Denmark’s Stagebox closes down after two years

A Danish music venue that opened less than two years ago has closed down with owners blaming a “contractual conflict” with its landlord.

The 2,500-cap Stagebox launched in Refshaleøen, a former industrial site in the harbour of Copenhagen, in late 2021, but was reported by Kulturmonitor to have run into financial difficulties.

The venue was located at Refshalevej 189 – an old and historical construction hall in the post-industrial shipyard.

However, Celebrity Access reports that Refshaleøen’s owner terminated its lease agreement with Stagebox founder and CEO Stefan Petersen earlier this year following a bankruptcy filing against Petersen’s Panelværkstedet subsidiary.

Stagebox founder and CEO Stefan Petersen denies the venue has gone bankrupt but says that since it now has no leasing contract, it will soon file a self-petition with the Danish Maritime and Commercial Court.

“We were on the right path until this contractual conflict hit us and tied us up for four months in something that has turned into a nightmare”

“We have made many mistakes in the process, and the project has at times grown beyond our capabilities – but we were on the right path until this contractual conflict hit us and tied us up for four months in something that has turned into a nightmare,” he says.

Petersen acknowledges that Stagebox’s “timing was terrible” in opening in the midst of the pandemic, and had to shut down due to a nationwide lockdown three weeks after its launch. A process will now begin to sell off the company’s assets “in order to best serve the creditors”.

“I am incredibly saddened,” he adds. “It was never the intention to end up here, even though I know we embarked on something that no one has ever done before in Copenhagen. I can accept going personally bankrupt – it’s part of the game when you believe so much in a project like we do – and have personally invested to the extent we have. But leaving a trail of relationships and creditors behind without a penny, that’s hard for me to accept – when this could easily have been resolved.”

Some concerts scheduled for Stagebox will be relocated to other venues in the Danish capital, while others will be cancelled.

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