Kronkel

September 26th / OT301, OCCII, Teatro Munganga, De Nieuwe Anita, Willem de Zwijgerkerk, Vondelbunker, LAB11 / a day-long celebration of DIY culture

Kronkel; noun, m. (-s): a strong or loop-shaped curve, a repeatedly sharply curved line, shape or form.
(in Amsterdam dialect) slightly unhinged, not quite right in the head.

Kronkel is a new multi-venue festival initiated by Geregeld Ontregeld, Pretty Ugly and Bandgurl666, taking place at several Amsterdam Alternative spots on September 26th. The name itself is an action that the event invites you to do: 'kronkel', AKA meander from one place to another, both in spaces and in culture. Hop from post-metal in OT301 to an Iranian folk concert in De Willem de Zwijgerkerk or a strange theatre performance in De Nieuwe Anita. Or, as the other meaning of the word Kronkel suggests, it's all meant to be a bit weird, out there, or sometimes to be in over your head. A fantastic exit point for booking DIY-music or music that's outside of the norm.

With deep roots in Amsterdam's DIY culture and beyond, the aim of Kronkel is to create an event that lets people discover the many underground scenes, places, people and art that the city offers, all within biking distance and for a fairly accessible entrance fee. From performance art to a dance workshop and from music genres such as experimental hiphop, woodwind punk jazz, tribal folk to a curated film program, visitors are encouraged to make their way from act to act and from venue to venue. OT301, OCCII, Teatro Munganga, De Nieuwe Anita, Willem de Zwijgerkerk, Vondelbunker and LAB111 will happily open their doors for this day-long celebration of self-organisation, collaboration and connecting with like-minded people. Therefore, Kronkel is not just an event, but both a cultural and social statement against gentrification.

The last couple of decades, a commercialisation of music and festivals has happened throughout the Netherlands. Geregeld Ontregeld was founded in 2019 as a response to that, and to the cultural monoculture. We are a collective of friends and creatives, born and raised here, at home on Amsterdam's frayed edges. Three things run through everything we do: we give underexposed subcultures a stage, we put young artists on the same bill as established and international acts, and we keep the threshold low enough that audiences find things they weren't looking for. Kronkel is what that looks like on a bigger scale.

Amsterdam has been the capital of Dutch counterculture since the sixties. It started with Provo happenings at Het Spui, hippies sleeping in Vondelpark, Paradiso opening its doors in a squatted church, but it did not end there. The decades after brought the squatters' movement, the tank riots on the Vondelstraat, free spaces like Ruigoord, ADM, Binnenpret and OT301. That history left behind something no city marketing department could invent - a layer of alternative infrastructure, a network of places where people still experiment, program and work together off the beaten track.

All these scenes and places still exist, but sometimes more independent from each other than they necessarily want. Not as a choice but as a necessity: operating a venue in a less commercial way, usually with a small team, is a lot of work, and looking beyond your own place takes time that is often lacking. And yes, there is some overlap, but we hope that during Kronkel we will all see people from outside our usual bubble, or our usual bubble outside of its usual hubs. Not only as a means of discovery, but also as a means to strengthen a splintered DIY scene. Kronkel invites visitors to step outside their comfort zone: we hope that a punk will catch an electronic act or a folk trio – and vice versa. We resist cultural uniformity and instead embrace the diversity of movements.

By hosting the festival at several spots throughout the city, Kronkel wants to show and explore what happens when you extend the many unique crowds that gather here and the initiatives that arise when you bring them together. The venues shine a light on one another and they show themselves to one another. Or, to verbalize it in Kronkel fashion: show each others’ faces new places and each others’ spaces new gazes.

Tickets are on sale now for €40,-, granting access to all events at all venues.
A few of the many performing artists include: Quatsch, The Woman, Deli Girls, Prom Vagabonds, Ak’chamel & Maya Ongaku

More info // Tickets