Friday the 13th of May 2016 – a date that will write history in Slovakia’s second largest city – at least for the alternative and dark culture. On this date the Kaschau Industrial Gathering took place, the first bigger industrial/ dark music format in Košice.
There have been some minor events here in the past, like the Depeche Mode party I organised in a bar last year and some smaller or bigger concerts (of course I am also referring to Laibach, who had a show in Tabačka Kulturfabrik one month ago). However, the Kaschau Industrial Gathering is the first of its flavour and size in Košice. The credits for the organisation go to the local post-punk band FARA, whose singer and guitarist Fero created this appealing invitation video clip for the Gathering:
The club Ponorka was chosen to be the venue, located in a basement in the centre of Košice. It consists of four different rooms; in the first three people were gathering, smoking and drinking, in the last one the concerts were taking place.
Four local bands were invited to play at the event: FARA (post-punk), Terminal State (EBM), Global Endemit (psychosonic/noise) and Kurkuslav (noise). The latter unfortunately cancelled their live appearance. The musical entertainment before, between and after the concerts was entrusted to DJ Density from Prešov and myself.
When I arrived at the venue at about 18:00 the stage looked like a construction site – which did not change until shortly before the first concert started at 21:30. Despite of the chaotic character of the organisation the whole event went surprisingly well. We expected about 40 to 50 people, in the end there were between 70 and 90 guests, enjoying good music, nice atmosphere and affordable drinks.
It seems unbelievable, but even some people from Poland came to our event. I had a nice chat with Elizabeth Dane (the organiser of the Front Fabrik Festival in Kraków) and her friends.
Finally something is going on in the industrial/darkwave sector in Eastern Slovakia. It is awesome to see something like this grow and it is an incredible honour to me to be part of it.
Thanks to all the participants and guest. See you again at the next Kaschau Industrial Festival!
