New Vilnius “smoke factory” opens

A couple of years ago, Linas Zakarevičius, the founder and owner of the Sakiškių alus kraft brewery, who was looking for a more spacious premises, not only broke up the dust that had penetrated his clothes during those few years, but also revived it.

The recently rebuilt industrial building, called “Smoke Factory”, combines not only modern kraft beer, but most of it has been converted into a cultural space where concerts, performances, exhibitions and artistic representations of various contents will take place.

Residents of both Naujoji Vilnia and the neighboring districts of Pavilnis and even Dvarčionys yearn for high-quality contemporary art and cultural events. Only a few cultural events held at the Smoke Factory have already attracted the attention of Vilnius residents.

Greta, the wife of L. Zakarevičius, who houses the Dūmu Factory spaces dedicated to culture, has no less ambitious plans than her husband, who managed to make his kraft beer Sakiškių famous in the world. This means that the cultural home established in the “Smoke Factory” will not be extinguished and the capital will have another home of art and culture, according to a media report.

It became the largest scythe factory.

The factory, which gave the name of the smoke to the entire industrial neighborhood of Naujoji Vilnia due to the smoke from their homes, started operations in 1882. The factory, designed by the famous Vilnius architect Ivan Levickis, initially produced horseshoe nails, thorns . Its production did not bear fruit, so from 1884 the merchant E. Poselis became the new owner of the factory, who decided to produce Swedish steel scissors here a few years later.

Scissors made in New Vilnius quickly conquered the markets of Tsarist Russia and other countries, and at the beginning of the 20th century, this factory became the largest and most technologically advanced scissors factory in the world, producing up to three million scissors a year. Unfortunately, war and upheaval brought down the factory: in August 1915, the chimneys of the Naujoji Vilnia scythe factory were extinguished forever.

A wife came to the aid of the businessman.

The scythe factory, which changed ownership and purpose for a long time and seemed to be in short supply over the years, began to revive last summer, when L. Zakarevičius decided to rebuild it and manage the nearby territory here.

L. Zakarevičius, who was looking for a more spacious premises for his brewery, drew attention to this late 19th century building in 2018. The businessman also liked the authenticity of the building, he was also impressed by the success story of the business developed here , but the building itself was too big for the brewery and it was not possible to divide it into several parts.

His wife Greta then came to the aid of L. Zakarevičius, whose support and vision of how the remaining spaces in the factory could be used, and determined L. Zakarevičius’s decision to purchase this building.

Paid special attention to authenticity

During the year-long reconstruction of the building, the factory roof and walls were covered, new windows were installed, and climate-friendly underground geothermal heating was installed. Up to fourteen 100-meter deep water wells were hidden under the heated polished concrete floor. In August this year, 0.6 million. The rebuilding of the factory was completed, costing one billion euros.

During the reconstruction of the building, special attention was paid to preserving the authenticity of this building.

The recently renovated and renovated Smoke Factory has a space of 1,200 square meters and a height of 12 meters. It was decided to allocate part of the Smoke Factory (450 square meters) to the Sakiškiai kraft brewery, the remaining 750 square meters were left for cultural activities and rent.

The jazz concert will be replaced by “Fashion Infection”

The rebirth of “Dūmu fabrikas” and its perspectives delight artists and the public who want to find a space for creative work here.

G. Zakarevičienė, the manager of the cultural spaces of “Dūmų fabrikas”, says that cultural and social activities are difficult without additional funding, therefore events and conferences of companies and individuals are planned in the spaces of “Dūmų fabrikas”. All of this should help maintain the venue and obtain funding for cultural activities.

And there will be no shortage of cultural events at the Dūmu fabrik: concerts, performances, exhibitions, projects with the local community, artists from emerging countries, the Naujoji Vilnia Art School will be held here on weekends. On Sundays, spaces should be filled with activities for families and children.

The Night of Culture events will take place on September 25 at the Smoke Factory, and the official opening of the Smoke Factory will take place on September 26 at 12 noon, accompanied by the unique musical event evening “Dalgio Jazz” prepared by jazz stars Vytautas Labutis and Gediminas Laurinavičius. An exclusive fashion event “Fashion Infection” will take place here from October 16th to 18th.

The cultural space of the Smoke Factory will periodically display works of art, whose exhibitions will change every month. The first exhibition of works by the artist Meda Norbutaitė was inaugurated here, which was exhibited not only in Lithuania, but also in Switzerland, France and South Korea.

On September 25, the walls of the “Dūmu fabrikas” spaces will be decorated with works by a group of graduates and artists from the New Vilnius branch of the J. Vienožinskis School of Art.

More information about Smoke Factory on the website and Facebook account.