INTERVIEW: KAI WINTERHOFF (Balarock festival): "We don't want it to be all work, we also wanna have fun doing it!"

It has been a month since the best little festival called BALAROCK took place. A festival that had us recuperating for a while and reminiscing about a while longer!    I spent time there with amazing people, including the ones responsible for the existence of the fest it self! So I took a chance and had a little chat with one of them, KAI WINTERHOFF!

Hi Kai! You are one of the organizers, right? How many of you are in the organization of Balarock festival?

KAI: Hi! Yes, I am. We have twelve people in the organization and three main organizers of the festival, and I am one of them.

And what is your function?

KAI: I am the promotor, so I book bands with Peter, but it's like we all have to do everything, check everything...

This is the fifth edition of the festival. Where did the idea for this festival come from?

KAI: So the ROCKPALAST CLUB, the club behind the Balarock, the club that organizes festival exists for 20 years. We had Open Air before, like until 2012., but it was mainly with cover bands, and after that, few people moved away to bigger cities to study and work and at that point the club was almost dead. We did few concerts and then Corona hit and it all stopped! We couldn't do anything. So one day we sat in a bar and said: Okay, what should we do now? Is the club dead or do we want to try something new? Then one of us said: Let's do a festival! And we asked: What kind of festival? Not with cover bands again! And that's when Peter and me said: Okay, let's make a punk festival, and that is how it all began.

Why punk festival?

KAI: We listened to punk since early days and we have been to Punk Rock Holiday and it was such a nice place and great people like you guys from Croatia, and yeah...it's the whole punk rock scene, it is familiar and friendly. And the bands are friendly also, and nice, and that is our kind of music and the political thing behind is also our thing, so...

Let us get back to the beginning: Who played at the first ever Balarock fest, how did the organization go and how long did it took you to make it happen? What problems did you encounter?

KAI: The idea came in February, that we could make a festival, and the first edition was in June. So we had four months to organize everything from nothing! We didn't know how to book bands at the time, so we wrote to Bernie from Heathcliff if they would like to play here, and he said they would, but didn't have time to. So we asked him if he could give us some band names, bands we can ask that are in this region and he sent us a list of like 30 bands and he even asked some bands if they would like to play at our festival. One thing led to another and we had Belvedere as a headliner, Must Be Wrong and others playing that year.

Was it difficult regarding finances?

KAI: Well, no. Because we calculated the festival with not that much money and we also had festival experience from before, so it was not that new to us.

I know that usually bigger bands get paid and smaller ones get some kind or remuneration. How is the situation with this festival?

KAI: Every band gets paid! We ask them what they want and so every band gets paid and also we pay for their traveling fee, we organize their stay and sleeping arrangements.

How many tickets did you sell this year?

KAI: We sold 350 early bird tickets, and in total something like 450.

Jaya The Cat is your first ever big name at the festival?

KAI: Yes. This is the biggest band we've had here. We saw them like 10 years ago. We wrote to their booking and they said they want to play here so, yeah, that was easy (laughter).

You said you get some finances from the government founds?

KAI: Yeah, it's called "Initiative Musik". They have like a pool of money and you apply and then you can get some founding from them. So we wrote to them, explaining what we are doing and this year it came through. And that helped, of course.

Tell me a bit about your ambitions regarding the festival it self.

KAI: The main idea is that we found the festival where we are not too busy, that will not be only work and no play. We want to have fun. It's a DIY festival, we are all volunteers here, we don't get any money out of this, so we want to be able to enjoy and have fun while doing it. And we want to grow, definitely! But our limit is like 700 to 800 people. 

But it seems like there is no much room to grow... In duration than maybe?

KAI: That would work. This used to be one day festival, this year is the first two days edition. We'll see...

Have any bands from Croatia played here?

KAI: Not yet! But we would love to have them. 

Any particular band?

KAI: Hladno Pivo? What are they called now? 

Savršeni Marginalci. Cool! 

KAI: Or Pigs Parlament from Slovenia!

This is such a cool place here. How did you get this place and how did you come to an idea that this should be the festival area?

KAI: So, the festival we made before was also here and you don't really have many locations here where you can bring so many people, and the place is perfect for it. It's a shooting range. But the main thing is that you have everything you need here: stage, running water, toilettes, electricity... everything is here already.

And do you encounter problems with the city and the folks living here?

KAI: Sometimes! It's because we are on a hill and there is a hill on the other side so sound bounces of and basically, what we hear is what they hear, and to them we are just loud and noisy... but there are many people from outside Bad Laasphe, and they book apartments here and spend money in the city, so in a way we are giving back.

What is the furthest that someone travelled from to get here to the festival?

KAI: This year it's Croatia. But we have a friend who's living in Australia and has come to the festival for the last three years.

Who would you love to see play here in the following years? Forget about money, if you could bring any band who would it be?

KAI: Ohhh, well, H2O and Ignite would be great! Bad Religion to! Mad Caddies and Authority Zero would be awesome! There is so many names... If I could, I would have everyone here!

I think you have a really special thing going on here and I wish you many more years and great bands. I really did mean it when I said that this is the best little festival! Stay true! And keep on having fun along the way!

Written by I.