. she told me about her past few years, life in London and Berlin and why she decided to come back home🇨🇭. We also talked about Swiss Music Prize that she just won before the festival as well as about her latest release and future projects. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------