Copenhagen Underground: Winter Wasteland is a 3-day film, music, and art festival taking place at Loppen from December 17th to the 19th. All proceeds of the festival will be donated to support Rohingya refugees fleeing ethnic cleansing, since August over 650,000 refugees have fled Burma to Bangladesh and southeast Asia with that number consistently rising. Since last year, millions have fled Burma seeking asylum and basic human rights. 

 

The festival consists of three main parts.

 

The film portion of Winter Wasteland will consist of short films made by DIY artists & filmmakers from around the world who are working on their projects with little to no finances or resources. In a medium of art that has become increasingly reliant on these things, it is that much more important to highlight the work of young DIY filmmakers, many of whom are also hurdling social and cultural barriers to make their pieces. We will be screening a 1-hour block of short films on Sunday and a 1-hour block for documentary, music video, and experimental films. We will also be screening "Home Alone" for the holiday season on the last day of the festival!

 

For music, we will have 9 bands across a variety of genres performing during the festival. We urge you to support the bands listed above both during the festival, as well as afterwards. 

 

Lastly, each festival date will begin with a block of events taking place from 18:00 to 19:30. They will be focused on showcasing the work across other mediums of art, such as visual art, theatre & performance, and more! The details of these artists will be confirmed shortly and updated on the event page. 

 

We plan to also have raffles for donated and upcycled prizes, with the money raised from the tickets also going to charity. Flydende By will also be bringing a popcorn machine and providing free popcorn during the film screenings to those attending the event. We will also be encouraging those with extra warm clothes, bedding & blankets, and non-perishable foods (canned goods), to bring them to the festival as we are collecting these items for locals in need of these things during what is expected to be the coldest winter that Denmark has had in recent years.

 

Since August, over 650,000 have fled Burma to Bangladesh alone with the number rapidly rising everyday with no sign of slowing down. Millions have fled before the violent and systematic escalation of this persecution. Young children have been targets of gang rape by military forces, those same militias have also slaughtered women and pregnant women especially in mass. The majority of these refugees are children and a large percentage of these children are lacking the resources to survive. Not only is this situation rapidly on course to be one of the largest refugee crises of our generation, but a gruesome genocide as well. And also not the first that this ethnic group of people have faced. Most recently, a repatriation deal was signed to send over a million refugees back from Bangladesh to Burma where men, women, and children have successfully escaped. With the deal in effect, what waits for them in Burma is unimaginable. Simultaneously, NGOs are being pushed out of the area with resources also being cut to these groups and their volunteers, which is why the money will go to a governmental institution (the UNHRC) who have grounds to stay and support those who need help in the region amidst political and humanitarian turmoil. Copenhagen Underground strongly urges all attendees of this event, as well as everyone in general, to please educate themselves and others about this issue and create a dialogue about. Silence is the worst and most frighteningly inhumane response to ethnic cleansing and our communities must know what is happening, as well as the world. 

 

This event consists of support from Copenhagen Underground, Loppen, and Flydende By. You can find out more about these three fantastic collectives here:

 

All Copenhagen Underground events are safe spaces. Absolutely no tolerance for racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, islamophobia, transphobia, anti-semitism, ableism, and any other form of discrimination. 

DEL PÅ: