- Why bother going to a festival as small as Trailerpark? I think I just answered my own question, to be honest. The Copenhagen event put on by the people behind ArtRebels, a local "creative business, movement and network for artists, musicians, designers, film makers, cultural activists, web designers, event makers and other creative souls," somehow delivered by being as curious, utopian and nebulous as the description of ArtRebels itself. On the first night that I arrived at the skate park that hosted the event, I found myself wondering, "Is this it?" By the end of the weekend, I was saying, "This is all it needs to be."
Photo credit: Johanne Fick
Many of the large Danish festivals that are put on each summer receive a good deal of government funding. That isn't the case for Trailerpark, which proudly displays some rough edges. What it lacks in grandeur, though, it makes up for in personality. The outdoor stage was flanked to the right by a trailer in which you could pop in and sit down in an easy chair for a while. The indoor stage's sound crew was perched atop the small skate ramp that rose up in the middle of the room. The personal touch was everywhere: A maze-like conglomeration of plywood offered up an aesthetically pleasing but hardly functional place to rest indoors, the sole food vendor changed the menu each day.
Photo credit: Kenneth Nguyen
Trailerpark isn't the sort of festival that you attend to experience music with 80,000 of your closest friends. I could've talked to DJ Hell with or without a backstage pass quite easily on the first night. The outdoor stage, on which Wareika delivered a blistering set of live house on Sunday wasn't terribly high. The booming soundsystem made it almost feel like a club night, albeit one (in Wareika's case) that featured a singing sailor, guitar-wielding vagabond and one completely normal looking dude working an enormous mixer. The trio outperformed Kollektiv Turmstrasse, a duo whose laptop set lacked a performative panache aside from the ritual return of the kick every so often.
Photo credit: Kenneth Nguyen
Local DJ duo Pattern Repeat fared far better, taking advantage of the closing slot on the first night. But it was just often the non-dance floor-orientated acts that sparkled. Chllngr's live set-up looked great and sounded even better—the one-man dub soundsystem held a saxophone, sang into the microphone and adjusted the mix, proving that more is sometimes more. Jessie Evans also played the saxophone in between bouts of wild dancing that evoked the same era as her glitter-adorned outfit. The diversity of the line-up is something new for Trailerpark, which in the past has seemed more interested in the vibe than the music. This year, though, both elements came together to create something that was special. It was a festival that didn't feel like one. That's a rarity these days, and something to celebrate.