Underground Conference aims to be the one and only hardcore open-air demoscene party. Running since back in 1995 on a not-so-regular basis, UC is seen by many as a great diversion compared to "usual" demoparties. As you may know, during the last decade, most demo events tried to become as serious as possible. Organizers are expected to be perfectionists. Demopartys attract mass media attention, we've got seminars, and everything is becoming nice and tidy.
This is not how UC is like. Basicly UC is a big satire about the demoscene and its parties. In most areas, we try to do the exact opposite of what usual parties try to achieve. We make fun about all the serious party organizing out there, we spit on the ongoing commercialism of the scene, and we don't give a shit about if the public thinks we are artists or monsters. Actually, we prefer to be monsters.
UC is organized by the guys who brought you Breakpoint, the worlds biggest pure demoscene party, so we know how to get a party right. But while you can expect us not do any newbie orga fuckups, during the party we want to lose control, just like the rest of the visitors. UC is based on the concept, that all party organizers are drunk, stoned and unresponsible from the partys start on. UC organizers want to hang out with all their friends in the scene (=the UC visitors), having fun and doing crazy stunts.
So: If you want to go to a perfectly organized party, where everything is clean and comfy, where you get serviced by organizers all the time, where compos are on time etc - don't visit Underground Conference. On the other hand, if you are looking for an absurd meeting with lots of features that make you go "WTF", which massive fun and action, if you don't mind getting dirty and organizing things yourself, if you love sitting together with scene friends under the open sky, well... then join us!
Please note: This is an invitation-only event closed to the public. You must apply in beforehand, and you may or not be admitted attendance. This is due to the fact that we got very limited seating, and will not be able to allow everybody who wants to join to do so. It is also because we need to be able to know and trust all visitors as we will have some features at the party that could get you killed, and we want to be able to chill and relax, and therefore need to be sure that all visitors are able to handle whatever they are consuming (for example alcohol).
With Underground Conference dating back to 1995, the party made a lot of history. UC has been the first demo party to a whole bunch of sceners. See for yourself:
UC8 is brought to you by these more-or-less fine people:
Location, Mainorga
Infodesk
Networkteam
Compo-, Event- und Beamteam
Art, Invitation demo
If you are still reading this, you seriously got too much time. Anyway, here is the history of Underground Conference - the text has been updated after every party by scamp, so it may be a rough read:
1995/1996: First Generation
It all started back in 1994. After attending THE PARTY 4, some german sceners were pretty pissed about current partys. Today we can say that TP4 was the beginning of those "commercial" styled partys like most are today. Members of PURGE decided to do just the opposite and organized the Underground Conference in early 1995. It was a very small party held in an old youth club near Stuttgart. It was small, but the feeling was great. It was planned as a one-time party.
In 1996 I (scamp/vacuum) decided to do another Underground Conference, this time in Bingen/Germany (where I live). I changed a few things. The biggest change was that the second Underground Conference (called ucIIe, like Deluxe Paint II enhanced) was going to be an Open-Air-Party. PURGE and KLF (Keen like Frogs) joined the organizing team, and together we made this party a very nice event. At UCIIe there was one hard thing we had to fight against: The weather. The Party was held in May 1996, and unlike other years that years may was extremely cold. Good we had that huge campfire, else we all would have died ;)
To understand the history of the UC, I have to tell you a bit about my personal past so you understand. Skip this part if you don't care ;) Because of the bad weather, a lot of ppl who announced they would come to uc2e didn't. After the party I had huge bills to pay. Back then I didn't have an income and was still going to school. It took me half a year to pay all those bills. After that and some personal trouble I left the scene for organizing my own future (which was very dark back then). I lost contact to most of my scene friends. That's why there wasn't a Underground Conference in 1997 and 1998. During 1998 I finally had my own business running, and I decided to get back into the scene. I joined the United Cracking Force (UCF) as a coder and also re-formed my own group VACUUM a bit later. In early 1999 I got back in contact with the german demoscene. I was very happy to see that many of my friends of the past were still active. But I also noticed that the partys across europe I loved so much either died (Wired) or got even more commercial. So it was time for an Underground Conference.
1999-2002: Second Generation
In June 1999 (I learned not to risk bad weather in May again ;) the third Underground Conference (UC3d) took place, again with a different, improved location. As quite some time had passed by since UCIIe, for many visitors this was a "new" party. But also quite a few dudes from back UC95 and UCIIe showed up. Smash Designs and (the rest of the dead) Purge joined the organizing team. UC3d was a great success. Again it was small, again less ppl appeared than planned, but we had tons of fun. It again had this unique feeling only the Underground Conference has. If you ever attended one, you know what I mean. If you didn't, you now have the possibility to find out. Since the ending of uc3d I got lots of requests for a another Underground Conference. Some ppl even bugged me several times a week ;). As my own business is now running well and growing, my main problem about the Underground Conference is fixed now: The unpayed bills after each Party ;)
For 2000's Underground Conference (uc4gw) I decided to go international. Not because I wanted a much bigger party (I did't). UC always has been and will be a party for the "real" sceners, for the hardcore freaks nobody understands in the "normal" world out there. But those ppl do not only exist in Germany, they exist all over Europe (and the rest of the World). Unlike the past, I now was also able to let the party grow a bit as a lot of people were willing to help and my personal situation was much better. At this point I want to thank all the helpers of the UC's in the past and the future.
To make it short: uc4gw was a huge success. The location was just perfect, the weather fine, the mood perfect. IMHO it was one of the best UC's, maybe THE best.
That's why we decided to stick with the uc4gw location for uc5.25". Again it was a success and we had lots of fun and crazy releases.
At beginning of 2002 it became clear that it was impossible to get the location in worms again, as it already was booked out for several months. We took the challenge, and a long journey began - we travelled a few hundred km's and visited more than 20 possible party locations, but none was perfect. While driving through some forest near Bingen, searching for a possible location, I noticed an old military base, which looked like it had been abandonded. It looked fucking cool, so I decided to give it a try. After several days of phone calls, I managed to speak to all the officials I needed permissions from.
Intermission: Breakpoint
UC6.22 turned out to be pretty cool, although I really missed the meadows we had at previous UCs. As you may remember, back in 2003 the Mekka&Symposium party series died. Together with my friends from the M&S team, I decided to teamed up to create the Breakpoint party as a replacement. As you hopefully also know, the UC6 location, the military depot in Bingen, then also got re-used for Breakpoint 2003.
Organizing Breakpoint was a MASSIVE work. It meant that for about 3 months/year I couldn't work in the company I own. Meaning high financial losses to me. After each Breakpoint, I had to work hard for months to recover. So, each summer when it was time for another Underground Conference, I didn't have the money and nerves to organize a second party.
During 2005, things changed - the new Breakpoint location (Rundsporthalle) made things much easier, and also the team was highly experienced already. Since 2005 also my company situation had been constantly improving. Organizing Breakpoint 2006 was really a breeze compared to previous parties - everything worked nicely, and I was able to minimize the work losses for my company. So, after 3 years without an Underground Conference, I now felt ready again to organize the party that I really love - Underground Conference. I had been looking forward to doing this for a hell long time, and I know lots of sceners had missed Underground Conference just as I did.
2006: UC makes a brief return
The location of Underground Conference 7 blew away each and every previous location we had - a HUGE meadow located in the deep forests near Bingen, with a breath-taking view over the rhine valley.
With the party located very deep in the forest, next town Kilometers away, we regarded it as impossible that even with the gigantic audio volume that we produced anyone would notice us. But once again, we managed to set a world record in the demo scene: With the location being located in the state of Rheinland-Pfalz, police got complains in the state of Hesse, on the other side of the rhine. And after a long bureaucratic journey finally the police services managed to interact across states, and police showed up at the location to complain about the volume.
After UC7, for 11 years I was completely focussed on building my commercial empire. When it came to demoscene, the only things I found time for was sponsoring various partys and providing Internet access for them, plus running the untergrund.net scene hosting services.
Every year people were bugging me to do another UC, and multiple times I promised to try, but never made it. In 2013 someone even released a fake invitation intro for "Underground Conference 2014".
2017: UC is back for good
Sometime in 2016 I had decided that I was seriously missing actually DOING something inside and for the scene, and made the promise to myself to finally put priority on this. UC8 is not scheduled to be a one-off, and not meant as a retro event. Depending on the outcome of UC8, it is quite likely that there are more party editions to come.