Marketing
Restored church draws black metal fans
The restored stave church in Fantoft in Bergen has become a pilgrimage site for black metal music fans from across Europe. The draw - they want to visit the site of the church-burning that Greven (The Count), the one-man band Burzum, alias Varg Vikernes (photo), was suspected of carrying out, Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reports.
Several hundred people attended the consecration of Fantoft stave church after its reconstruction in 1997.
PHOTO: MARIT HOMMEDAL/SCANPIX
On the cover of the Burzum EP album "Aske" (Ashes) one can see a picture of the charred ruins of Fantoft stave church. Varg Vikernes is serving a sentence for murder and church burnings.
Guide Arne Dyrøy is not terribly thrilled about some of the new tourists to Fantoft.
"The church has received unwelcome attention because of the 1992 fire and we have had visitors wearing T-shirts with pictures of the burnt ruins. This is very disrespectful," Dyrøy said.
Dyrøy told NRK that many of the black metal tourists ask about Greven, and want to visit him in Bergen Prison.
The church as also been visited by a Canadian film team making a documentary about black metal music.
Torgrim Øyre, music reviewer and assistant organizer of the annual Bergen metal festival Hole in the Sky, agrees that the Fantoft burning was a "classic event in Norwegian black metal history" but believes the pilgrimage is a phenomenon limited to "slightly nerdy" foreigners.
Dyrøy told NRK that he kept a watchful eye on the black metal tourist crowd.
"As a rule they are very polite and easy-going but I am a bit on guard in case they try some kind of stunt," Dyrøy said.
Post je objavljen 28.10.2005. u 02:56 sati.