Danish Festivals Need To Relax

A couple of weeks ago, Smukfest cut the power when Reptile Youth and Mø went stage diving. Both acts are well known for their savage shows, and I’ll even go as far as to call stage diving an integral part of Reptile Youth’s identity. Sadly, a posse of wimpy organizers have made the feat outlawed at most concerts and festivals across the country. This is unless you employ a life boat like TopGunn or one of those portable isolation wards Major Lazor is so fond of. So much for being young and stupid.

Frankly, we’d all like to see the ban lifted, so we got Reptile Youth's lead man, Mads, to defend stage diving for us.

VICE: Tell us about the first time you stage dived.

Mads Kristensen: I was about 13 years old. My parents had taken me to Langelandsfestivalen, and we went to see Kashmir. This is like 15 years ago or something. I think there was some older dude standing behind me, and he lifted me up. Then I just floated across the crowd. I remember it very clearly, the feeling of it all.

What is it, you like so much about it?

As a musician, standing on stage, I feel it breaks down the barrier between stage and audience. It’s like you’re more together. You literally get to touch each other. It’s a crazy setting in itself, having a ton of people stare up at you on stage. It breaks down the barrier between “us” and “them”, instead creating a unified “us”.

It’s about community and intimacy then?

Definitely. About physical contact too. Standing on a stage, it can feel as if you’re being put up on a pedestal. Being in the crowd kind of eliminates that. You’re more at eye level with people, splashing around on top of them.

That’s a great way of looking at it. And it’s pretty far from the origins of stage diving among the more hardcore scenes.

Totally. It’s also just the fact, that a concert constitutes a space within society, where you can do stuff you wouldn’t otherwise be able to do. That’s beautiful. And you’re right. I’m sure it originated in more extreme cultures. But it must have had a universal appeal since it migrated to all other genres. I assume it started in punk/rock environments, but now you can stage dive and crowd surf in any genre. You could probably even do it playing folk.

How about classical then?

It wouldn’t surprise me if someone’s done it at this point.

A rad conductor diving in. 

Would be cool, that’s for sure.

So where do people’s aversions to the move stem from?

I don’t get it. For example, I played a lot of football as a kid, and you get hurt far worse doing that, than crowd surfing. People say it’s dangerous, but I don’t really get that. I mean a concert can be a dangerous place, sure, a thousand drunk people letting themselves go, but that’s the beauty of it too. It’s just not that fucking dangerous.

How dangerous is it then?

I’m pretty sure that handball, football and maybe even golf are more dangerous. It’s also more dangerous to visit a dive bar in Herning. It’s more hazardous to swim in the North Sea. I don’t think it’s that dangerous at all.

Still, there are a couple of folks who’ve died from it.

People have heart attacks too. And if you attend concerts that get very physical, heads will probably get smacked together at some point. If you feel it’s getting too crazy, you just have to move back a bit is all. People can figure that out for themselves.

Have you ever hurt people?

I have. It mostly happened earlier in my career, when I often performed extremely drunk. This one time in Mexico, we played an awesome show. Afterwards, I was doing an interview when our contact came over and told me to come with her. I was so happy at that point. We came in backstage where she told me I’d kneed a girl in the head during the concert. The Mexican police was there, wanting to take me down to the station. Like the few other times I’ve hurt someone, I felt terrible.

What happened to the girl?

I think I’d broken her nose. She wasn’t too bummed out about it though. The few times someone's been hurt, they've actually been pretty stoked about it. It sounds kind of dumb, but I’ve met people who’ve been like “Fuck man, you gave me a black eye, that’s so fucking awesome.”

Seriously?

Yeah. The same happened when I gave this girl a bloody nose in Aalborg. I got hold of her phone number after the show, called her up and apologized, but she was all “Nah, that was so sweet”.

So hurting people on those occasions haven’t deterred you from stage diving?

No, not at all. The thing about our shows is, we want to take them to the limit. Sometimes you go too far, and that sucks, but it’s a necessity for the show if it's to maintain its nerve. The day it becomes completely safe, those kinds of concerts will lose their appeal. A touch of danger is part of it. That’s why people are drawn to these types of shows.

Do you feel there’s a big difference between doing it at home and abroad?

Well, in the Netherlands, it’s banned throughout the country. The venues or the band will get fined or something. In Spain, they’re more cheeky. They’ll rip off your clothes and pour a drink on your face. They’re out of control. It’s good fun.

Final arguments: why should it be allowed?

Because it’s beautiful, that there’s a place within society, where you’re allowed to fucking walk on each other and carry each other. And I think it’s a damn shame to impose limits on concerts. A show is as much about finding a common energy which you can appreciate together, as it is about the music. It ruins that.

Thanks Mads