Democratic Party

I've been told by expat friends and weather.com that Spring has arrived in Copenhagen. I kicked around a few ideas for posts based on this knowledge - sidewalk cafe culture, organic and bio-dynamic farming, and finally settled on a celebration of Danes at their social best. Nothing brings people out of the word work like warmer weather. We're happier, saner, friendlier people when the sun is pumping us full of vitamin D. Last year, I warmly welcomed the false-summer that was April in Denmark. (Summer came and went a little later in June. By August, still wondering when it was going to come for real, I finally realized I'd missed it.)

Islands Brygge, April, 2011

Warm weather brings everyone out. Which led me to the thought that social life in general in Denmark brings everyone out. One of the great mystifying elements of life in Copenhagen was the blurring of age demarcations. The idea that things must be age-appropriate, that family-friendly means a watered-down event realistically targeted at safety-conscious couples with kids age 4-12, that grandparents' and grandchildrens' interests are two circles who shall never join in any Venn diagram known to man.

Here are some of the more  interesting festivals and events that I had the great sociological fortune to be a part of during my stay in Denmark and some of the observations I took away.

1) Distortion: The Open Source Party
Imagine a city that likes to drink. Really likes to drink. But instead of getting all Spring-Break-Girls-Gone-Wild-trashy, it gets all warm and fuzzy and fun. Imagine for four (it's up to five this year) days, that city sponsors a big street party that moves from neighborhood to neighborhood, spanning indoor and outdoor venues, closing down whole blocks and sections of a major metropolitan area. And then cleans up the mess!

From its own website:
"Distortion is a carnival-type event with an anything-goes attitude. Most events are free and open-sourced to over a hundred 'street hosts' - that's over one hundred distinct street parties in 5 days."



If you want to skip the video, or have impressionable American children or coworkers looking over your shoulder, here are some of the highlights:

0:38 The 'old' people
0:57 The 'really old' guy
1:15 The retro roller skates, most likely worn by someone not 'old'
1:19 The tango couple
2:09 Bananas in Pajamas (not kidding)

You'll have to go the website and watch some of the other videos to catch the kids on bikes, riding parents' shoulders, and break-dancing in backpacks. I'm pretty sure there's not a demographic that isn't covered which lends a kind of what-would-happen-if-your-parents-showed-up-at-Spring-Break feel. Apparently the answer in Copenhagen might be hang out and party with you...

2) Kulturhavn (Culture Harbor): The Pirate Party
Spanning three days and three of the city's biggest public harbor areas, Islands Brygge, Sydhavnen, and Refshaleøen, this festival brings together the 'diversity of Copenhagen's clubs and civic organizations' to showcase music, theater, dance, sports and arts. Or, said another way, it allows a participant to walk along the harbor front and through a mash-up of anything you could imagine anyone being into. Ever.

Amazingly, these photographs were all taken on the same day, at the same festival.

A member of the Scottish bagpipe band.

A demonstration of parkour - French street acrobatics.

A flash mob of dancers.

Drowned bicycles recycled as art.

And finally, because, what's a harbor festival without pirates?

3) Copenhagen Cooking: Let Them Eat Cake

A ten-day festival celebrating the cuisine being fawned over by the international foodie scene, the promotional ad could not have been more blunt in trying to get across the idea: New Nordic is sexy.



That's New Nordic food we're talking about here, people. Food. I can assure you, any fixation on that image in the weeks leading up to the event were strictly trying to determine, 'Is that lovage or chervil she is draped in?"

All joking aside, events were held across the city, for all ages, and at varying price points, to allow the general public to peek inside the movement that in some ways has been limited to those with extremely large expense accounts or who just happen to have 'verjus' kicking around in their pantry.

At the signature Nordic Taste event, restaurants from all over Scandinavia set up in the Meatpacking district and small samples of cooking as high art were doled out to the masses.

4) Stella Polaris: Chill to the People

This kicking back while listening to electronic music festival spent two days traveling to other cities before culminating in a giant lawn party outside the Statens Museet for Kunst (National Art Museum) with Moby as the headline act. Did I neglect to mention that all these events were also free? This one is supported through a foundation that solicits donations (as well as corporate sponsorship) but there was no entry fee to get in, just some good-natured jostling for a prime spot on the grass.



The early crowd

The 'target audience,' as described by the festival's own website:

"The crowd is a great mix of discerning electronic feinschmeckers, happy families with playing children, intoxicated after-parties, smooching couples sharing kisses and cool white wine, and the odd surprised group who just happened to walk by and decided to stay."



Balancing out all the excess wth some fruit,
organic of course

A children's art area and un-supervised kids running around with their parents' cell phone numbers written in marker on their arms completed the un-American family-friendly vibe.

So here's to Spring, with its promise of warmer things to come. May we all come out of hibernation and live a little.

Spring, Danish Style

#13 Nature, Contained

It is relatively uncommon to see a Dane gone wild or riotous. There are of course some small exceptions to this rule, such as office Christmas parties, although in most cases any abberation can be traced directly to the consumption of large amounts of alcohol. As a general rule, though, Danes are an incredibly orderly bunch. And with the arrival of spring in Copenhagen and the general thawing out of the city, I'm starting to get the feeling that Danes like their Nature the way they like their fellow country-people - contained, restrained, and orderly.

Alien trees

Take, for example, Danish trees. There is a certain type of tree in Denmark and when I first saw it, I thought it was either some kind of Danish cousin to the baobob tree or diseased with a rare European fungus. It turns out neither was correct. The trees are actually plain old poplars that have been pruned to within an inch of their life. The trees are cut back repeatedly at specific points until they form large nodes from which new shoots grow each year and are in turn cut. It is interesting to note that, once pruned in this manner, a tree can never recover its natural crown shape.



 A node up close


In Medieval times, this had a practical application as the cut shoots were used to weave fences and fed to cattle. In modern times I cannot conceive of a purpose to this practice and I wonder if it's really just a Danish way of getting out pent up frustration and anger that is so infrequently expressed in this reserved society. I imagine this is what a tree might come out looking like if Winnebago Man had been given a pair of pruning shears instead of a hundred takes.


Even when not wielding shears like Edward Scissorhands to stunt their trees, Danes still seem to love to beat their flora into submission. The trees pictured below in Kongens Have (or The King's Garden) bear more resemblance to military cadets or Rockettes than anything remotely horticultural. Even the non-royal hedgerows in your garden-variety row house complex or apartment building received the memo and behave accordingly.

If Danish trees seem to express the constrained, orderly side of Danes, then Danish flowers express the reserved, polite side. Unlike a showy, tropical display full of neon-bright colors and come-hither scents, early Spring in Copenhagen blooms quietly and discreetly in soft carpets. Instead of screaming, "Take me home with you!" these flowers seem to ask, "Would you be so kind as to not tread on me?"

Danish flower shops are another sight to behold. When they can't be out in nature, Danes bring a little bit of it indoors. Danes have a wonderful knack for the art of floral arrangements and walking by the numerous flower shops all over the city brings a smile to my face every time. [They're almost as numerous as hair salons but not quite.] It's all very Martha-Stewart-ish minus the irritation of knowing that each individual flower in each of her arrangemetns probably has its own personal assistant.

I find that after living at the foot of the Rocky Mountains for the last seven years, with their awe-inspiring grandeur and massive vistas, I am enjoying this bit of Danish nature on a more human scale. Even when those humans hands have gotten carried away with the shears. If nature in Colorado made me feel small and relatively insignificant in the world, then nature in Denmark is bringing me back to seeing the beauty in that which is small and relatively insignificant.

Random Nature Shot of the Week



"It's spring fever.  That is what the name of it is. 
And when you've got it, you want -
oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want,
but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!"
- Mark Twain