A Colossal Weekend adds Lingua Ignota and Midwife to this year’s line-up

A COLOSSAL WEEKEND is Denmark’s primary festival within the realm of somber and experimental rock music, taking place in the Vesterbro city area with the venue VEGA as its natural center over four days between 11th and 14th May 2023. Last year, the festival announced acts such as Boris, Inter Arma and Liturgy for the 2023 edition and today, two American acts are added to this year’s line-up in the shape of Lingua Ignota and Midwife. As for Lingua Ignota, the performance at Colossal Weekend is among the last shows under this moniker, as announced by main figure Kristin Hayter in 2022.

Lingua Ignota (US)

Multidisciplinary artist Kristin Hayter approaches themes of abuse, violence, and vengeance in radical and moving ways. The sonic epicenter of the project is Hayter’s voice, which unfolds with unfathomable mastery of vocal technique and expression. Her “unknown language” voices the unheard, silenced and dismissed. The musical atmospheres are made of power electronics, death industrial, black metal, classical music, Appalachian folk, and much more. You might just lose your breath when Lingua Ignota confronts you.

Midwife (US)

Madeline Johnston, a self-taught multi-instrumentalist, creates intricate and lush sonic environments where she addresses grief in its many forms. On her single, “Sickworld”, she turns her malaise outwards, feeling homesick for a place she can never return to, because it doesn’t exist in this sick world. The album, Luminol (2021), navigates themes of incarceration, control, self-harm, and truth, all emerging with forensic clarity in the bioluminescent color-field of blue. Johnston defines the sound of her emotionally charged experimental pop music as “heaven metal”.

The preliminary line-up for A Colossal Weekend 2023 is:

Boris (JP) - INTER ARMA (US) - Lingua Ignota (US) - LITURGY (US) Artist in residence - Messa (IT) - Midwife (US) - MOE (NO) - SHY, LOW (US) - We Lost The Sea (AU)

The Full Weekend festival tickets are now on sale for 850 DKK fees. One-day tickets will be on sale, when the full line-up is announced in mid February.

Tickets can be purchased HERE.

About A Colossal Weekend:

A COLOSSAL WEEKEND is Denmark’s prime purveyor of somber and experimental rock music whether it’s post-rock, noise, sludge or black metal. The festival has existed since 2016 and has since then presented acts such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Anna Von Hausswolff, Cult of Luna and Russian Circles. A Colossal Weekend 2023 will be the 7th edition of the festival presenting none less than 30 bands and artists on three different stages with VEGA in the city area Vesterbro as the core venue over four days from 11th to 14th May 2023 - plus exhibitions, performances, talks, food, vinyl market and much more.

A Colossal Weekend is a collaboration between well renowned venue VEGA in Copenhagen and the booking agency Colossal as they both discovered a common goal and ambition in presenting visionary acts of high quality within genres that many might not be too familiar with. Genres such as post-rock, post-metal, math, doom, sludge and black metal are solid ingredients in the program, however detours throughout other genres such jazz, techno and neo classical can also be expected.

The line-up is built up around a handful of well-known acts who represent specific tendencies and sounds within their domain, accompanied by a substantial amount of strictly curated underground acts, who altogether underlines, challenges and explores the infinite borderlands of alternative gloomy music. The festival has so far been a destination for music enthusiasts from all over the world. 40 % of the audience has traveled to Copenhagen and A Colossal Weekend from countries abroad and has co-created memorable experiences among like-minded people.

A Colossal Weekend is realized with funding and support from the Copenhagen Municipality, Basement, Liveurope, and Tuborg.