Kulturbunker Höchst

Kulturbunker Höchst is a cultural venue in Frankfurt, housed inside a former air-raid shelter built for IG Farben employees in the 1930s. Musicians first used the bunker as a music space in 1975. From 1980, the Frankfurt fire department rented rehearsal rooms to bands that had reshaped the interior themselves. The bunker became a central rehearsal space for Frankfurt. By 1987, rooms with ventilation slots opening outdoors had become rehearsal spaces for bands and their creative work. Fire-safety work later added ventilation and new toilets. After Frankfurt shelters left civil-defence obligations, musicians founded an association here in 1990 to protect rehearsal spaces. The association joined the Kick91 initiative in 1991. Rehearsal rooms range from sixteen to thirty-five square metres, and users expanded them under building and fire-safety rules. Thick bunker walls surround bands and visual artists working in the venue. Bunkerfest has run since 1986, placing alternative rock, metal, pop and punk on a professional stage outside the entrance. Visitors find grilled food, drinks and a tent roof at the festival.