Photo – Mindaugas Kniazevas ©
For the past few years, Copenhagen has witnessed a big rise of trendy places, food markets and underground events. In the city full of laid-back experiences urban theme is becoming a thing now: the locals are exploring new locations as well coming up with fresh concepts in order to surprise and offer an exclusive adventure. The capital of Denmark just loves to have fun and so do we!
SwO had a chance to visit two exciting festivals that were located on the unique industrial island – Refshaleøen – that once used to be a home for the world’s biggest shipyards and today opens the creative space which serves as an urban playground for many artists, restaurants, underground events, and even massive celebrations.
Photo – Alina Panaite ©
4 Days of Utopian Chaos – Distortion
For the 20th time a celebration of Copenhagen nightlife – Distortion – turned the capital of Denmark into a giant dancefloor. Started as a semi-illegal underground project back in the nineties, today it is one of the largest annual gatherings in Europe with an estimated 100.000 visitors per day, including us that were pleased to immerse ourselves in this greatly orchestrated chaos!
Party-crawl starts with massive street parties at the hippest Nørrebro and Vesterbro districts during the midweek and continues an industrial Refshaleøen island in the Copenhagen harbour on Friday and Saturday.
Photo – Alina Panaite ©
Photo – Mindaugas Kniazevas ©
The street parties are hosted by the local nightclubs, labels, residents, galleries, bars, etc. These parties are partly financed by voluntary donations to support the production and cleaning of the city after the parties. And this was organized surprisingly well; there was no single sight that thousands of people were on streets the day before. Copenhagen is back to its normal pace without even recalling all that craziness which was happening yesterday!
Even being a mainstream event Distortion acts responsibly not only towards the environment but also its city residents. After 10 pm there is no loud music on streets, but people are invited to the vast number of after-parties (Distortion Club) which take place at the local nightclubs, venues, warehouses, under bridges and many other one-off locations. Ghostface Killah, Oliver Huntemann, Eats Everything were part of the headliners playing on Distortion Club sessions this year.
Photo – Mindaugas Kniazevas ©
Talking about closing, Distortion Q, parties, the organizers deserve applause for choosing the location and fantastic decor solutions. Part of the territory was in concrete surroundings with the bunch of shipping containers around, but most of the stages were moved towards hillocks and trees. While dancing on a small hill, one could see industrial chimneys and skyline of Copenhagen. This environment created a unique perception of the party itself.
Photos – Mindaugas Kniazevas ©
Distortion Q offered six stages filled with new international dance music, a conceptual village with its own dance floor, plus secretly located after party and a cozy event on Sunday afternoon. Names like Solomun, Acid Pauli, Princess Nokia, Yeaji, Pachanga Boys were the main headliners of the closing parties.
Merging Experiments at HAVEN
HAVEN which is a project of renowned Danish food and art enthusiasts invited Copenhageners to get away from the bustling city life and have a peaceful celebration in an old harbour. The aim of the festival is to merge art, food, and beer that Danes are big fans of all together and create the ultimate experience.
Photos – Mindaugas Kniazevas ©
Art is an important element at HAVEN at the conceptual, aesthetic and interactive levels. Henrik Vibskov, a true Scandinavian fashion legend, and his award-winning exhibition concept Mindcraft17 were part of this event. Mindcraft17 was presented like a portal, a meeting point with another world in the middle of Refshaleøen island.
One of the core principles of HAVEN is to surprise its visitors, the festival is challenging traditional presentation and tends to experiment – specifically in music. HAVEN created ‘Collaboration Concerts’ and only some of the impromptu performances were announced before the official start of the festival. The organizers didn’t reveal the precise plan of who will collaborate with whom and kept this information as a secret.
Even though the festival happened only for the second time the line-up was chosen wisely. Ariel Pink, Nils Frahm, Liima, Unknown Mortal Orchestra were playing on HAVEN stages. Arcade Fire was the headliners on Friday and the entire festival was closed with an unforgettable 3-D performance of German electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk.
Thanks for having us Copenhagen, we had a blast and can’t wait to see what you have to offer the following summer!
More moments from the festival here:
