Kill Town Death Fest 2011

Kill-Town Death Fest is a Danish D.I.Y. death metal festival that seeks to promote underground death metal bands.
The 2011 edition of the Kill-Town Death Fest will be taking place from 2nd-3rd of September 2011 at the alternative venue, Ungdosmhuset at Dortheavej in Copenhagen’s Northwest quarter. The festival will present 15 Scandinavian and International acts, indoor and outdoor bars selling quality organic and regular beer from Danish microbreweries at reasonable prices, together with events, food stalls, a merchandise area, horror movie screenings and outdoor facilities. Our primary focus is on the Scandinavian underground death metal scene, but we’ll also be bringing in a few treats from other parts of Europe, not to mention the rest of the world!

The fest is a celebration of the current underground death metal scene and the active bands and people involved. Our goal is to create a festival that puts the focus on the music and the bands, not on money and prestige. We want to make it possible for underground death metal bands to reach a broader audience beyond their national borders. By doing so we hope to create an international exchange amongst non-commercial underground death metal scenes.

The festival is based on D.I.Y. ethics, meaning that the festival is 100% non-commercial, seeking to be an alternative to the corporate music business and commercial festivals. All the work in the process of organising and during the actual fest is on a volunteer basis, so neither we the organisers, nor the bands playing the fest, are making a profit. That is also why we don’t intend to have headliners; all the bands will get the same treatment. All money raised will go to covering festival costs such as gear, travel, food and accommodation for the bands and if there’s a profit it will go into creating a new festival next year. The structure of the festival organisation is based on participatory democracy, so that all volunteers can have an influence on the shaping of the festival.

Our overall goal is to put the focus and attention on non-commercial music and culture and to give the audience a different festival experience. We hope to make this an annual event with lots of participants, and to give them an extraordinary experience.

International dimension
In recent years things have started to progress within the Scandinavian underground death metal scenes after a long period of silence. Many bands have risen and the need to tour and get exposure is increasing.
Kill-Town Death Fest is an attempt to pick up on this by creating a platform and functioning as a channel for Scandinavian and International death metal bands who don’t have the means and opportunities to reach a broader audience or expose themselves in a non-commercial way.
The festival is anchored in Copenhagen, but has an international perspective, as our main focus is on the Scandinavian underground death metal scenes. The festival seeks primarily to present bands from Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland; by doing so we are trying to create a gathering event for the international underground networks.
The festival wishes to promote international co-operation between bands, bookers, record labels and zines and through that to create an exchange of ideas, experiences, inspirations and knowledge. We want to build on existing networks at the same time as trying to expand and include new people, bands and initiatives that can contribute to the creation of this event, thus strengthening non-commercial underground culture.
The programme is carefully put together of hand-picked bands, all exclusively brought in for this event. Transportation costs are therefore the biggest part of our budget, as it’s expensive to transport non-touring bands here and back. It is of the utmost importance for the festival to present a varied line-up consisting solely of international underground death metal bands.

The Undergrundsmusikkens Fremme Association
Kill-Town Death Fest is an initiative undertaken by the recently established “Undergrundsmusikkens Fremme” Association. “Undergrundsmusikkens Fremme” is an association started by young people from Copenhagen, all with backgrounds in underground music, with the purpose of creating a platform that can expose and spread the knowledge and culture of underground music. The primary goal of the association is to make non-commericial cultural activities such as concerts, festivals and other events, with the focus on underground music.
The association is cultural-political and seeks through its events to inform and show alternative ways of creating and promoting culture. The association is run by a group of music enthusiasts, all of whom share a common vision of creating non-commercial culture. It’s based on volunteers, and so no-one is paid for their work within the activities of the association. The association is also structured around the principles of base-democracy, with no leadership and participatory democracy around weekly meetings. The association is open to everyone; all those who show up and participate can take part in the decision-making process.
We are a diverse group of people of different ages, backgrounds and experiences. We started this project together because we all share a passion for creating culture in an alternative way, to contributing and learning from each others’ experiences and contributions. We are all participating in the process of developing this festival and to tackle the many tasks that come with organising such an event.

D.I.Y. Culture
The “Undergrundsmusikkens Fremme” Association takes its ideological inspiration from DIY culture. DIY means “Do It Yourself” and is about creating your own culture without interference or sponsorship from commercial corporations. DIY is an extensive informal international network of musicians, bands, concert promoters and record producers/studios in which favours are exchanged instead of monetary payment. DIY is cultural idealism, putting itself forward as an alternative to the established corporate music industry by creating and maintaining its own autonomous networks, working as a co-op for non-commercial underground music.
Nobody makes money from each others’ services with the network is based on trust and fairness rather than money and inequality. That means that we’re involved in making culture because we’re passionate about it and love it, not for the sake of money.
It’s important for us that the distance between us and the stage is no further than between us and the next concert-goer; no one is more important than another.
In practice, DIY means that the bands, as “payment” for their show, get quality sound equipment at their disposal, a place to sleep, food, drinks and transportation costs covered.

A different festival
The idea for this festival came up to create an event that could be the frame for underground death metal bands who don’t fit in with the programming of commercial venues and to fill the void that exists in Scandinavia concerning a method of exposure for underground death metal bands.
The festival wishes to give our guests and performing artists a different kind of festival experience, by trying to create a space where everyone can feel welcome in spite of gender, ethnicity, sexuality, age and economic/cultural background.
The festival thus intends to contribute on two levels; namely, by creating a channel for underground death metal that doesn’t exist already, and thus showing that music and culture can be about more than money and “success”. At the same time, we’re trying to create an atmosphere around the festival that is tolerant, open, gives space for diversity and that can inspire to a different way of interacting where for example women or homosexuals don’t have to feel uncomfortable nor harrased.

The facilities
We have in the festival group decided that the place with the best facilities in Copenhagen for a festival like ours is in the new Youthhouse, Overdrevet on Dortheavej 61. At Dortheavej and in the old Youthhouse on Jagtvej 69, there exists a long tradition and much experience of DIY concert activity and festivals. Dortheavej regularly puts on concerts through the international DIY network, with the primary focus on punk and hardcore concerts.
At Dortheavej we have access to two concert rooms, with capacities for 700 people in the big concert hall and 150 in the small one (called Dødsmaskinen). That gives us a capacity of 850 people, which is an appropriate size for our festival and within the range of our ambitions. Besides that we have acceas to 2 soundsystems, lighting equipment, an industrial kitchen for food production for bands and volunteers, and a backstage area. For the audience, in addition to two concertrooms, there’ll be an outdoor hang-out area, merchandise stalls, food stalls, kicker tables, cinema and other activites and events.

2011 program
FUNEBRARUM (us) / SONNE ADAM (il) / GRAVE MIASMA (uk) / NECROVATION (swe) / EMBRACE OF THORNS (gr) / AVULSED (es) / VANHELGD (swe) / WINTERWOLF (fin) / CRUCIAMENTUM (uk) / NECROVOROUS (gr) / CEREKLOTH (dk) / DEGIAL (swe) / DISKORD (n) / ENTRAPMENT (nl) + ENSNARED (swe)
WARM-UP GIG thursday Sept. 1st: BURIAL INVOCATION (tr) / ANTICHRIST (swe) / UNDERGANG (dk) / BONE (dk)
Heres the running order of KTDF 2011:

Thursday (Loppen, Christiania): Door 21.00. Musikstart 22.00
22.00: Undergang (dk) (22.45)
23.00: Antichrist (swe) (23.45)
24.00: Burial Invocation (tr) (00.45)
01.00: Bone (dk) (01.45)

Friday (Ungdomshuset, Dortheavej 61): Door 15.00. Musikstart 18.00
18.00 Ensnared (swe) (18.45)
19.15: Diskord (n) (20.00)
20.30: Cerekloth (dk) (21.15)
21.45: Vanhelgd (swe) (22.30)
23.00: Necrovation (swe) (23.45)
00.15: Grave Miasma (uk) (01.00)
01.30: Necrovorous (gr) (02.15)
02.30: DJ Dick Bacon

Saturday (Ungdomshuset, Dortheavej 61): Door 12.00. Musikstart 17.00
17.00: Entrapment (nl) (17.45)
18.15: Degial (swe) (19.00)
19.30: Embrace of thorns (gr) (20.15)
20.45: Avulsed (es) (21.30)
22.00: Winterwolf (fin) (22.45)
23.15: Sonne Adam (il) (24.00)
00.30: Funebrarum (usa) (01.15)
01.45: Cruciamentum (uk) (02.30)
02.45: DJ Nuclear Motherf@@ker

Practical information

Dates:
2nd and 3rd of September 2011
Venue:
Ungdomshuset

Adress:
Dortheavej 61,
2400 Copenhagen NV.
Denmark
www.dortheavej-61.dk

Warm up gig:
Thursday 1st of September
Loppen Christiania
Bådsmandsstræde 43, 1407 Copenhagen K
www.loppen.dk

Food:
The festival is vegan, meaning that all food served at the festival will be without meat, eggs and dairy. We intend for the different food options available at the fest to be delicious, varied and at reasonable prices.
Accomodation:
Unfortunately we can’t offer any accomodation for our guests as part of the festival since we have no space at the venue and camping isn’t possible in the surrounding area. Instead we recommend that you have a look at the following places:

Danhostel Copenhagen Bellahøj: is located about a km from the venue. The hostel’s capacity is 238 beds in both family and multi-bed bedrooms. Each room has a separate key-card. The reception is open from 07.00-22.00 in high season and from 07.00-20.00 in lowseason and sells a large range of kiosk items. The hostel offers breakfast, packed lunches and evening meals at popular prices. Public transport to the city centre is ideal, every 5 minutes during the day and every hour at night.
Adress:
Herbergsvejen 8, 2700 Brønshøj
Phone: +45 38289715
www.copenhagenhostel.dk
Prices: 1 person in dormitory: 145 DKK/21,94 €
2-persons room: 410 DKK/62,03 €

Sleep-in Green: is a hostel in Nørrebro (an area with cafe's, bars, shopping and nightlife about 20 minutes walk from the venue/5 min. by bus).
They have three dorms with 8, 20 and 38 beds

Sleep-in-Green is run by young people and the surroundings makes it easy to meet other travellers
Sleep-in-Green is open 24 hours a day.
Ravnsborggade 18, 2200 Copenhagen N
Phone: +45 35377777
www.sleep-in-green.dk
Prices: 1 person in dormitory: 130 DKK/17,63€

Sleep In Heaven: is a backpacker friendly hostel also situated in Nørrebro about 20 minutes walk from the venue/10 min by bus.
Adress: Struensegade 7, 2200 Copenhagen N
Phone: +45 35354648
www.sleepinheaven.com
Prices: from 140 DKK/18,81€

If you’re into camping there’s a campsite just about a km from the venue.
Bellahøj Camping:
Adress: Hvidkildevej 66, 2400 Copenhagen
Phone: +45 38101150
www.bellahoj-camping.dk
Prices: 65DKK/8,73€

Otherwise check out these links:
www.travellerspoint.com/budget-accommodation-en-ci-313.html
www.visitcopenhagen.com/tourist/what_to_see_and_do/inspiration/copenhagen_on_a_budget/affordable_accommodation


How-to-get here:

Plane:
There are several low budget airlines flying to Copenhagen and the Öresundsregion. Check out flights to Copenhagen International Airport Kastrup (www.cph.dk) or Malmø Airport Sturup (www.swedavia.se/sv/Malmo/Resenar) which is only an hour away by train/bus.
To get to the city from Copenhagen International Airport in Kastrup just take the train or Metro (underground) to the city. It only takes about 15 minutes. If you want to come directly to the venue get off at Nørreport St. and take bus 5a or 350s to Hulgårdsplads. From there it’s a short walk to Dortheavej 61.

Train:
If you arrive by train you will arrive at Copenhagen Central Station. If you intend to go directly to the venue, ask the conductor whether the train continues to Nørreport St. If so, take the train one more stop and get off at Nørreport St. Otherwise jump on the S-train for two more stops and get off at Nørreport St. From there take bus 5a or 350s to Hulgårdsplads. From there it’s a short walk to Dortheavej 61.

Bus:
There are several low-budget bus companies driving to Copenhagen from Germany and Sweden. This is propably the cheapest way of getting here unless you get a good deal on a flight.
From Berlin you can try following buscompanies:
Greyhoundbus (E-55): www.graahundbus.dk
Berlin Linienbus: www.berlinlinienbus.de
Gullivers: www.gullivers-bus.de
Eurolines: www.eurolines.com

From Sweden:
Greyhoundbus (route 999): www.graahundbus.dk
Go-By-Bus: www.gobybus.se
Eurolines: www.eurolines.com

If you arrive by bus you will get of at the Copenhagen Central St. If you want to go directly to the venue jump on the S-train for two stops and get off at Nørreport St. From there take bus 5a or 350s to Hulgårdsplads. From there it’s a short walk to Dortheavej 61.

Car:
Sweden: Drive towards Malmø and then take the Öresundsbridge to Denmark (more info: www.oresundsbron.com).
Germany: from Berlin and Eastgermany drive towards Rostock and take the ferry to Gedser (more info: www.Scandlines.dk). From Hamburg and Westgermany/Holland etc. drive towards Puttgarten and take the ferry to Rødby (more info: www.Scandlines.dk).

If you don’t have a GPS in you car you can print out directions from here:
www.viamichelin.com
www.krak.dk

Parking in Copenhagen:
In the city center and the neighbourhoods around the inner city (Nørrebro, Vesterbro, Frederiksberg and Amager) there is a parking fee. There are machines where you can pay pr. hour. Prices vary from place to place and time of day. Get more info here: www.parkering.dk
Parking is free in the area around the venue and it’s easy to find parking places there.

Getting around in Copenhagen:
There are public buses, trains and Metro (underground). Tickets are 23 kr (3 euros) and are valid for 2 hours. Get more info on public transportation here: www.dsb.dk

Tourist information:
www.visitcopenhagen.com