Kalabalik festival in Alvesta

I spent the weekend at an old abandoned amusement park in the deepest forests of Småland. It sounds like the plot of a bad zombie-splatter movie, but it was even better.

This was the first time the Kalabalik festival was arranged. The arrangers of sadly closed club Kalabalik in Växjö decided to gather a bunch of strange bands at an even stranger location, Tyrolen outside Alvesta, and behold! Instant success.

Among the bands were Ekobrottsmyndigheten, who probably had the best audience of all with their tongue-in-cheek EBM. German newcomers Schramm was a pleasant surprise, and so was the German-Polish one-man-band Jemek Jemowit who entered the stage in high heels and colorful wet-suit.

Ekobrottsmyndigheten on stage.

The Hungarian band Escalator was formed in 1988 but this was their first ever gig in Scandinavia. German aggrotech act Centhron was a bit disappointing, with over-ambitious posing and too similar songs. The other bands were Pain Machinery, Tarmvred, 64revolt and Position Paralléle.

Happy crowd at Ekobrottsmyndigheten.

But the most memorable thing was the park itself. Tyrolen is well past its heydays, with old wall paintings in desperate need of new paint and several closed attractions. Radio cars were littered in the area and a stray cat was carefully watching the visitors all dressed in black. The toilet walls were covered with old Fantomen comics. A stuffed fox appeared out of nowhere and became everyone’s favorite pet.