Kuldiga scene

The development of Kuldiga scene is very closely tied to the development of NEKAC organization and vice versa. When saying „Kuldiga scene” we mean all the activities connected to the development of underground culture in this small town; scene as the soil for growing and expressing individuals' creative talent.
Among the founders of NEKAC there were people who had been playing in local bands and projects already since the end of the 80ies and organizing gigs for these and other bands in various places in Kuldīga. Some of these gigs transformed into huge festivals with lots of bands from Latvia and abroad.

We believe that underground music scene in Kuldiga started taking shape in 1989. At that time several young and enthusiastic people started learning to play instruments, buying musical equipment and constructing it themselves, looking for practice space and finding places where many different more or less serious bands and projects emerged. Time passing, more people joined in, and some of them continued developing this local small-town culture not only by playing music but also taking part in making printed publications, organizing gigs and activities as well as helping in lots of other ways.

All of this was based either in homes of some of the activists or practice rooms in Kuldiga, which there has been a lot of, because for different reasons they have changed quite a bit. Acceptable were all the places that had electricity and a roof overhead.
Apartments, a kindergarten heating plant and cellar, Pioneers' house, district consumer union club, the gatehouse of a hospital building site, a ramshackle house on the brink of Aleksupīte river, attics of various workshops, garages etc – all these places are directly connected to particular bands and events and play a significant role in the development of Kuldiga scene.

Mostly by arranging concerts in Kuldiga we sparked interest in this kind of thing and youngsters started looking for practice spaces and founded bands that played (and some still do) an important role in the underground music scene Kuldiga and Latvia.

For a more thorough notion of the development of Kuldiga scene there's a piece of suggested reading: „What exactly is this whole NEKAC thing?” in the second issue of Rio Raio zine (Latvian only, sorry), and to get acquainted with the musical activities of different periods in history and their qualities it is recommended to listen to these tapes: "Kuldiga Underground Compilation 1989-1994” and "Kuldiga Compilation 1994-2002”. Also, have a look at the "Bands and projects" section.

It wouldn't have possible for Kuldīga scene to exist without the helpful and supporting people of Kuldīga. We are very grateful to our town council, the organizations, entrepreneurs and just nice people that have been a great help to us.

nekacerria 2006