We Need to Rethink the Copenhagen Music Scene

The small stage at the last STÅHEJ event.

Imagine if your local supermarket only opened up on weekends. Doesn’t really sound viable, does it? This is essentially what the generic music venues of Copenhagen have been reduced to: fully equipped sonic arenas burdened by massive rents, staff charges and running costs, relying on just the weekends to turn that enormous investment into profit. Meanwhile competition increases as countless festivals and amateur concert events pop up all over town to an extent that begs the question: Do we really need another one? Probably not, but we need something else according to a group of young Danish initiators.

In 2014, the production collective INDGREB organized a series of concert experiences spread out over a myriad of non-venues across the caffè latte drenched streets of Frederiksberg – all in an effort to rethink what concerts and venues can be. The concept, dubbed STÅHEJ (“Hullabaloo”), was spearheaded by Maria Holst, Maria Petersen and colleagues Sarah Staalhøj and Katrine Harder, who transformed places like a dried-up pool area, an old auto repair shop and a restored boiler house into vibrant concert spots for up-coming artists of all genres. Choice of location, room design and the wide variety of acts made the events stick out.

STÅHEJ was originally launched as part of a municipal experiment to create a sort of music scene in Frederiksberg, previously pretty much a ghost town in terms musical development. It has since evolved into a critique of the established music venues in all of Copenhagen, and of the way we arrange and experience music concerts today in general.

We caught the two Marias for a quick chat about what they think is wrong with the current music scene and what they’re doing to fix it.

Maria Holst and Maria Blichfelt, 3rd and 4th from the left respectively.

VICE: So tell us, what’s wrong with the Copenhagen music scene.
Maria Holst: I think people have become so fucking spoiled with shows all over town and cool acts constantly visiting, and everyone can just pick and choose as they please. It’s a privilege, but everything is just gradually turning into the same blur. I really think we need to keep the ball rolling, if music is going to keep its originality and integrity as a live art form as well.

All right. How do we fix that?
We don’t need more of the same, we need a new and different format. Something that is neither festival nor concert hall, but a merge of the things both fields have going for them.

So how exactly is STÅHEJ different?
Maria Blichfeldt: Normally, when you go to a concert, what you see on stage is what you get. Nothing else happens. You might have lights, maybe some sort of scenography, but you and everyone else remain spectators and nothing more. Go to the bar and the entertainment is shut out entirely the second you turn a corner. But if you take elements from the stage and mix them into the room, outside and into the crowd, the whole place becomes a part of the experience, and then the audience does too.
Maria Holst: We wanted to make way for a sensuous experience that reaches beyond visual and sonic stimuli. Regular venues don’t change at all in accordance with the bands on the ticket. We build up entire universes around them.

Sounds great. What’s your endgame though?
Maria Holst: What we want is to spark a discussion about whether it’s still relevant to have music scenes firmly anchored in one place. A discussion about whether it should remain common practice to go see a concert, catch the show, grab your coat and leave a “dead” building behind, when you leave.
Maria Blichfeldt: The venues are under a lot of pressure, and due to the expenses of simply keeping a business together, very little of the public funding actually ends up with the artists, who depend on the royalties from playing gigs more than ever.

Still, there’s got to be a downside to what you guys are doing. Otherwise everyone would be doing it, right?
Maria Blichfeldt: Every new concert is an entirely new production, and this, of course, means a world of complications. The whole process of managing these arrangements means getting new authorizations and starting everything up from scratch every time we move location. But that’s what prevents us from falling back on routines and doing things the same way over and over again. We don’t necessarily have all the answers yet, but concert planners all over town have literally stopped thinking, and the venues are no longer contributing to the overall experience of going out. Sometimes people need a challenge.

Thanks a lot guys.