{"id":2203,"date":"2023-03-06T19:15:59","date_gmt":"2023-03-06T19:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/?p=2203"},"modified":"2023-03-07T17:33:53","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07T17:33:53","slug":"sofar-community-feeling-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/articles\/sofar-community-feeling-home","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Sofar Community: Feeling Home Away From Home"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What is Sofar community? It’s a global web of close connections between musicians, listeners and curators around the world that’s been growing for more than a decade, and it’s been my pleasure to be a part of it for almost six years now both as <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/artist\/0GFBw6glXi905OWR1nwg3H\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">an artist<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and as a city leader in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/cities\/riga\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Riga, Latvia<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Living in Northern Europe does get a bit dark and cold during winter months, so I started this year with a trip to the other side of Europe. I went to Portugal where I got to meet two amazing Sofar teams and perform at two Sofar shows with my music as <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/pacific_k_\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pacific K<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. From the moment I started communicating with the city leaders, I felt like I was in the company of good friends I’ve known for a long time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My first stop was Portugal’s second biggest city, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/cities\/porto\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Porto<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. A gorgeous city full of rich history, cozy streets, stunning views, and warm people that make this one of my favourite places I’ve ever visited. The venue for the night was <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/supernovaporto\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Supernova<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a place that runs as a cafe, hostel and event space for different creative ideas. Themed around the universe and stars (hence the name), the room was filled with magical moments.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2204\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2204\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2204\" src=\"https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.48.44-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=895&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=1024&wpsize=large\" alt=\"The Power of Sofar Community: Feeling Home Away From Home \" width=\"1024\" height=\"895\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.48.44-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=262&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=300&wpsize=medium 300w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.48.44-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=895&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=1024&wpsize=large 1024w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.48.44-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=671&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=768&wpsize=medium_large 768w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.48.44-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=1342&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=1536&wpsize=1536x1536 1536w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.48.44-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=1789&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=2048&wpsize=2048x2048 2048w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.48.44-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fm=png&ixlib=php-3.3.1 1140w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2204\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Supernova in Porto, Portugal. Photo by Kristaps Bedritis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">City leader Luis and his team welcomed me with hugs and smiles. With stars and planets painted on the walls and fairy lights hanging above the stage, it was set to be an amazing night. The hosts were serving hot drinks, wine, and amazing cakes during the breaks. People were seated on the floor and in the comfy chairs around the room with all their attention focused on the music, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CokLWuZjs16\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I got to share my songs<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and stories with them. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nothing beats a Sofar community, a room of music lovers who are always the most careful listeners. I also got to enjoy some great music from the other artists on the line-up, traditional viola braguesa player <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/joaodiogoleitao\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jo\u00e3o Diogo Leit\u00e3o<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and indie-rockers <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/nuncamatesomandarim\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nunca Mates o Mandarim<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After the show, we sat down around a table to have dinner with the team and talk about music, surfing, Porto, and our Sofar community experiences. I stayed the night upstairs in one of the hostel rooms, so it was literally my home for that day. If you’re ever in Porto, Supernova is definitely worth a visit.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2205\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2205\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2205\" src=\"https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.51.39-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=731&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=1024&wpsize=large\" alt=\"The Power of Sofar Community: Feeling Home Away From Home \" width=\"1024\" height=\"731\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.51.39-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=214&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=300&wpsize=medium 300w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.51.39-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=731&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=1024&wpsize=large 1024w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.51.39-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=548&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=768&wpsize=medium_large 768w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.51.39-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=1096&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=1536&wpsize=1536x1536 1536w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.51.39-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=1462&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=2048&wpsize=2048x2048 2048w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.51.39-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fm=png&ixlib=php-3.3.1 1858w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2205\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kristaps and Sofar Porto. Photo by Anto\u0301nio Cochofel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A week later, I made my way to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/cities\/lisbon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lisbon<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the vibrant capital of the country that’s always buzzing with great energy. The Sofar team in Lisbon are a very international bunch who have all found their way to this beautiful city from various corners of the world. The show was taking place in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/destinationhostels\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Destination Hostel<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Located inside a train station and filled with tropical plants, the hidden space felt like a little oasis in the middle of the city.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2206\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2206\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2206\" src=\"https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.53.56-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=619&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=1024&wpsize=large\" alt=\"The Power of Sofar Community: Feeling Home Away From Home \" width=\"1024\" height=\"619\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.53.56-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=181&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=300&wpsize=medium 300w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.53.56-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=619&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=1024&wpsize=large 1024w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.53.56-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=464&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=768&wpsize=medium_large 768w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.53.56-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=928&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=1536&wpsize=1536x1536 1536w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.53.56-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=1238&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=2048&wpsize=2048x2048 2048w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.53.56-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fm=png&ixlib=php-3.3.1 2088w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2206\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rossio Station, photo by Kristaps Bedritis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The night was amazing. The room was quite big and spacious, but with all the green plants and fairy lights around me, and people sitting closely on the floor and stairwell that lead to the bedrooms upstairs, this was one of the vibiest gigs I’ve ever played. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The moment <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CosZ0ZQjkjO\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I hit that first note<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and looked up into the audience, I knew there is no place I’d rather be than right then and there, with the Sofar community. After my set, the night continued with great music from a couple of incredible artists \u2014 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/mokinamusic\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mokina<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with mellow pop-jazzy tunes, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/tomas.final\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tom\u00e1s<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with beautiful Portuguese singalongs. Tom\u00e1s invited me to share another gig with him a few days later and even offered me a place to stay.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2207\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2207\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2207 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.56.44-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=583&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=1024&wpsize=large\" alt=\"The Power of Sofar Community: Feeling Home Away From Home \" width=\"1024\" height=\"583\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.56.44-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=171&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=300&wpsize=medium 300w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.56.44-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=583&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=1024&wpsize=large 1024w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.56.44-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=437&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=768&wpsize=medium_large 768w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.56.44-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=874&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=1536&wpsize=1536x1536 1536w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.56.44-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=1166&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=2048&wpsize=2048x2048 2048w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-10.56.44-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fm=png&ixlib=php-3.3.1 2154w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2207\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kristaps performs Sofar Lisbon, photo by Ludivine Pellissier<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That is the magic of Sofar shows, and Sofar community. Regardless of whether you’re a musician, organiser or listener, when the show starts, you know you’re in the right place wishing that the night would last forever. The intimacy of the shows makes you feel like you’re amongst friends, which, eventually, you are, because by the end of the night you’re more than likely to make a new friend, chat with musicians or even volunteer to host the next Sofar show in your own living room. I surely made a few new friends who I’ll want to meet next time I’m in Portugal (yes, I’m definitely coming back).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All I can tell you is whether you\u2019re travelling the world or exploring your own city, one thing is certain\u2014Sofar has the power to make you feel like home away from home.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2208\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2208\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2208\" src=\"https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-11.01.11-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=574&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=1024&wpsize=large\" alt=\"The Power of Sofar Community: Feeling Home Away From Home \" width=\"1024\" height=\"574\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-11.01.11-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=168&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=300&wpsize=medium 300w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-11.01.11-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=574&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=1024&wpsize=large 1024w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-11.01.11-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=430&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=768&wpsize=medium_large 768w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-11.01.11-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=861&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=1536&wpsize=1536x1536 1536w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-11.01.11-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=png&h=1148&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=2048&wpsize=2048x2048 2048w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-11.01.11-AM.png?crop=faces%2Centropy&fm=png&ixlib=php-3.3.1 2198w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2208\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lisbon, photo by Kristaps Bedritis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>Ready to make a few new friends and be part of the Sofar community? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Check out upcoming shows.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words and photos by Kristaps Bedritis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is Sofar community? It’s a global web of close connections between musicians, listeners and curators around the world that’s been growing for more than a decade, and it’s been my pleasure to be a part of it for almost six years now both as an artist and as a city leader in Riga, Latvia. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":2205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[225,223,96,205,185,182,224],"class_list":["post-2203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-destination-hostel","tag-pacific-k","tag-sofar-community","tag-sofar-lisbon","tag-sofar-porto","tag-sofar-riga","tag-supernova"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}