Vondelbunker is a subterranean cultural space carved into a 1947 nuclear fallout shelter under Vondelpark, operated since 2011 by a non-hierarchical collective of volunteers. Events are almost always free. The collective is explicitly anti-commercial and exists, in part, as a political statement about what public space in Amsterdam's increasingly expensive centre can still look like. The programme is genuinely varied: death metal, experimental electronics, techno, hip-hop, punk, film screenings, political discussions, art exhibitions, and skill-sharing workshops have all happened here, often in the same month. Decision-making is collective, there is no booking manager and no artistic director. This produces a programme with occasional gaps and frequent surprises. Vondelbunker is difficult to find deliberately: the entrance is recessed under the park bridge at Vondelpark 8a, and there are no large signs. When it is open, it is unlike any other space in Amsterdam, underground in the literal and figurative senses, cool in summer, loud when it wants to be, and free of the economic pressures that shape almost everything else in the city.
2 upcoming events
