A new international festival bringing together psych, shoegaze, post-punk and noise will launch in Copenhagen in March 2027. BLAZE will take place across two nights at Loppen in Christiania on 5/6 March 2027, bringing together emerging artists and established acts from across the international underground.
The inaugural lineup features The KVB (UK), Winona Riders (Argentina), MAQUINA. (Portugal), Clustersun (Italy), Golden Hours (Germany/Belgium) and Mayflower Madame (Norway).
Created by Copenhagen-based Epic Noise International, BLAZE grew from an observation. Scandinavia has passionate audiences for underground music, but there is room for a stronger meeting point connecting those audiences with the wider international scene.
For BLAZE founder and MetalTalk writer Lea Wagner, the idea extends far beyond putting six bands on a stage. “At some point I realised that if I want things to change, I have to start with myself,” she said. “We have to create our own opportunities instead of waiting for somebody else to create them for us.
“That’s the wild horse energy behind BLAZE. You move. You fucking go. You build. And you build with people who get it.
“One of the things I wanted BLAZE to become is an anchor point. If an international artist has a confirmed Copenhagen date, hopefully that can make it easier to build other Scandinavian dates around it. Copenhagen shouldn’t have to be an isolated stop.
“If we can develop stronger connections between cities, venues and promoters across the region, coming to Scandinavia starts making more sense as a tour rather than as one expensive date at the end of a very long road.
“That’s obviously much bigger than BLAZE, and it only works if people work together. But imagine a stronger network where an artist coming north can build a viable route through the region. The artist reaches new audiences, and audiences get access to extraordinary international music.
“Then venues get stronger programmes, and promoters can take more chances and collaborate on routing. Each part makes the other parts more viable. It becomes a feedback loop. Better routing makes touring more sustainable for artists. More artists coming through strengthens venues and programmes. Stronger programmes build audiences. Stronger audiences make it possible for promoters to take more risks. And promoters, agents, and bookers working together can create better routes for the next artist coming through.
“That’s the ecosystem I would love to see become stronger. This is a cut-throat industry. If we don’t help and support each other, we’re all fucked. It really is that simple.
“You have to start somewhere. We’re starting in Copenhagen.”
BLAZE – One Sonic Universe
Musically, BLAZE deliberately refuses to sit comfortably inside one genre. Psych is very much part of its DNA, but the festival reaches into shoegaze, post-punk, noise, kraut, electronics and the beauty between them. The first edition reflects that approach, bringing together artists with established international histories and artists whose audiences are still growing.
Friday is headed by The KVB, alongside Italian psych-shoegazers Clustersun and Norway’s Mayflower Madame. Saturday sees Argentina’s Winona Riders headline, joined by Portuguese MAQUINA. and Berlin-based Golden Hours.
For Lea, that mixture of established and emerging artists is fundamental to what BLAZE is intended to become. “I’m interested in what is happening now and what could happen next,” Lea said. “History matters enormously, but an underground scene can’t survive by constantly looking backwards.
“Some of these artists have been building their own worlds for years. Others are at a point where new audiences are discovering them. I want those things to exist alongside each other. Iron sharpens iron.
“The six artists playing BLAZE are very different. That’s intentional. There are different sounds, different countries, different histories and different stages of development. But to me they all belong in the same sonic universe. Curation should mean making choices. These are mine. This is what BLAZE sounds like.”
The international nature of the inaugural programme is equally deliberate. Six artists from across Europe and South America will converge on Copenhagen, with MAQUINA. and Clustersun making their first appearances in Denmark.
Rather than attempting to build the largest possible bill, the first BLAZE is deliberately concentrated: Three bands each night, with every act forming a significant part of the programme.
“I would absolutely rather have six artists I believe in completely than fill a poster because a festival is somehow supposed to look a certain way,” Lea said. “I don’t work that way.
“BLAZE is called a festival because that is what I want it to become: A place people travel to, where artists and audiences meet, where relationships begin and where something can continue long after the last band leaves the stage.
“The first edition is two nights at Loppen. That’s our starting point.”
But beneath the ideas about touring, infrastructure and building something sustainable is a much simpler reason BLAZE exists. “I love this particular sonic universe,” Lea said. “That’s what drives everything for me. The rest is what you build around it to give that music more opportunities to travel, to be heard and to find the people who get it too.
That’s why the first lineup moves between psych, post-punk, shoegaze, kraut and electronics. I don’t hear those things as separate boxes. I hear the connections between them.
“Six different lanes of epic noise all intersecting in Copenhagen.”
The inaugural edition is presented in collaboration with Loppen, one of Copenhagen’s longest-standing independent live music venues and a natural home for the festival’s first edition.
Tickets are on sale now here. You can find out more about Epic Noise International on their Instagram. Find Blaze Festival on Instagram here.
