The Azores Fringe International Arts Festival is encouraging inter-island artistic collaborations. Last weekend, João da Ilha, a musician from Terceira, and Versus O.K.S., a young hip-hop artist from Picaroto, took to the stage at the Madalena Auditorium for the first time, collaborating as a duo.

“João da Ilha is one of our biggest collaborators at MiratecArts,” admits Terry Costa, the association’s artistic director, ”and the Fringe festival is a think-tank and an opportunity for experimentation and collaboration between artists who don’t know each other. Versus O.K.S is one of the youngest and took to the festival’s biggest stage for the first time. It made sense to bring these artists from different poles together to see what they could build.”

“The Azores Fringe is always about bringing margins closer together,” says João da Ilha. “With each festival, new bridges of collaboration are created and a new sense of community is invested in through art.”

For Versus O.K.S, “it was a beautiful night that will always remain in my memory. Creating two songs almost from scratch, with João da Ilha, was a super rewarding challenge with a result that you can’t even explain, just feel.” The Hip-Hop group took to the stage for the first time, presenting a different concept that featured Simão Pereira on guitar and the voices of Jerson Brito and Bárbara Maximino accompanying. “I’m super proud of the result,” admits Versus O.K.S., ‘it was a ’marriage’ of music and souls. A magical union. May there be more nights like this.”

Terry Costa, on behalf of the Fringe Festival and the MiratecArts association, only wishes that the artists “can continue to develop their collaboration, until the day they record together.”

The Azores Fringe Festival has closed its public events on the island of Pico, but the agenda continues with 18 events in schools. Programming continues on the other Azorean islands, and you can follow along on Facebook: AzoresFringeFestival.