Fluff Fest is an independent hardcore punk festival held each July at the Czech town of Rokycany. A significant event for the DIY music scene of the Czech Republic and the punk subculture of Europe, it is associated with movements such as veganism, anarchism, feminism, anti-fascism, and straight edge. It features an international lineup of bands from diverse punk rock genres including hardcore, crust punk, emo, and grindcore, as well as talks and zines. Catering is provided by local animal rights organization Svoboda zvířat.
Fluff originated from Y2K HC Fest, an event organized in August 2000 in Plzeň by Michal Kočan and Tomáš Kadlec. They renamed it for the 2001 edition and moved it to the Rokycany airfield in 2006. Attendance exceeded 3000 by 2012, when a free side stage called Psych Tent was established outside the paid festival entrance. Organized by Jakub Ďuraško of Stoned to Death Records, it has spearheaded the inclusion of more experimental rock and electronic music into the lineup. Fluff currently runs for four days, starting on Thursday with a free warm-up and ending on Sunday night. Additional shows are held in Prague on Thursday and Monday.
Location
The festival takes place at the airfield in Rokycany. The airfield lies between a forest and a highway.
Fluff Fest has been described as a "strain" on Rokycany, which is not otherwise frequented by foreign visitors and subculture members. It brings a business boom to the town, especially in sales of vegetarian and vegan food. The Czech police, including local municipal units, road units, and investigative units, monitor Fluff with the stated goal of preventing crime, tackling theft, and making sure transportation runs smoothly. Theft of cash, credit cards, mobile phones, and cameras has been an issue on the campsite and the organizers pay to remove graffiti from buildings and rented equipment each year. Nevertheless, Michal Kočan stated in a 2013 interview that unlike in Plzeň where the festival was originally held, few complaints from the residents have reached the organizers and their relationship with the local authorities, who appreciate the international attention that the festival brings, is generally positive.
In a 2011 interview, Kočan reflected that the festival's location in the Czech Republic serves as a meeting point between "tired" Western Europe where hardcore punk scenes are oversaturated and "raw" Eastern Europe where they are still forming. In 2013, he confirmed that he hopes to showcase more Eastern European bands at future editions.
History
Vitamin X and Birds in Row have played Fluff four times while Heaven Shall Burn, Good Clean Fun, Endstand, Rise and Fall, Victims, Raein, Dangers, Loma Prieta, and Graf Orlock have appeared three times.
Y2K HC Fest
Around 1996/1997, Michal Kočan, Tomáš Kadlec, and Míra Kafka visited Ieperfest in Belgium for the first time and decided to organize their own hardcore punk festival. In 1999, the techno-oriented venue Exist formed in Plzeň, entrusted with the premises of a former swimming pool. The building included a hall with a capacity of about 500 and the adjacent ground provided a large camping area, which allowed Kočan and Kadlec to start planning Y2K HC Fest in the summer of 1999. They spent all their savings on the event and enlisted the help of close friends, forming the core festival crew which has stayed intact since. Y2K was held on 4–6 August 2000 with some 1000 attending and over 30 bands performing, including Good Clean Fun, Point of No Return, Cripple Bastards, Heaven Shall Burn, and numerous Czech ones. Perhaps a week prior, the police seized the premises due to Exist's connection to the drug trafficking present in the techno scene, the club's owner having been arrested. Finally, they allowed Kočan and Kadlec to go through with the festival and even pressured the city to grant them a camping area. Although the amount of work involved led the duo to decide that it would be a one-off event, they reconsidered due to positive feedback and the number of contacts they had already made. Kadlec has been responsible for the festival lineup ever since.