You’ll usually find Heaven Up Here and the concerts they set up at Landet and Melodybox, but in August they’ve got something special planned. They’re bringing together some of the city and country’s best indie and avant garde bands for a day festival at Färgfabriken, with acts like Hater, Ivy, Saigon on the bill. We caught up with HUH’s Clara Gyökeres to find out more.

So you’ve been organising shows essentially forever, but where did the idea to launch a festival come from?
The idea is not entirely new. There’s been Heaven Up Here festivals in the past, but then called Konst-och Musikfestivalen. You could say that HUH is really just a long festival, spread out throughout the year. Since the live music scene in Stockholm right now is somewhat threatened, we wanted to do what we could to contribute with something happening, doing what we do best – live shows with great bands.

Can you talk us through the line-up?
For sure! We have booked five bands that make a really cool line-up. We’ve got Hater, Saigon, The Hanged Man, Ivy, and Duschpalatset together with a super dance-friendly DJ. All of these have been playing at Heaven Up Here-gigs before, but never together. We’re stoked to have them play at the festival and with a line-up like this, we feel very lucky.

Outside of the bands, what else can we expect from the festival in terms of food etc?
The true Heaven Up Here spirit, we’ll have two bars, tasty food with a vego-friendly approach, the beautiful venue Färgfabriken just by the water. A festival not like others, Heaven Up Here Festival is really chill, come-as-you-are-style.

The festival price is only 150kr, was it important for you to keep it low?
Yes, we chose to sell some early bird tickets for only 150 kr. The ticket pricing is really important, we feel like we want to be able to offer a super line-up for a great price, no matter what wallet. For 5 bands, the price is just to die for.

Heaven Up Here Festival, Färgfabriken, Aug 17

Photo: IVY, by Nalin/Östberg