Last year was our second time at
Brutal
Assault (BA). The year before (2015), we met Shindy during a signing
session for the BA book. He is a founder of the festival,
who made all this possible for the last 21 years, together with
Vladan (who is not part of BA anymore). This time, Shindy personally
agreed on doing an interview for
Abismo during the last day of the
festival. We talked about the future and the past of the festival
with a lot of funny anecdotes, background information, underground
culture, sponsoring, finances, the fortress
Josefov and the town of
Jaroměř (where the fortress is located). Also the long lines, which
occurred in 2016, were a topic, hopefully for the last time. The
interview got longer and longer, because there is just so much
interesting stuff to tell. Fortunately, the festival's organization
went smoothly, and
Shindy could take a lot of his time to talk about
his work for a small eZine from South America.
Therefore, we are very proud to present
this comprehensive interview, which is by far not limited to BA visitors, but is for any fan of metal and other obscure
subcultures. For people, who take things into their own
hands and independently run or support bands, festivals, labels and magazines.
Especially for those, who are bored of today’s major metal
festivals, because those miss the unpredictable, the focus on music,
the crazy fans and a sincere underground spirit.
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Shindy and Tofi • Photo: Roman Černý
|
Abismo: First of all, I want to
thank you, Shindy, for being able to share your time with us - during
the ongoing festival! We respect a lot, what you guys achieved. There is so much interesting stuff to explore on this
festival. One of the most important things is the constantly great
line-up of Brutal Assault. How do you arrange such an amazing line up
each year? You run Shindy Productions and Tofi (ed. the
other head from BA) runs Obscure Promotion. How do you handle it? Is
it a teamwork?
Shindy: Yes it is. In the past,
I have been working as a record label manager and owner, than I have
been running a company that is promoting concerts and club shows for
about 10 years. But after those years, I felt a little bit exhausted,
so I quit. But Tomáš (ed. Tofi) is doing Obscure Promotion on his
own since then and he does also the booking of the bands for the
BA. So, we have been consulting the names we are putting on the
line-up, mainly when it comes to the big names. The rest of the
line-up is mostly chosen and booked by himself.
Abismo: Do you have any
preferences in bands, being a fan yourself? I have read in the book,
that you always wanted to have Slayer on stage. Are there any other
bands that you wish to play BA in the future?
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| Mastodon @ Brutal Assault 2016 |
Shindy: I always pick a few
names from the current line-up and dream of how great it would be to
see them on stage. But in the end, I can see only fragments of a
show. So I was happy to see a couple of minutes from
Mastodon or
Disavowed today, but that's basically it. There is not much watching
shows for me. Though, two years ago when we got Slayer, I was like
"Guys, I am not going to work for the festival for about 90
minutes - I am just enjoying the show!"
Abismo: After two decades of BA
starting as a small DIY-festival, that has now grown to 15000 fans,
which means a lot more challenges that come from the size: Do you
plan on making BA bigger, here in the fortress? I suppose in the
beginning it was probably not planned to grow this big...
Shindy: Yes exactly. Actually,
it is our tenth year here at the fortress and I would say that we are
now well accommodated in here. The first years, we were still
discovering the fortress. But now we know how it works, how to handle it production-wise and logistically. The limited space is a
challenge for us, for example if it were on a field like an airport
ground; you just move the fence to get more space. But in the
fortress you cannot move the walls, so the challenge is to handle the
fortress ground to make everything work properly.
Abismo: I read that the current
capacity for the fortress is around 17000 people...
Shindy: Yes, we are really close to the limit, we did not reach a sold out status yet, but that's not the breaking point for us - it is to have as many people as we can handle comfortably and to make them happy. That is the most important
thing for us! Our aim is not to have a crowd of 40000 people, but to
have a settled festival for the capacity that this area can handle,
where people like to keep coming back.
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| Brutal Assault aerial view |
Abismo: How do you handle
unforeseen problems during the festival? You are organizing BA from
the beginning until all these 21 years - is it getting easier with
that much experience?
Shindy: Some things are getting easier due to the repetition of the process. But sometimes, you think you have seen already everything and that is the potential moment of you future fail. Just some minor circumstances may differ from the
past years, and then some things don't work as well as you've
expected. So you have to be always prepared for an immediate
reaction.
Abismo: We have the impression,
that there is more police and security present on the festival this
year.
Shindy: I am not sure about the
police. But I believe, increasing security will be topic number one
in the parliaments for the next years. For the festival, we have more
security, because it was required by the company that provides the
cashless system. Especially some parts of the festival have to be
more secured. But it is not something that has drastically increased; in fact, we have nearly the same number of security guys for the last couple of years.
Abismo: Talking about the new cashless system, which were the reasons to use it?
Shindy: The first time I heard
about that was three years ago on a festival in the Czech Republic.
The experience was not good, the promoters and visitors were both
complaining a lot, so electronic cashless was not an option for us at
the time. But after changes of government, they are implementing an
electronic cash flow system, where every business will get a cash
machine. The transactions will be registered and they will charge
money for it. Probably it will start to happen next year, it is
called
EET. The cashless system we are running is something in
between this new EET system which is controlled by the
authorities, because there are some shitty businesses going around...
Abismo: I think it is easier for
the fans and the people that work with money, e.g. they don't have to count
coins, tokens, chips or whatever
Shindy: There are two parts in
this system. One is the cashless, which I believe is easier for
everybody - the vendors, the festival, the visitors - and then the
access control, which is the part of the system we had a bad
experience this year. The processing at the very beginning, when
people had to check their tickets was extremely slow, which caused
the big lines on Tuesday and Wednesday. That affected everybody. But
the rest went fine and as far as we fix this issue with high priority
until 2017, I think we can go easily with the system for the future. Nevertheless, I would like to thank everybody for being so patient and so cool at the beginning! In the past, we had major problems when the ticket system was dropping down, the e-ticket counter was offline for a couple of hours, it was really bad. But we had a wonderful crowd, they were complaining but they understood that we were trying everything possible to get them into the ground. Unfortunately it took a lot of patience...
Abismo: Well, you wait a couple
of hours, which sucks. But you know, what to expect once you are in,
and then you will forget these complications soon...
Shindy: Yes, but it is not an
excuse. This happened at the very beginning and the rest of the festival
went really smoothly. It is a matter of capacity and also the number
of people that are going in or out, it depends on a lot of small
things, that influence the lines for good or bad... I think we can
make up for it the next year.
Abismo: We visited this new
attraction
Underground XIV, which was really cool with
the candles, the underground labyrinth and even a small underground
gallery! Would it be possible to have other hidden parts of the
fortress like that open in the upcoming years?
Shindy: Yeah, that is new.
Normally, this area is open to public, but before, it was closed
during the festival. At this underground site, there are normally
guided historical tours, while the rest of the fortress, where the
festival is located, is closed for the public. This is the first time,
this part near the metal market is open for our festival's fans. And
just imagine: this is a couple of hundred meters. Can you believe
that actually there are 45 km of these catacombs right here?
Abismo:
Wow! Well, the fortress is like a "jackpot" for a
festival organizer - it is just an amazing location! Definitely one
of the main reasons to visit the festival, besides the line up.
Shindy: As far as I know, there
is only one other festival in Poland, which is also located in a
fortress...
Abismo: I love the use of
recycling material and garbage for the festival decorations! This
entire apocalyptic theme in the decaying fortress…
Shindy: We have a really
creative guy for this matter: he makes up a story for every piece of
garbage in his head, making it somehow valuable in a functional or
visual way. He has been working for us the last 4-5 years on
different parts of the fortress. Besides that, the horror cinema
decorations are made by a different guy. The team is about 5 people,
each one of them does a different thing, like scrap metal sculptures
or the puppets over there. It makes it more versatile and interesting
to have more than one person working on that.
Abismo: Can you estimate how
many people are working in the festival crew? What size is the main
crew or how many volunteers are needed?
Shindy: The core team is about
10-15 people, in total we have about 500 employees including
volunteers. That is something we have been focusing on the past
years: to have a part of the crew as volunteers, so one day they can
work for some hours and enjoy the other festival days for free. So
this is creating some kind of continuity, one year they can be
volunteers and next year they can do another job and get more
responsibility, so you can start from level zero and then can go up
the ladder.
Abismo: That way you motivate
them to do a good job and to come back the next year.
Shindy: That's what makes the
connection between people and festival. We have something like Brutal
Assault for ourselves, kind of unofficial festival for the helping
people. Then we are organizing events to take care of the fortress'
renovations. Thanks to this, we can open more areas that had to be
closed before.
Abismo: Is this the team called
Ravelin XIV?
Shindy: Actually, the
Ravelin XIV is located near the Metal Market and the Underground XVI. These guys are really crazy! They do all the work for free, just for the fun of it. They are investing a lot of time, effort and even their own money to rebuild the fortress. Because there is not much money coming to the fortress to preserve it. They are very into it!
We keep on cooperating
with the Ravelin XIV group. Like, for example, this year we did the
floor on the new Ambiance Lodge, it is now brand new. It is not like
that we are coming here once per year for a week and then go home. We
are working on the festival ground the whole year. Maybe we will open
new parts of the fortress, while others will never be open to the
public. Check on Google Maps to see how big the fortress is, we are
at an small part of it.
Abismo: Wouldn't it be possible
to have a sponsor to invest on that? Or maybe donations from fans? At
least, you get a little bit out of the entrance fee to visit the
Underground XIV labyrinth, but that's not much.
Shindy: I can't imagine we could
get a sponsor for this. Well, first, we wouldn't want to have a big
sponsor, like a mobile operator or a banking company. About the fans,
it would help for sure. But I know how much money the city hall had
to put in to just open it to the public. This would require a lot of
money, like a few million Euros. But we are doing what we can,
helping to rebuild the fortress by our own hands, it has more value
to us, than just getting the money from an sponsor. That is something
that makes the connection.
Abismo: We really enjoyed the
Oriental Stage. Last year, we saw the first band there, but for the
second band, it was impossible to get in because it was completely
crowed! (ed. Phurpa played first and then the legendary Czech band,
Cult of Fire. The stage is located at the
"Octagon", a small (~200 people) open air area inside a
fortress' bastion)
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| Oriental Stage Brutal Assault Official |
Shindy: We did the Oriental
Stage last year for the first time - just for two bands! That was
something special and it was so well received by the audience, that
we wanted to continue. It is kind of financial nonsense to build up a
stage and use it just for two shows on one day, but there are a lot
of things that we want to realize, that may not be commercially
reasonable. We were just like "let's do it", the financial
value is not the main thing in this case, it adds more value to the
festival by creating something special.
Abismo: These special things are
what the fans will remember, like the Cult of Fire show, if you could
get in.
Shindy: Do you remember the
extreme weather conditions from last year? It had around 40°C. You were even forbidden to smoke in the woods or to make an
open fire in this part of Czech Republic. And "Cult of Fire"
- what are they about? We installed a faucet on the walls for the
firemen, that where ready in case it would get dangerous. And at a
certain point, as part of the show, we started the fire on the
fortress' walls. Fortunately the Cult of Fire show was indeed with
fire and not with fire fighting water!
Abismo: We want to see the
special
Fire Organ performance today at the Oriental Stage.
Shindy: We wanted to make the
Fire Organ happen in the dark, but it is way too noisy and there are
citizens around the fortress and even as they are very liberal, at
some point it would become too much for them. We don't want them to
be angry with us. But it would be much cooler at midnight...
Abismo: About the people around
Josefov, I read on the book about experiences with the inhabitants
and we also visited the town Jaroměř earlier. You could say that
people are happy with the festival.
Shindy: Well, here in this town,
there are not many business chances. The festival is the biggest
opportunity of the year and they are trying to get a piece of the
cake. I think it is something mutual - a good relationship - both
parts benefit from it. We have been in other cities with the festival
and they were not happy. Once, over 1700 locals complained, so we had
to move to another location...
Abismo: It is mentioned on the book that the
Jaroměř mayor is a rocker...
Shindy: Yes, he is. He likes
challenges - and this one was a big one for him and for the whole
city hall. They had this fortress area, which was absolutely unused
for at least 12 years. I remember seeing some old photos, they had to
put in money and effort to make it accessible to the public. It was
really just ruins with trees everywhere.
Abismo: Thank you for your time.
It is almost an hour!
Shindy: It's ok, jut couple of
missed calls. Where did you say you are from?
Abismo: I am from Bolivia and I live in Germany right now, so I am
writing mostly about the European metal scene, especially Germany of
course. I recommended BA to my friends.
Shindy: Wow Bolivia! In Germany,
on the other hand so much competition in Metal festivals. We have at
least 1000 German visitors. This is an amazing number for us!
Abismo: You probably have
statistics, from where people come...
Shindy: We do, partly, with our
e-ticket system. Many people are from Poland.
Abismo: Yeah since the festival
location is close the polish border...
Shindy: The Polish border is
just 22 km away. Well, it is not really a joke, but they say "the
Brutal Assault is the biggest Polish festival in Czech Republic".
I believe there are at least 5000 polish fans here and that's a lot.
There are no big festivals in Poland, I don't know why. (ed. that means a third part of the fans that attented)
Abismo: About the competition in
Germany, I think some German fans are used to much to their own
festivals that they are looking for something fresh, and here is
something different happening!
Shindy: I mean the competition
there is just crazy, you open any major metal magazine in Germany and
every second page is an ad for a summer festival. And definitely, I
believe the atmosphere here at the festival ground is completely
different from a German festival and maybe that is why it is
attractive for them to come here. And, well, maybe one of the factors
is also the beer price and its quality. They would pay much less
for their beer consumption here. But I think that's not the main
reason to come here...
Abismo: Do you have time to
visit other festivals during the year?
Shindy: Sometimes I do, there
are two kinds of festival visits for me: on one hand I observe the
logistics and the technical part, and the other is just to visit it
as a fan and enjoy the music, but that happens only once a year.
Abismo: There seems to be good
communication with other festivals, like the French Hellfest: I saw
flyers of Brutal Assault there.
Shindy: Hellfest was really
close to Brutal Assault's philosophy a couple of years ago before
they started with the really big names. That's something we don't
want to do. But there are still a lot of underground bands playing,
which is amazing for the size of HF. They still keep the underground
spirit alive!
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| Josefov |
Abismo: We love the underground
spirit here. That is also what we are here for.
Shindy: That's what we came
from. We have to respect that. Like I said, I got my underground
label before...
Abismo: I had a lot of fun
reading the Brutal Assault book, all those anecdotes..! I really
appreciate that it was translated.
Shindy: It is about 446 pages.
When we at first thought about doing a book, we planed on doing 250
pages, but then it was evolving and growing! We call it "The
Brutal Assault Bible". Almost everything about BA is in there. I
saw some other festival books in their native language, but they
don't translate everything or maybe only captions of the photos. We
wanted to translate everything, so it is also valuable for fans that
understand English. The aim from the beginning on was to make it
bilingual.
Abismo: Thanks again for your
time.
Shindy: Enjoy the rest of the
festival and hope to see you next year!
Last but not least, I want to thank
Schizmo and Fred (who are also from BA's core team) for making this
interview possible!
I highly recommend everyone who
has just the slightest interest in underground metal to read the
Brutal Assault book. This is purely about Metal in a small country,
that struggled long times with religious and other prejudices,
chaotic government officials and a very limited budget, building up
all this with their bare hands. The book is not just some festival
merchandising: this is a fantastic book for any Metal fan worldwide!
More:
·
Brutal Assault 2016 review
·
BA 2016 photo album
