Krampus Los Angeles

5TH ANNUAL LOS ANGELES KRAMPUSLAUF (Krampus Run)
Thursday, December 14, 8-9pm.
Outdoors on Winston St. between Main and Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles, CA 90013

KRAMPUSLAUF AFTER PARTY
Thursday, December 14, 9pm-10pm.
The Lash
117 Winston St, Los Angeles, CA 90013

KRAMPUSLAUF

For our fifth year, KRAMPUS LOS ANGELES, in cooperation with THE DOWNTOWN ART WALK, is pleased to bring an authentic European style Krampuslauf (Krampus Run) to the city of Los Angeles. More of a interactive ruckus than orderly parade, this FREE event takes place on a closed-off block of Winston between Main and Los Angeles, where dozens of Krampuses will pursue those deserving the switch. While naughty hipsters can expect playful yet much-deserved swattings, children and more timid grown-ups will be protected by the benevolent St. Nicholas, overseeing festivities from a 19th-century-style steam car built and transported every to LA year by artist-engineer Kimric Smythe of BEAST BAY KRAMPUS.  Want to come in costume?  See below!

AFTER PARTY

At 9pm, as the last photos are snapped and switch smacks dispensed, we invite you to head over for a (free) After Party at the appropriately named and somewhat underground nightclub THE LASH, situated behind the parade route. Have a drink, rub elbows with any horned parade devils who straggle in from the parade and enjoy a bit of song from cabaret artist and official national anthem singer for LA’s German Consulate, CHRISTINA LINHARDT interpreting Bertolt Brecht, Marlene Dietrich, and other Weimar-style favorites. Accompanying her will be musician and former clown/singing ringmaster for Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus MICHAEL “TUBA” HEATHERTON. If not too hoarse from screaming orders to his Krampuses, ST. NICHOLAS may also drop by for a pint or two. Party is 21+ over with ID.

HAVE A COSTUME? WANT TO PARTICIPATE?

If you have assembled a complete Krampus suit (not just a mask or pair of horns), we’d be excited to have you join in the run as a performer, but you will need to send us a picture of your completed suit by December 12 to participate. We’ll give you further directions then. We are also looking for wranglers to help insure the safety of spectators and Krampus (those masks can be clumsy). If interested please message us by December 12.  CONTACT US HERE.

On December 6 (St. Nicholas Day) author Al Ridenour gave a slide lecture on material from his book The Krampus and the Old, Dark Christmas, and some friends dropped by.

Thanks to our Instagram friends for snapping some pictures!

 

A post shared by Glenn Robinson (@angergetic) on Dec 6, 2017 at 9:05pm PST

 

A post shared by Glenn Robinson (@angergetic) on Dec 6, 2017 at 8:17pm PST

The Fifth Annual Los Angeles

KRAMPUS BALL

at ALPINE VILLAGE
833 W Torrance Blvd, Torrance, CA 90502
Saturday, December 2, 2017
(Doors 8pm, Show 9pm)

Featuring:

KRAMMPSTEIN
Industrial metal gods Rammstein incarnated as Krampus!

ROSEMARY’S BILLYGOAT
Mad metal costume-rock devilry!

HAMMERSTEIN MUSIK BAVARIA
Polka party from the Krampus’ homeland!

LA KRAMPUS TROUPE ATTACK!
Dozens of horned hideous monsters unleashed upon the naughty!

VENDING, BEER, GERMAN FOOD
AND HUNDREDS OF COSTUMED GUESTS!

TICKETS HERE

PLEASE GET YOUR TICKETS EARLY! THIS EVENT HAS ALWAYS SOLD OUT

21+

For our fifth annual Krampus Ball, we will be folding the best of two events into one big blowout and moving the party with all its costumes, bell, and switches down to the capacious old-world ballroom of ALPINE VILLAGE. For those who’ve never experienced southern California’s favorite make-believe Bavaria, Alpine Village is an über-quaint tourist spot with vendors of German foods and souvenirs housed in chalet-style buildings clustered around a diminutive onion-domed wedding chapel.  Unfortunately, the vendors are sure to have fled in terror as the Krampus descends upon the village, but the ballroom will remain well prepared to offer party guests German food and drink throughout the evening.

Headlining tonight will be cult-favorite KRAMMPSTEIN, the inexplicably weird but oh-so-right hybridization of German industrial-metal gods Rammstein and everyone’s favorite Yule devil. Outfitted in leather, fur, horns, and masks, the band tears through an apocalyptic stage show, churning out Rammstein hits lyrically reworked to obsessively detail the child-beating lifestyle of the Krampus. Dazzling stage-show effects, infernal lighting, and Christmas cookies compliment the spectacle.

Also raising a frightful din will be Southbay favorites and veterans of a bizarre scene only they could spawn, ROSEMARY’S BILLYGOAT (an older, more devilish incarnation of fast-food despoilers Mac Sabbath). Balancing cartoonish goofs with wickedly effective horror-metal, Rosemary’s Billygoat creates a fire-breathing psychotronic circus of a stage show with mammoth props, costumed stunts, and other devilry that would make the Krampus proud.

As if this weren’t enough to sate your Krampus-lust, you can expect to be thoroughly menaced and switch-smacked by costumed members of KRAMPUS LOS ANGELES in their premiere seasonal outing.  We won’t say when, but when you hear the gathering din of clanking cowbells you’ll know it’s close – the massed attack by over three-dozen devils and mountain spirits transforming the dance floor into a tumultuous maelstrom of horns and flailing switches. Pray that St. Nicholas can gain control of his malevolent slaves and save the evening!

Bringing it all back home to the old country will be HAMMERSTEIN MUSIK BAVARIA fronted by Bavarian-born Andreas Becket and offering everything from boot-stomping polkas to tears-in-your-beer ballads of Liebe gone wrong. They’ll even give you some on-the-fly dance lessons. The 4-piece ensemble boasts award winning classical musicians, seasoned studio pros and an academically trained ethnomusicologist, but they still haven’t forgotten how to party like a drunken goatherd at Oktoberfest and are not above appearing in a high-camp Wienerschnitzel commercial touting their fast food as sorta German. And, yes, there will be yodeling.

Emcee for the evening will be our own beloved ST. NICHOLAS, friend of good children and stern judge of all you who deserve the switch.  

And that’s only the entertainment on stage! There’s so much more that our guests bring year to year in an amazing array costumes portraying Krampus, the Krampus-adjacent, and other original takes on the theme. Arrive early to allow yourself exchange pleasantries and snap shots with our guests turned out in their diabolically festive yuletide best.

You might also take some time early on to avail yourself of a tasty one-ticket-buys all GERMAN SMORGASBORD and peruse the artsy-craftiness of the KRAMPUS INSPIRED ARTISANS offering merchandise in our vending area.  (Merchants TBA soon; please check back).

THEMED COSTUMES ENCOURAGED (but not required)
We cannot guarantee tickets at the door. Please get your tickets early!!
21+ (ID REQUIRED)