- In a summer strewn with dozens of gigantic European festivals, smaller, more local events can offer a very appealing (and much less sweaty) alternative. Denmark's Strøm is one such festival. Rather than charging a week's pay and then throwing you in a dusty field, this one is mostly free and centered around a leafy park in Copenhagen. The lineup shares acts with Exit, Sonar and Glastonbury, but you can walk right in from the street without queuing or being searched. It's a balancing act that that must be hard to pull off, yet seems to happen very naturally. RA's Todd L. Burns praised Trailerpark Festival, which takes place in Copenhagen just one week earlier, as a "festival that doesn't feel like one." Strøm achieves something very similar, but on an even bigger scale.
Photo credit: Anders Thormann
One portion of the festival takes place at venues scattered around the city, from glitzy spots like Vega to modest bars like Dunkel, or sometimes all the way across town in the stylish haunts of the Kødyben (i.e. the meat-packing district). The best club night I went to was a dub techno party at Culture Box, a small, red-lit venue next to Rosenberg Castle Gardens. Thomas Fehlmann headlined, and artists from local imprint Echocord spun, playing dozens of reverb-heavy gems I'd love to track down. DJ Pete & Sleeparchive delivered a blistering live set that at first seemed a bit much for such an intimate space, but the crowd was surprisingly game and ended up dancing (or jerking around) straight through to the last hand clap.
Photo credit: Anders Thormann
Meanwhile, the central part of the festival took place in Enghaveparken, a mid-size public space surrounded by very Danish-looking brick apartment buildings. It's hard to imagine a better venue for Strøm: entrance is free, beers go for 20 kroner each (less than three euro), and tall hedges naturally divide the park into its two stage areas. At first it feels weird to be partying in such refined surroundings, but the festival atmosphere is there in all the right ways: big crowds, atmospheric lighting, video screens and surprisingly good sound to boot. Granted, the music has to stop at midnight, but this isn't bad for a public place—Montreal's Piknic Electronik for instance, goes quiet at 9:00 PM. As for the lineup, it's a nice mix of what you might call "forward-thinking" DJs and live performers, with artists like LCD Soundsystem, Actress and The Field topping this year's bill.
Unfortunately, I missed all three of those acts—and a solid portion of the headliners in general—because Strøm spreads its program out across 16 days, a detail that makes the festival much better for locals than for tourists. But there were still plenty of great sets during the 72 hours I was in town, many of which seemed to work especially well thanks to the unusually quaint setting. Cobblestone Jazz, an unlikely closing act for most festivals, riled the crowd on Friday with a fluid and upbeat set of live microhouse.
Photo credit: Anders Thormann
Pantha Du Prince played early in the evening on Saturday—probably to lure in the crowds—so most people near the stage sat cross-legged while they watched. His twinkly, shoegaze-inspired techno soundtracked the beginning of a foggy sunset, while the VJ blended images of fall leaves with green and brown argyle patterns. Rain had started by the time Four Tet came on, but the crowd was undeterred—people stood there dancing with their umbrellas as he blasted through a set of off-kilter beats and soaring arpeggios. Over on the second stage, Mount Kimbie's live act felt a little half-baked, but got a big crowd contentedly bobbing their heads.
London dubstepper Untold helped close the festival on Saturday night, deftly swerving between house, garage and techno-leaning dubstep tracks. The crowd ate most of it up, but seemed to lose him a bit whenever he fell into a syncopated groove. The final slot was reserved for local hero Trentemøller and some of his DJ buddies, who due to booking restrictions had been absurdly billed as "Partykillers DJ Remix Set."
Photo credit: Anders Thormann
Trentemøller's sound fell somewhere between Nine Inch Nails and 2 Many DJs; disparate hits like "Windowlicker," "Still Dre" and The Beastie Boys' "Sabatoge" were strung together quickly and flawlessly with the kind of broody electro stompers that makes up his own records. This sort of thing isn't normally my style, and I could have done without the rapping by one of the other Partykillers, but looking around the crowd, it was clear that Trentemøller strikes a special chord in this town, and it was hard not to get swept up in it. Though it may not have as much international appeal as others, Strøm gives its local scene a fantastic electronic festival to close out the summer, and asks for hardly anything in return. If only more cities could be so lucky.