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Have you heard of Reffen? No, not Lars von Trier’s protégé but a new mecca for foodies opened by Copenhagen Street Food 2

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CPHPOST.DK 1 - 14 June 2018

NEWS State proposes favourable rules for Airbnb renters

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NEWS

Eating on the job Minister kicks hornet’s nest with Ramadan remarks

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HAMLET LIVES ON Best work-life balance

NEWS Ice hockey deemed a success despite early elimination

10 HISTORY

Poachers the pop-stars When outwitting the gamekeeper was a revered pastime

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Danish-based expats happier with their working hours than in any other nation CHRISTIAN WENANDE

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ENMARK offers expats the best work-life balance in the world, according to a survey of 65 countries by global overseas worker network InterNations.

Some 76 percent of expats in Denmark were satisfied with their work-life balance, while 82 percent were happy with their working hours.

The average expat works 39.7 hours a week, compared to a global average of 44.3 hours.

In the 2017 city survey, Copenhagen was ranked third, behind Amsterdam and Johannesburg, with Auckland and Stockholm completing the top five.

Highly qualified THE SURVEY also revealed that 47 percent of Denmark’s expats have a master’s degree or similar, and 12 percent have a PhD – double the 6 percent average.

The top 10 countries was completed by Bahrain, Norway, the Czech Republic, New Zealand, Sweden, Costa Rica, the Netherlands, Oman and Malta.

At the other end of the scale, France (34), the UK (38), Australia (40), Brazil (45), China (47), the US (48), Russia (50), South Korea (56), India (58) and Japan (65) performed less well.

For the purpose of the survey, InterNations interviewed 166 nationalities living in 188 countries, but only included the results of the countries that generated at least 75 respondents.

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Best city for bathing

Go West young man

FORGET Copacabana in Rio or Bondi in Sydney, the best city bathing spots in the world are in Copenhagen, according to a CNN survey. The news channel singled out “ideal sandy spot” Amager Beach Park and the “sensational” harbour baths at Islands Brygge and Fisketorvet for special praise. Zurich London, Hong Kong and Vancouver completed the top five.

THE GOVERNMENT’S latest plan to facilitate its equitable redistribution of jobs, which has involved several agencies being moved away from Copenhagen (see page 12), is to encourage job-seekers to be more geographically mobile. But while they must apply for all relevant jobs in Denmark, there will be no legal requirement to relocate – yet.

Drought index rising

Lord knows they’ve tried

MAY HAS seen a minimal amount of rainfall – barely a third of what typically falls – and farmers and gardeners are beginning to get worried. DMI’s drought index currently stands at 6.8/10, but in the northern and eastern parts of the country, it has already surpassed 8. As of May 22, for example, Horsens in east Jutland had only received 2 mm.

OVER 7,600 have signed a petition to postpone the 2018 World Cup, but no, it has nothing to do with the current heatwave or Donald Trump. Soccer Memes set the ball in motion after Nicklas Bendtner sustained an injury over the weekend playing for Rosenborg, arguing that the World Cup wouldn’t be the same without the Lord.

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ONLINE THIS WEEK A 28 MILLION kroner donation by the R98 Foundation has boosted Valbyparken’s plans for a new beach area – a proposal that first surfaced in 2012, which will soon seek approval from Copenhagen Municipality.

Should it be green-lighted, it could open in time for August 2021.

Chucked in the canals A RECENT Ofelia Plads exhibition, ‘Under the Surface’, has drawn attention to the kind of rubbish found among the 70-80 tonnes fished out of the city’s canals this spring. Among the items were a toilet, a pushchair and a sex toy.

Fungi responsible POLICE have confirmed that poisonous mushrooms caused the deaths of two members of a Congolese family from Haslev in south Zealand last October. The family had previously denied the claims.

RAY WEAVER

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HE INHABITANTS of Christiania blocked off access to Pusher Street last week to voice their frustration at both the increased presence of criminal gangs and police in the freetown.

Today, there are 40-45 stalls selling drugs on the street – an increase from 31 in 2014, according to Berlingske.

The police have this year conducted over 100 raids, arresting 148 people and confiscating 207 kilos of cannabis, 44,325 joints and 2.7 million kroner in cash.

Credibility to MP THE FAILURE to address the problem gives credibility to the suggestion by Henrik Sass Larsen, the chair of the Socialdemokratiet parliamentary group, who has called for

a complete decriminalisation of all drugs in Denmark.

In his new book ‘Exodus: The Way to the Centre-Left’, he has called the Danish government’s ‘zero tolerance’ drug policy “a total fiasco”, “humanitarian dis-

70-day limit for renters, who can earn 40,000 kroner tax-free

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Gunfire in Ishøj VESTEGNS Police are investigating a report of gunfire on Vejlebrovej in the Copenhagen suburb of Ishøj on May 22. It is believed the shots were fired from a moving car, but that nobody was hit.

Unprecedented deal THE PROPOSAL also includes an unprecedented agreement, providing the bill is passed by Parliament, which will require Airbnb to automatically report

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A 14-YEAR-OLD boy who was stabbed twice during the traditional ‘Blue Monday’ celebrations in Dyrehaven is out of danger.

The assault took place during a confrontation between two groups of boys in the deer park.

MP wants every street to be Pusher Street

aster” and “total failure”.

“Every school child knows where they can get cannabis,” Larsen told Information.

“It has served no other purpose than to send people to prison.” (RW)

Landmark deal for Airbnb New street food centre opens N 2016, COPENHAGEN Municipality told CPH POST the city would not try to regulate online rentals marketplace Airbnb until it could get an overview of how it affects housing prices in the city. Already the capital had seen a surge in property listings.

But in the end, it has been left to the government to take action, as a new bill proposes limiting the number of days a property can be rented to 70 days and tax-free earnings of up to 40,000 kroner.

Blue Monday stabbing

A distress signal “THE BLOCKADE is a signal that we can’t solve this problem ourselves. We can neither solve the growing gang problem nor the one of increasingly aggressive policing,” the freetown’s lawyer Knud Foldschack told the newspaper.

A similar action in September 2016 that expelled the drug-dealers led to no long-term changes.

By last weekend, the blockades had been taken down, and Pusher Street had once again reopened to illegally sell cannabis.

REFFEN

A COURT in Næstved has sentenced a 17-year-old boy to four months in prison for selling the MDMA that caused the death of a 15-year-old girl.

MP calls for complete decriminalisation as Christiania takes matters into its own hands

PEXELS.COM

Four months for sale

‘Hash’ Larsen’s fighting talk over drugs STEFFEN HILLEBRAN

Valby beach on track

1 - 14 June 2018

Meanwhile, funding is secured to build water culture centre on Papirøen

F Permissible 35 weekends a year

all income that homeowners earn to the tax authority, SKAT. “We want a flourishing sharing economy in Denmark where it is possible for renters to earn a reasonable tax-free amount on making their property available,” said Karsten Lauritzen, the tax minister.

Airbnb had over 30,000 renters in Denmark in 2017, with more than 900,000 visiting users. (RW)

OLLOWING the closure of its popular location on Papirøen (Paper Island) in December, Copenhagen Street Food has opened a new centre on Refshaleøen, which is three times the size of its former home.

‘Reffen’ initially has 54 stalls food stalls, workshops and bars, but will have a much bigger capacity once a 1,042 sqm warehouse known as ‘Maskinværkstedet’ has been renovated.

Soon catering to huge crowds

New water centre MEANWHILE, a 300 million kroner donation from Nordeafonden has cleared the way for the construction of a water culture centre on Papirøen, which is scheduled to open at the end of 2021.

Kengo Kuma from Japan and Cornelius Vöge from Roskilde were awarded the contract to build the 5,000 sqm centre, which will include both outdoor and indoor swimming pools and a harbour bathing area. (CPH POST)

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“Everything you wish for has an expression in Danish�

Olga, philologist from Novosibirsk.

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ONLINE THIS WEEK

Støjberg: Muslims must eat on the job

ONLINE THIS WEEK ARNO MIKKOR, ARON URB

Poet a party pooper

1 - 14 June 2018

THE POET Yahya Hassan interrupted a live broadcast during Crown Prince Frederik’s 50th birthday celebrations on May 21 to exclaim that Aarhus was his city and not the heir to the throne’s. The Jutland city was one of five to hold a Royal Run in which over 70,000 Danes ran either an English mile or 10 km to mark the occasion.

Wealth gap widening THE NUMBER of Danes earning over a million kroner a year has risen by 22,000 since 2004, according to an analysis by AE-Rådet and 3F. Meanwhile, the number of people considered poor (somebody with an income that is less than half of the country’s median) has risen by 28,000. Experts worry the widening gulf means more children are being raised in poverty.

Gang targeted elderly IT IS BELIEVED a gang of five Croatians in custody might be responsible for at least 25 home burglaries in Jutland and Zealand between November 2016 and November 2017. They have so far been charged with committing 16, in which they mostly targeted the elderly. It is believed the four men and one woman stole goods worth 1.5 million kroner.

Influx from the south THE NUMBER of south Europeans working in Denmark has doubled over the last five years to 24,784, reports Ugebrevet A4.

Italians (8,998) Spanish (5,177) and Portuguese (3,425) lead the way, with the Greeks and French also well represented. The top five favoured sectors are hotels and restaurants, teaching, construction, manufacturing, and cleaning.

Conspiracy friendly IT WOULD appear that many Danes are conspiracy theorists.

Only 53 percent are sure man walked on the moon, while 38 percent reckon the MMR vaccine could cause autism, according to a YouGov poll for Aarhus University. As many as 10 percent believe George W Bush was responsible for 9/11.

Urban hunter rise CITY DWELLERS are increasingly taking up hunting.

Between 2013 and 2017, the number of Copenhageners with licenses rose by 552, according to the Ministry of Environment, while no other region had an increase of more than 199. It is believed the DR foraging program ‘Nak og Æd’ and the need to escape the bright lights has accelerated the growth.

PET’s recruitment woes

Does the minister speak for the average person on the street corner?

Immigration minister believes fasting at Ramadan poses a danger to society

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VERY SO often a Danish government minister’s remarks on a contentious issue – normally do with immigration, Islam or frequently both – will grab worldwide headlines.

And nine times out of ten, it is Inger Støjberg, the immigration and integration minister, whose critics will claim is deliberately stoking the fire to remind potential asylum-seekers that Denmark is not as cuddly as all the books on hygge suggest.

fasting Muslims to take leave from work “to avoid negative consequences for the rest of Danish society”.

It was fitting perhaps that another of Denmark’s shameless self-publicists, Özlem Cekic, a former MP who is a Muslim, was quick to say that Støjberg “demonises Muslims on a regular basis – which is really bad because she’s the integration minister”.

on no form of income support – including dagpenge.

21-month wait THOSE who do apply have a long wait. In 2016, it took 440 days to process a citizenship request – a period that rose to 520 days in 2017 and to 640 days in 2018.

Since 2016 there have been 13,000 applications for citizenship, of which 10,000 are still waiting for an answer.

Take a holiday!

WITH RAMADAN beginning on May 17, there could be no better time for the cake-loving minister to condemn the Islamic practice of fasting during the holy period as a safety hazard and “dangerous”.

In a blog post, Støjberg questioned whether observance to the practice of daytime fasting during Ramadan fits into the modern workplace, urging all

Harder than ever IT IS NOT as if Støjberg hasn’t had serious matters to address: namely even stricter criteria regarding who can become a Danish citizen.

Ahead of Ramadan-gate, she said it was important that the new citizens are “foreigners who have been here for many years and who have clearly shown that they both can and will respect Danish society and our Danish values”.

Støjberg is proposing new rules to further tighten the financial and legal requirements, requiring applicants to demonstrate they have been self-sufficient for two years and

Police’s skin radar MEANWHILE, in related news, “dark-skinned” immigrants are 65-70 percent more likely to be stopped and searched by police than those who look like they have a Western background, according to a new DR documentary, ‘I politiets vold: Mørk og mistænkt’.

However, Støjberg was quick to defend the findings, claiming that police resources tended to focus on high-crime neighbourhoods where the proportion of non-Western immigrants is much higher. (CPHPOST)

Hospital overcrowding

Support to change scheme

Friskoler failures

REGION Midtjylland recently called an extraordinary meeting of its council to address overcrowding at Randers Hospital on April 5 due to a flu outbreak. Some 30 patients were left without a bed and a further 39 without space in a ward. “We cannot crow about having the world’s best healthcare when we have this insane overcrowding problem,” council member Jørgen Winther told DR.

THERE is broad political support to change a bonus scheme that has since 2009 enabled upper-secondary school graduates to multiply their average final grade by 1.08 providing they start higher education within two years of finishing. It is believed the new minister for education and research, Tommy Ahlers, will lead the push for reform after Parliament’s summer recess.

COPENHAGEN Municipality would like to see a better mixture of ethnic Danes and what they call ‘bilingual children’ at the capital’s schools. Citing research that shows that Muslim/ immigrant children schooled with their peers at friskoler do not do as well as those educated alongside ethnic Danes, the municipality has set a target of 33 percent ‘bilingual children’ at all the schools.

AT A TIME when the terror threat is still considered high, the PET intelligence agency is struggling to find recruits for its Aktionsstyrken elite antiterrorism unit. However, Claus Oxfeldt, the head of the Politiforbundet police association, does not believe the vigorous demands of the job should be lowered as only a select few has the skillset.

Teachers on the frontline THE CLASSROOM is becoming a frontline, according to the NFA, the national research centre for the working environment.

One out of five teachers polled said they had encountered violence over the past year, while one in four said they had been threatened. One expert blamed a lack of support for children with special needs, who are prone to lashing out in frustration.

Failed by the system AN INQUEST has been launched into how a mentallyill young man ended up stabbing a grocer to death in Suldrup near Randers on October 21.

A member of the public has come forward through the media to say she tried to help the distressed man and alerted the police, questioning how the tragedy was allowed to happen.

Shunning TV packages IN JUST two years, the number of Danish homes without a TV program package has doubled, according to a Wilke survey. Furthermore, every third Danish household with a TV-package subscription is considering cutting it, as families increasingly use streaming services such as Netflix.

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Colic findings a tad schizophrenic

ONLINE THIS WEEK COMMENTING on Copenhagen and Malmö’s co-hosting of Nordic Clean Energy Week, which concluded on May 25, Danish PM Lars Løkke Rasmussen underlined the need to transition to green energy – today not tomorrow. Decisionmakers from all over the world gathered to consider green energy investments.

Deceptive dealers CAR DEALERS are doing little to educate consumers about electric vehicles, concludes research co-authored by Aarhus University and the University of Sussex. Based on 126 shopping experiences at 82 car dealerships in the Nordics, the study concluded dealers were more incentivised to sell petrol and diesel options – and sometimes even “deceptive”.

Research breakthrough EVOLUTIONARY geneticist Eske Willerslev and his research group at the Centre for Geogenetics at the Natural History Museum have discovered evidence of a Bronze Age migration of the Yamnaya people from the Pontic-Caspian steppe into northern Europe 5,000 years ago.

Looking for Nessie

BETH

Løkke demands change

ONLINE THIS WEEK

But then again, Denmark has some of the most inactive, healthy kids in Europe

THE NUMBER of gonorrhoea and syphilis cases grew sixfold in Denmark between 2005 and 2015, while the 34,132 chlamydia cases reported in 2016 was an all-time record. Some 3,478 had gonorrhoea and 742 had syphilis.

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T WAS ONLY seven months ago that a meta-analysis published by the Journal of Pediatrics confirmed that Danish babies cry significantly less than children in other countries – or at least the 28 mainly OECD countries included in the survey, which revealed British and Italian bambinos to be the noisiest.

Colic cases double HOWEVER, a study by the University of Southern Denmark reveals that 12,000 Danish babies have had chiropractic treatment to alleviate their colic – a condition that causes otherwise-healthy infants to have prolonged crying fits of around three hours a day.

The number has doubled in the last ten years, reports Politiken, and a number of research institutes have decided to join forces to investigate the effects of the treatment.

STDs on the rise

Welfare hearts for chicks “Boohoo! We don’t want to be worse than Italy!”

urban areas are 50 percent more likely to develop the condition.

The scientists used satellite photos to map green spaces throughout Denmark between 1985 and 2013, and compared those maps with data from Denmark’s national registers for people born between 1985 and 2003 and whether they were subsequently diagnosed with schizophrenia.

similar result to France, Norway, Ireland and Latvia.

In Cyprus, Spain, Italy and Greece, in contrast, 40 percent of boys aged 6-9 are overweight, while around 20 percent are obese

A SUCCESSFUL animal welfare certification system that rates pork, awarding between one and three hearts according to how they were raised, will now be extended to chicken, the environment and food minister, Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, has confirmed.

EU plastic ban A NEW EU Commission proposal aims to reduce maritime litter by banning a wide range of specific plastic products that account for 70 percent of the waste found on beaches and in oceans.

Urban kids most prone LITTLE has previously been known about childhood’s effect on schizophrenia, but now a new study by the Department of Bioscience and the Centre for Register Research at Aarhus University suggests those raised in

Low obesity rate THE IMPORTANCE of avoiding childhood obesity is well documented, and Denmark has a right to be optimistic, as it has one of the lowest rates in Europe, according to figures from the World Health Organisation.

Just 18 percent of Danish boys aged 6-9, along with 20 percent of girls, are overweight, while 5 percent are obese (both genders), giving Denmark a

Good eaters, but inactive AMONGST the other findings, 60 percent of Danish kids eat fruit every day and 52 percent consume vegetables, just 0.5 percent have savoury snacks more than three times a week, and only 8 percent consume soft drinks containing sugar on more than three days a week.

There was room for improvement, though, as 91 percent spend at least two hours a day looking at a screen over the weekend, only 36 percent walk or cycle to school, and sports club membership is lower than the European average. (CPH POST)

Eat some ugly fruit

Rise in transsexual ops

Ritually dumped in a lake

Noxious noisy nights

Biowaste success COPENHAGEN Municipality’s food waste recycling system has exceeded expectations, with 40 percent more city dwellers collecting their biowaste than expected. The municipality has accordingly raised its 2018 forecast from 10 to 14,000 tonnes. In total, 72 percent of eligible households are taking part.

PIXABAY

PRZEMYSŁAW SAKRAJDA

VIZMO STARSHIP

INTERMARCHÉ

COLIN WILSON

No, that’s a cloud

“Two thingies? Lovely!”

Pronoun police are here

Not one of the weapons

Some like it hot and sticky

PROFESSOR Neil Gemmell from New Zealand has assembled a team of scientists from Denmark, the UK, the US, Australia and France to plunge into the murky waters of Scotland’s Loch Ness in June 2018 in search of evidence of the Loch Ness Monster. The team will use environmental DNA sampling to identify tiny remnants left behind by life in the loch. Gemmell does not expect to find any DNA evidence of a large extinct marine reptile, but he remains “open-minded”. (RW)

IT’S DIFFICULT to say how much imperfect fruit and veg fails to make it to the supermarket shelves. In Denmark, around 33,000 tonnes of vegetables are wasted annually. But now Rema 1000 is looking to do something about it. Over the summer consumers will be able to purchase ‘ugly’ vegetables, which would usually be discarded at a 15 percent discount. For every item sold, Rema 1000 will donate 12.5 øre to its partner in the intiative, the food waste organisation Stop Spild af Mad. (CW)

AT THE end of last year, the rules were changed so that transsexuals no longer had to be subject to a psychiatric report in order to change their sex. In the first three months of this year, Aalborg University Hospital’s centre for sexual identity has already received 64 referrals – a 40 percent rise. Astrid Højgaard, the head doctor at the centre, attributes the increase to the change. Many complained the “humiliating” old system focused on people’s sexuality rather than sexual identity. (GD)

ARCHAEOLOGISTS have concluded that two tribes clashed in the Illerup River Valley near Skanderborg in the first century AD. Excavation work has revealed broken weapons and shields along with the bones of at least 82 men in an area that would have been underwater 2,000 years ago.

However, it is not the battlefield but a ‘weapons grave’ – a ritualistic practice common in northern Europe in which the bones and weapons of slain soldiers were left for up to 12 months before being collected. (RW)

MARILYN Monroe is famous for saying she only slept in Chanel No 5 but history doesn’t record whether she had the windows opens. And who could blame her, as these past few nights have become increasingly hot and sticky, regardless of whether you’re sleeping alone or not. However, opening the windows, according to research carried out at the Johannes Gutenberg Universitetet in Mainz, is the worst thing you can do if there is traffic noise outside, reports Nettavisen. (SG)

READ THE REST OF THESE STORIES AT CPHPOST.DK

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Stone-face or volte-face: you decide!

Deportation hard-luck stories praying for public support

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OR EVERY 100 hard luck deportation stories, there is one that gets championed by the media and the people, often resulting in a quick admission of guilt by the government and immediate repatriation.

The last fortnight has seen two such stories, both involving parents separated from their kids, along with a curious case in the UK, where the brutality of Brexit has caught up with an unsuspecting Dane. Nevertheless, at the time of going to press, there had been no volte-faces … so it’s not too late to have your say!

Laissez faire au pair?

CHRISTINA Maramba, a former Filipino au pair who together with her Danish husband has a two-month old baby, was given a one-way ticket to Manila on May 14 – alone.

The couple’s family reunification application on December 7 was turned down this year because the in-laws own their residence – thus contravening criteria about having your own residence they were unaware of.

Home was in the hood THERE might be less sympathy in the case of a 30-year-old stateless Palestinian from Lebanon, who has been deported despite having a girlfriend and young child in Denmark – because he is a member of the Loyal to Familia gang.

Despite the man living in Denmark since the age of four, the High Court last week deported him in connection with 14 previous convictions, ruling that he will be unable to return for six years.

Inga locked out MEANWHILE, over in Ipswich, a city 108km north of London, Liberal Democrat councillor Inga Lockington has had her application for British citizenship turned down on the grounds she is unable to provide proof of permanent residence.

The former mayor claims that in 1979 her Danish passport was stamped at Harwich with the words: “Given leave to enter the United Kingdom for an indefinite period.” Nevertheless, the UK Home Office was not “satisfied”.

(CPH POST)

ONLINE THIS WEEK Sixth most competitive nation

Teaming up in the Baltic

DENMARK is the sixth most competitive country in the world, according to the latest rankings published by Swiss business school IMD – a place higher than in 2017. The US led the way followed by Singapore, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The UAE, Norway, Sweden and Canada completed the top ten.

DENMARK and Sweden have agreed to expand their co-operation on maritime and air surveillance in the Baltic Sea. The new deal will grant Danish fighter jets access to airspace in parts of southern Sweden when being scrambled to meet aerial challenges to Danish airspace. In the maritime arena, Denmark and Sweden will work closer together to better combat submarine warfare.

Injured IS fighter in limbo ONE OF the first Danes to travel to Syria to fight for Islamic State has been arrested in Turkey. The 26-year-old man has been wounded and wants to return – a plea some MPs want to turn down.

In 2014, he and three others travelled to Syria, and later that year they were charged in absentia in Copenhagen of breaching the terror law. The other three have all subsequently died.

www.cis.dk

Arctic nations sign up again RUSSIA, the US, Canada, Norway and the Danish Commonwealth last week met to reaffirm the Ilulissat Declaration – marking ten years since the agreement was signed in the Greenlandic city that bears its name. The foreign minister, Anders Samuelsen, said it would help keep the area free of tension as claims to the North Pole seabed are addressed.

All Hans on spec

Quartet face terror charges

FOR YEARS, Canada and the Danish Commonwealth have disputed (mostly light-heartedly) the ownership of Hans Island, an uninhabited isle in the Lincoln Sea that is located an equal distance from the maritime borders of Greenland and the North American country. But now the two parties have established a working group to solve the border issues once and for all.

TWO WOMEN and two men who attempted to join the Islamic State in Syria have been charged with promoting terrorist activities. Three of the defendants were arrested by the Turkish authorities before reaching Syria and sent back to Denmark. The fourth did not leave Denmark because her passport was confiscated. Their trial is scheduled to start on June 7 in Glostrup.

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ONLINE THIS WEEK DENMARK coach Åge Hareide has surprisingly omitted Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, a recent winner of Southampton youth player of the year, but retained journeyman Mike Jensen, in his 27-player squad for the 2018 World Cup. The final four cuts will be confirmed soon, with Nicklas Bendtner, who was injured on Sunday, probably among them.

FCM grab unlikely title ON A DRAMATIC final day, the Superliga title hung in the balance until injury time, although it would have needed two goals to prevent FC Midtjylland finishing four points ahead of Brøndby.

While FCM clung on to beat AC Horsens 1-0, Brøndby could only draw 1-1 at home to AaB Aalborg, thus taking two points from their final three games, which included a 0-1 loss at home to FCM.

Podium in badminton

Denmark misses out on the last eight of the World Championships, but enjoys success as the host nation

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ANSK ERHVERV, the local chamber of commerce, has hailed the recently-concluded IIHF World Championships in ice hockey as “a dream event for Denmark as a host country” – praising the sale of more than 350,000 tickets, of which half were sold abroad.

The winner Sweden, which defeated surprise package Switzerland in a pulsating shootout in the final on May 20, accounted for 16 percent of the total, as thousands more yellow-shirted fans made the journey over to watch the games in Copenhagen’s bars.

The chamber was particularly impressed as just two already-established venues – Copenhagen’s Royal Arena and the Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning – hosted the 60 games, leaving no white elephants behind to accumulate debt.

Some serious scalps DESPITE not making the quarter-finals, and eventually finishing 10th, Denmark can look back at a successful tournament in which it beat traditional heavyweight Finland 3-2 and also Germany

Simpsons hits Denmark

Little book of craic MEIK WIKING, the chief executive of the Happiness Research Institute and author of ‘The Little Book of Hygge’, is currently helping to make a Carlsberg webseries called the ‘The Danish Experiment’ in which four Irish creatives spend four days living in Denmark. The first episode is due to air on June 14 via various Carlsberg platforms and other media.

FCK scrapes into Europe FC COPENHAGEN beat AGF 4-1 in the Europa League playoff game, granting them entry to European football for the 18th year in a row. They join Brøndby and FCN, who finished second and third in the league. Meanwhile, Vejle, Esbjerg and Vendsyssel have all won promotion to the Superliga, where they will replace Helsingør, Silkeborg and Lyngby.

Delaney tipped to move

Team can be proud, but it literally has no defence

recent finalists at the Olympics.

In the end, five of Denmark’s seven NHL players took part – Frans Nielsen, Mikkel Bødker, Jannik Hansen Oliver Bjorkstrand, Frederik Andersen – but it is worth noting that all of its outfield players are offensive.

A 0-1 defeat in the final group game to Latvia broke Danish hearts, although there was some consolation in Frederik Andersen, who finished the tournament as the second best stopper with a 94.38 percent save ratio, being named Best Goaltender.

Stanley Cup hopes IT IS DOUBTFUL therefore

whether the presence of Lars Eller and Nikolaj Ehlers, who were both involved in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, would have made much difference.

Eller last week became the second ever Dane to make it to the Stanley Cup Finals with the Washington Capitals, which began on Monday against the Vegas Golden Knights.

The center, who has notched up 13 points in 19 playoff games, will be hoping to go one better than Jannik Hansen, who missed out with the Vancouver Canucks in 2011 in a tough game-seven loss to the Boston Bruins.

Daniel Rye film announced HC Andersen the cop DANIEL RYE - FACEBOOK

O Captain! My Captain SIMON Kjær, the Danish national team captain, together with the skippers of France and Australia, has signed an open letter to FIFA asking to lift the suspension of Peruvian national player Paolo Guerrero.

The 34-year-old was suspended in October after testing positive for cocaine, which he claimed he ingested by drinking coca tea.

ONLINE THIS WEEK

BEN HAMILTON

SIMPSONS

DENMARK finished third equal at the recently-concluded Thomas Cup, the biennial world championship in men’s badminton. A 3-2 defeat of Malaysia saw the Danes top their group, and a 3-0 win against South Korea put them in the semis. But Japan proved too good, as all three singles players lost in a 2-3 defeat. Japan then lost to a dominant China in the final.

Cutting the ice despite early hockey exit TONNI PAIBJERG

Strange omission?

1 - 14 June 2018

THOMAS Delaney, 26, is already tipped to leave Werder Bremen, the Bundesliga club he moved to 18 months ago from FC Copenhagen. Meanwhile, his former club has signed Swedish defender Sotirios Papagiannopoulos from Östersunds FK, but looks set to lose his countryman Erik Johansson, who wants to return home.

The Honorary American JUST IN case there was any doubt, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has never given into temptation and got a US passport – a country in which he has lived over half his life. “People are often surprised when I say I am Danish,” he told DRK in a contribution to one of its programs – presumably a reference to American fans who tend to be a little myopic in these matters.

Jesus in the funny farm

“No, not ‘doh’, ‘dårlig’!”

Blanket coverage continues

Duck of the Baskervilles ... nah

THE MAY 13 episode of the long-running American TV series ‘The Simpsons’ sent Homer and his fabulously dysfunctional brood to Denmark in search of free healthcare, boobs on billboards (Bart), art and culture (Lisa) and good looking men and cleanliness (Marge). Only Homer was fed up. Most of the local references in ‘The Simpsons Conquer Denmark’ were spot on, while the visuals did a great job at capturing the feel of Denmark, compared to, for example, ‘The Prince and Me’. (RW)

TOOLBOX Film has acquired the rights to adapt Puk Damsgård’s 2015 book about the Islamic State hostage Daniel Rye. Niels Arden Oplev (‘Män som hatar kvinnor’) will direct. Filming will commence in October with September 2019 a probable release date. The Danish photographer was held in Syria for 398 days before being released after his family paid a ransom.

Many of those held with him were executed. ‘Ser du månen, Daniel’ sold over 100,000 copies in Denmark. (BH)

SOME MIGHT blame ‘Time after Time’, the 1979 film in which the British novelist HG Wells time-travels to Los Angeles to hunt down Jack the Ripper. It started a trend for casting reallife individuals in fictional roles, and its latest recruit is none other than Hans Christian Andersen.

Three Danish novelists are currently re-imagining the children’s author as a detective. “First we laughed at the idea … it was perfectly ridiculous,” one of the authors, Thomas Rydahl, told DR. Quite. (BH)

READ THE REST OF THESE STORIES AT CPHPOST.DK

TRINE Dyrholm has joined the cast of a new Danish film called ‘Teenage Jesus’ – a title that might ruffle a few feathers in Christian circles. Set in a psychiatric ward, filming began earlier this month at the Sankt Hans centre in Roskilde. The Danish Film Institute, Finnish Film Foundation and Nordisk Film & TV Fond are among the producers.

Eating himself this time MADS MIKKELSEN has told DR his recently-completed performance in ‘Arctic’ was the “hardest thing I’ve done in my life”. He recalled how it was “mega cold … with snowstorms all the time” and how his weight plummeted by 30 percent during filming in Iceland. ‘Arctic’ tells the story of one man’s bid for survival in the icy wilderness following a helicopter crash.

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10 BUSINESS

THE COPENHAGEN POST | CPHPOST.DK

ONLINE THIS WEEK

Services thriving despite the saboteurs

ONLINE THIS WEEK TUOMAS KAAKINEN

Focus on Facebook

1 - 14 June 2018

FOLLOWING the disclosure that Facebook is generating ads based on information about users’ religious, sexual, political and other interests, Forbrugerrådet Tænk, the consumer council, is working with its European umbrella organisation BEUC to review the social media platform’s policies.

Tasty profit SLAUGHTERHOUSE giant Danish Crown has announced an interim profit of 1.0 billion kroner on revenue of 30.1 billion for the first six months of its 2017-18 fiscal year. In related news, design firm Georg Jensen has confirmed a 2017 loss of 35 million kroner, while medicinal company Bavarian Nordic has posted a Q1 loss of 182 million kroner.

New wind player COPENHAGEN Infrastructure Partners (CIP) is rapidly emerging as a leading global offshore wind developer and investor thanks to deals to operate projects in Taiwan and Massachusetts. The latter is a contract for an 800 MW offshore windfarm 24 km south of Martha’s Vineyard won by Vineyard Wind, which CIP coowns with Avangrid/Iberdrola.

Employment boost NEW FIGURES from Danmarks Statistik confirm the unemployment rate is continuing to fall. Over the first quarter of 2018, the jobless figure was 10,000 lower than in the same period in 2017. This is the lowest level of unemployment in Denmark for nine years and corresponds to an unemployment rate of 5 percent among people aged 15-74.

Icon dead at 89 DANISH businessman Nils Foss died earlier this month at the age of 89. Between 1956 and 1990, he helped Foss become a world leader in the area of producing analytical instruments for the agricultural, food, chemical and pharmaceutical industries. His family is one of the richest in Denmark with a net worth of over 12 billion kroner.

Coop closures SUPERMARKET owner Coop will close 15 Dagli Brugsen and Lokalbrugsen stores on June 30.

Meanwhile, its rival Dansk Supermarked is changing its name to the Salling Group, its owner the Salling Fund has confirmed.

In related news, Rema 1000 intends to introduce recyclable plastic trays for meat and fish at its 300 stores nationwide.

Wooing the Philippines

“We’re so excited ... if only we could lose the troll, we think we’d like it”

Donald Trump, the hackers and the government can’t stop the economic boom

D

ANISH business is booming if you believe the stats.

But there is never any shortage of saboteurs, and the current horizon is no different, with Donald Trump, hackers and the Danish government all doing their best to spoil the party.

health services, such as hospitals, midwives, home nurses and fertility clinics.

The clinics have proved particularly popular with lesbians and single women living abroad, who since a change in legislation in 2007 have been able to receive fertility treatment in Denmark.

US rethink on Iran TRADITIONAL exports, however, are under pressure – not least from the US decision to withdraw from the atomic agreement with Iran and reimpose sanctions, which will cost Denmark 4 to 5 billion kroner a year.

The food and pharma sectors will be especially hard-hit, along with wind energy, water tech and fish farming. Maersk has already confirmed it will wind down its activities in Iran.

stable door kind of way to learn that the private enterprise Industriens Fond has earmarked 100 million kroner to strengthening IT security across the nation.

Not to be outdone, the government has stumped up 1.5 billion kroner, outlining 25 initiatives, including the opening of a new cyber centre that will be manned 24/7.

Private health bonanza THE BIGGEST feeder is ‘other operational services’ – mainly companies offering private

Hacking fightback THE SHIPPER, of course, knows better than any company how harmful hackers can be, so it will be buoyed in a bolting the

Relocation pitfalls BUT ELSEWHERE, the government is doing its best to torpedo growth with its bid to relocate governmental jobs from the capital to the regions in order to achieve an equitable distribution.

The media has highlighted how the relocation of the Miljøstyrelsen environmental protection agency from Copenhagen to Odense next year could create delays in its output.

Many of its experts and scientists are not making the jump, with just over half of the 800 workforce deciding not to move.

TDC delisting

Abuse of subsidies

Caving into the Chinese

TELECOMS company TDC has confirmed its last day on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange will be June 4 following its recent 40.5 billion kroner takeover. In related news, shares in jewellery maker Pandora fell sharply after the company reported lower than expected first-quarter profits and Maersk suffered a one-day dip that at one point had wiped 18 billion kroner off its value.

TWELVE Danish electricity and remote heating companies stand accused of charging too much for energy-saving initiatives that are subsidised by the state to the tune of 1.5 billion kroner per year, reports DR. The funding should make it cheaper to acquire environmentally-friendly new windows, LED light-bulbs and insulation, and the Energy Ministry is accused of taking its eye off the ball.

VARIOUS US media outlets claim that airlines such as SAS, Finnair, British Airways and Lufthansa have caved into demands from the Chinese authorities to describe Taiwan and Hong Kong as being part of China. In other airline news, Air India has added a Friday service between New Dehli and Copenhagen, taking its total to four return flights a week.

Astonishing growth LET’S START with the good news: the service sector has enjoyed a brilliant decade, generating 30,000 new full-time jobs since 2009, according to Dansk Industri.

Its growth rate of 38 percent compared with just a 2 percent average across all Danish business sectors.

A DANISH delegation headed by the minister for industry, business and financial affairs, Brian Mikkelsen, visited the Philippines earlier this month.

The business delegation focused on high demand sectors within technology, design, healthcare, cleantech and food.

Hear about the merger?

WIDEX, which is owned by the Tøpholm and Westermann families, is merging with the EQT capital fund’s Singaporean-based Sivantos to become one of the world’s largest manufacturers of hearing aids. The new company will have a presence in 125 markets, a turnover of 12 billion kroner and over 10,000 employees (Widex: 4,250; Sivantos: 5,950).

Uber vows to return UBER INTENDS to return to Denmark with a different model, but has not confirmed when. The company is working with the authorities and the taxi industry to ensure a smoother ride than its initial three-year foray in the country, which ended with its withdrawal in 2017 after several of its drivers were fined for breaking taxi laws.

At the time it employed 2,000 drivers.

SKAT files lawsuits SKAT HAS filed close to 40 lawsuits against US pension funds, alleging that fraudulent practices led to it paying dividend tax refunds to foreigners in relation to shares they didn’t own. SKAT claims the scam cost Denmark nearly 13 billion kroner. The payouts benefited 277 pension plans in the US, UK, Canada, Malaysia and Luxembourg.

BUSINESS OPINION

1 - 14 June 2018

Core values

BY NOW, you might be thinking: “Thomas, what the bleep is a North Star Metric … and why are you talking about astronomy?” Good question.

The NSM is a powerful concept that has emerged from Silicon Valley in recent years after being popularisied by Sean Ellis, the founder of Growth Hackers.

It helps startups move beyond the many surface-level ‘vanity’ growth metrics and focuses on generating long-term retained customer growth from one single metric.

The NSM is the single metric that best captures the core value that your product delivers to customers.

Optimising your efforts to grow this metric will be key to driving sustainable growth across your customer base. Don’t forget about ‘the classics’ such as CAC,

Finding the right one SO HERE is what you must do. To uncover your NSM, you must understand the value your most loyal customers get from using your product. Then you should try to quantify this value in a single metric. No-one said it was going to be easy, and you may find there is more than one metric that works. However, you should try to boil it down to a single NSM. For example, Airbnb’s NSM is ‘the number of nights booked’.

Why? Because this captures the value delivered to both guests and hosts.

While Facebook’s NSM is ‘the number of daily active users’.

Why? Because with more users on the Facebook platform, more content is produced and the team is able to optimise everyone’s feed to deliver more value to users.

Notice how both NSMs will also impact the customer and revenue growth for these businesses. Yours should as well.

THOMAS N HORSTED STARTUP COMMUNITY Thomas (@thomas_hors) is the former co-founder of Startup Guide – The Entrepreneur’s Handbook and a former startup scout for IKEA Bootcamp. He is currently the growth & business development manager at the Danish startup tiimo, the creator of an education app that helps special needs kids. He is also a limited partner in The Nordic Web Ventures, which invests in early-stage Nordic startups.

PIXABAY

I

LTV and Churn etc, which are all great KPIs to measure and work with. But please, make sure you focus on the NSM.

T’S NOT the sexiest topic, but it is nevertheless super important … we need to talk about metrics and KPIs for startups.

We need to address how you can drive sustainable growth with a North Star Metric (NSM).

Let’s begin, shall we!

11

God’s North Star Metric was heavens and earth first

Drive growth IT IS ONE thing to find your NSM, it’s another thing to actually apply it to your daily operations.

Once you understand your NSM, it’s important to document the variables that work together to move this metric. These variables generally include parts of the customer life-cycle, such as new user sign-ups, new user activations and improving engagement/retention of existing users.

By understanding the relationship of these interdependent variables and your current conversion rates, you’ll gain insights into potential high leverage opportuni-

ties for growing your NSM. Stay focused YOUR NSM will be a critical part of aligning your team to drive sustainable growth.

However you need a system − a process that you are committed to. Make sure you document your experiments, learnings and results as you start focusing on the NSM − and the variables that help to move it.

Create an online document, share it with your team members and have weekly or bi-weekly growth meetings. And stay focused and stay committed!

12 OPINION

THE COPENHAGEN POST | CPHPOST.DK

1 - 14 June 2018

Back to normal – whatever that is

T

Silly season approaches WHAT NOW? The summer holiday is approaching. That means backbench politicians and mavericks will be airing ideas to appeal to the press, which has little to write about unless an unusually big ‘cucumber’ is demanding attention.

Henrik Sass Larsen, the leader of Socialdemokratiet’s parliamentary group, has made an early start by publishing a book that goes against his party’s stance by advocating the liberalisation of all drugs.

And even the police are deploying leftfield tactics in Christiania where locals have helped them to identify which stalls are operated by outside gangs and which are their own.

It’s indicative of a growing understanding that when there is demand, supply will follow.

A joint venture IN THE US we saw prohibition against alcohol turn society into lawless chaos. Maybe our politicians should take heed of this.

Alcohol is still here and taxed to provide income for the state instead of wasting resources on police and prisons. Tobacco is also still here – its use reduced

ADAM WELLS

Early Rejser

by taxes and campaigns, but not outlawed.

The general public are ignoring the warnings from experts and so there is only one way forward: controlled liberalisation of cannabis – a move backed by one-third of MPs. We understand that the US state of Colorado has done it without any problems, and also Uruguay, while Amsterdam’s success story goes back decades.

The drive to the bottom WE ARE now about a year from the next general election. The latest poll has seen the blue parties retake the lead. Therefore the fight will be over the middle ground once again. The general theme will again be immigration, assimilation etc.

Venstre MP Marcus Knuth and the immigration and integration minister, Inger Støjberg, have reached new heights in Islamophobia. Now, Muslim bus drivers are branded a hazard during Ramadan since fasting and dehydration during the day might cause them to become a danger to the public.

In all seriousness these politicians spout this on TV – and look stupid. However it shows there is no depth unplumbed in the midfield politician’s race to the bottom when it comes to finding new nasty elements to dress up the arguments on Election Day. In the meantime we will be seeing the high school graduates take to the streets with their white caps. This year there will be more students than ever before with a white scarf over their hair or a silver cross emblem on their cap. Let’s hope that time will be the requisite medicine to put the Islamophobic politicians back in their boxes. (ES)

Adam is a nanny, a multi-sports fanatic and a budding ultra runner. He was faster off the mark than his fellow Brits, quitting England for Denmark moments before they voted to stay out of Europe. When he isn’t caring for kids, screaming at a screen or tearing up his feet, he writes unsettling poetry and prose.

PIXABAY

HE BIG labour conflict is over. The teachers are in the process of voting to approve or reject the negotiated agreement. If they reject it they may expect a lockout over the summer holidays, but that would be like a striptease in the dark – nobody would notice.

Also, the crown prince celebrated his 50 birthday. He got more than 75,000 Danes out running – along with himself and his family. Danes are not only monarchists, they are proud of it too.

The smudge that was last year’s summer is all but forgotten

T

HERE’S always the sun.

Although it feels like years since it’s been here. Two to be exact.

Perhaps I’m squinting back at May 2016, my first month in Copenhagen, through rose-tinted sunglasses, but my vision is filled with blue skies and sunshine.

From dawn till dusk they shone upon the long, naked limbs of the planet’s happiest people as I slowly found my tanned, flipflopped feet in the city.

Encouraged by this warm welcome I soon swapped those flip-flops for running shoes and joined the scores of people running circles around Søerne.

I ran just one circle at first, not yet ready to abandon my lifelong commitment to giving up when things get tough.

But I endured like the pleasant weather, and as the weeks went

by I found myself going further and further before I quit.

Running on solar power MAY MELTED into summer, summer cooled into autumn, and at the end of September I ran the Copenhagen Half Marathon. The following day I signed up for a 50-mile ultramarathon.

Then winter came, with its short dark days, and I found my-

self running less and less. I’d made enough hay while the sun shone to complete the 50-miler, but once that was done my running went no further while I waited for the sun’s return. It never came.

As I scowl back at last summer now, all I see is a grey smudge where it should be. And between a summer that never was and a winter that would never end, I found little time for running.

March and April were spring in name alone, and I was in danger of being an ‘early rejser’ in column name only. Then May arrived. Winter’s long, dark reign was over, and I was waking to blue skies and sunshine again. How much harder now to push the snooze button, how much easier to pull my running shoes on.

With each day I expected the return of worse weather, but the sunshine and blue skies were here to stay. Even that first May pales next to this one. And while a sunny May does not a summer make, I am counting on it doing just that. After such a long winter I need all the warmth such false hope provides.

Ignorance is bliss I WISH I could say my Danish from that first May pales next to my Danish of today, but it’s

rather hard to tell them apart.

The biggest difference is I now go around with my ears open. I have abandoned actively trying to speak the language in favour of passively listening to it. I can now drop my eaves like the Danes drop their consonants, but fear not, Danes, your secrets are safe. I hear, but I do not understand, and this may be a blessing for both of us.

While eavesdropping in a bar last week, and trying to determine what the words either side of ‘sommer’ might mean, my attention was stolen by two Englishmen. The recent heat must have got to one of them, for he was passionately calling for Denmark to abandon its ‘misguided’ renewable energy policies so that global warming could take its course and we could all enjoy such weather more often.

A popular excuse for not learning Danish is that the Danes understand English. My excuse is that I don’t want to understand the Danes. It’s only when you understand everything that you remember what bliss ignorance is.

So I don’t need to know that this summer won’t shine like May. Until it pisses on the parade, I’m happy thinking we’re in for more of the same.

OPINION

1 - 14 June 2018

VIVIENNE MCKEE

Crazier than Christmas Vivienne McKee, Denmark’s best-known English entertainer, is this country’s most beloved foreign import. Over the last 36 years, hundreds of thousands of Copenhageners have enjoyed her annual Crazy Christmas Cabaret show at Tivoli, marvelling at her unique, wry Anglo wit and charm.

Straight Up

13

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ZACH KHADUDU

A Dane Abroad KIRSTEN LOUISE PEDERSEN

BELLEVUE TEATRET

IN 2 ISSUES

Mackindergarten ADRIAN MACKINDER

Straight, No Chaser STEPHEN GADD

An Actor’s Life

IN 3 ISSUES

IAN BURNS

Fashion Jam JENNY EGSTEN-ERICSON IN 4 ISSUES

Fortunately she’s brought towels to soak up the tears of laughter

I

T’S JUNE! Hooray! Flowers bloom, bees buzz and the sun appears − well sometimes − and those normally shy Danes speed around on their bikes halfnaked, chatting happily on their mobiles.

Summer’s insane smile YUMMY mummies sit outside at cafes instead of inside watching their prams through steamed-up windows. At last we can forget about hygge.

Who needs candles, conviviality and cosiness when we can be outside, grilling in the garden, biking along the beaches and, being truly Danish, attending the local summer ‘revy’.

Every town and village produces its own revy show. You’ll see posters plastered everywhere of actors sporting Miami-style outfits, smiling insanely. The Danes love their traditions and it is absolutely de rigueur to see at least one of these shows during the summer.

I enjoy this to my benefit during the winter months, as my annual Crazy Christmas Show

in Tivoli has become, after 36 years, part of Copenhagen life.

When I tried to stop this year, those tradition-loving Danes protested so much that I have now agreed to continue, and I guess I will go on until someone pulls me offstage in my wheelchair with a long hook.

Similarly there is no stopping the annual Dansk revy − a theatre genre that has existed for over 100 years and can be said to really reflect Danish humour.

Satirical, sentimental CALLED ‘lagkage’ (layer cake) comedy, it is a slice of the past, and the much-loved revy numbers are kept alive at the Revy Museum in Frederiksberg.

The show consists of a team of musically-talented performers who sing a welcome song about how lovely Denmark is in the summer, which is then followed by about 90 minutes of funny sketches and songs. Some are mildly satirical and involve dressing up as celebrities or politicians, and some are simply sentimental.

These shows have created stars

out of the actors who perform in them and a good income for the close-knit group of writers who deliver the songs and sketches and are paid in proportion to the number of tickets sold. The longer the text, the higher the fee.

The Road Less Taken

Cut the content, cut the cash MANY YEARS ago I was asked to write a comedy sketch for the CircusRevy at Bakken and I delivered a five-minute sketch involving all the actors with lots of gags and slapstick fun.

At the last rehearsal, when it became clear that the show was too long, something had to go.

My five-minute sketch got the chop along with my entire fee.

Since then I have chosen to enjoy the Danish revy as an enthusiastic spectator. These shows are not groundbreaking, but they offer genuine Danish live entertainment after a day on the beach, or on a rainy day an excuse to avoid home hygge.

“Det er dejligt, det er dansk og det er bare Danmark.” If you understand that sentence, you’ll enjoy the show. Happy summer!

MRUTYUANJAI MISHRA

JESSICA ALEXANDER

Mishra’s Mishmash

14 COMMUNITY

THE COPENHAGEN POST | CPHPOST.DK

1 - 14 June 2018

ABOUT TOWN

PHOTOS BY HASSE FERROLD

Another busy fortnight for the diplomatic corps began at the residence of Argentine ambassador Conrado Solari on May 16 where a great many of his peers gathered to celebrate his national day. Among those in attendance were (left: left-right) Austrian ambassador Maria Rotheiser-Scotti, Ivory Coast’s ambassador Mina Balde Laurent, Luxembourg’s ambassador Janine Finck, Greek ambassador Efthalia Kakiopoulou, Moroccan ambassador Khadija Rouissi, Cuban ambassador Yiliam Sardinas Gomez, Solari, Israeli ambassador Benjamin Dagan and Nepalese ambassador Yuba Nath Lamsal. Nine days later it was the turn of Georgian ambassador Gigi Gigiadze (centre left and centre), who held a reception to mark his country’s national day at his new embassy at Kalvebod Brygge. Solari was among his guests, and the occasion included a special ribbon-cutting ceremony. The German Embassy, meanwhile, has opened a new chancery, and on May 18, the ambassador Andreas Meitzner (centre right: right) was at hand to oversee proceedings, where he was joined by University of Copenhagen prorektor Lykke Friis wearing a national football shirt. And finally, Swiss ambassador Benedikt Wechsler (right: left) was in attendance at an event at DesignMuseum Danmark showcasing his country’s design, which Harry Lyme will be pleased to know has graduated beyond the cuckoo clock

The stage was set for another instalment of Africa Day at Frederiksberg City Hall on May 25 (left), where the guest of honour was Martin Herman, the head of development policy at the Foreign Ministry, who was warmly welcomed (left) by the African dean of the diplomatic corps, Ugandan ambassador Zaake Kibedi (red tie), and Moroccan ambassador Khadija Rouissi. Also in attendance, proudly standing in front of stands highlighting their countries’ many treasures were (left-right from centre left) Ghanaian ambassador Amerley Awua-Asamoa, Libyan ambassador Mohamed Selim, Egyptian ambassador Ayman Alkaffas and Algerian ambassador Ali Benzerga

Crown Prince Frederik has turned 50 and it took him over a week. First off, what celebration could be complete without an obligatory salute from the famous balcony at Amalienborg Castle (left)? Five days earlier, Frederik made and marked history by taking part in the Royal Run on May 21 with over 70,000 others. Helping out Dad were his children (centre left), with Princess Josephine getting off to a quick start, along with a number of dignitaries that included Anders Samuelsen, the foreign minister, and city mayor Frank Jensen (second left), Romanian ambassador Mihai-Alexandru Gradinar (centre right) and French ambassador Francois Zimeray (second right). And then to complete the week, the heir to the throne took his family to a special gala evening on May 27 at the Royal Arena that was televised to the nation

Internationally-famous Thai chef McDang was a special guest at a cooking display and Q&A at Asia House on May 15

Russian ambassador Mikhail Vanin oversaw the opening of the 2018 World Cup Fan House on May 22 at the Russian Center for Science and Culture

The Chinese Chamber of Commerce’s opening on May 8 drew in minister Troels Lund Poulsen (centre) and Chinese ambassador Deng Ying (right)

15

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1 - 14 June 2018

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16 COVER

1 - 14 June 2018

Kronborg Castle’s interactive summer drama package continues to evolve ‘Hamlet Live’ artistic directors Peter Holst-Beck and Barry McKenna offer a sneak preview of what the 2018 season has in store

what life was like in feudal Denmark. As visitors advance through the castle and see different scenes, they are also being introduced to a part of Danish history.

OLIVER RAASSINA

Promotes English theatre HOLST-BECK and McKenna are both veterans of the theatre scene in Denmark, having worked on a number of different productions in both Danish and English.

English language productions are often a tough sell in Denmark, with many finding difficulties obtaining both funding and recognition. ‘Hamlet Live’ therefore serves as an excellent example that English language productions can be just as exciting and relevant to society as their Danish language counterparts.

T

HIS WEEK marks the start of Copenhagen Stage, with the capital offering a wide variety of theatre productions in both Danish and English (see cphpost.dk for details of 49 productions accessible to internationals). The festival will highlight the best of Danish contemporary theatre over its 10-day run.

But another production is running concurrently with the festival that offers visitors a unique take on an old classic.

‘Hamlet Live’ is an immersive, interactive take on Shakespeare’s tragedy, performed at Kronborg Castle in Helsingør, the inspiration for Hamlet’s Elsinore.

Masterminded by Peter HolstBeck and Barry McKenna, the production is being shown for the third straight year.

Historical fiction ‘HAMLET Live’ strives to bring a distinctive experience to its audience, blending Danish medieval history with elements from ‘Hamlet’. The performance largely ignores a traditional performance structure, with scenes taking place all over the castle, and many at the same time.

The actors are given lots of freedom to improvise and interact with visitors, providing everyone with their own unique experience of the ‘Hamlet’ story.

Shakespeare’s tragedy is not the only focus of the performance, which seeks to portray

CPHPOST: Why start Hamlet Live?

PHB: Well, we had this 400year celebration of Shakespeare in 2016, and the castle wanted to make Shakespeare and history available. They wanted to make a fictional story into a historical museum. Could that be done?

We discussed it and I said of course we can do it. Everything in it is historically-based. We still have this gruesome story of this dysfunctional family, but there are scenes that show how things worked on a daily basis back then.

So, we wrote the concept in 2016 with that in mind – involving people, wanting them to interact and ask questions themselves, to gain knowledge. The scenes we do take place in the actual places where Shakespeare imagined them when writing. So, it’s really a new way of making museums come alive.

Fencing (and archery) skills a requisite

The cast of 2018 line up for a teamshot

BM: Peter was the brains behind ‘Korsbækbyen at Bakken’. That was Peter’s concept, so the national museum contacted Peter and said: “You’ve got a great idea there − we would like a similar thing here.” Nobody knew Kronborg, nor Helsingør nor Elsinore, but they always asked: “Is this Hamlet’s castle?”

do have brochures for people to see what the concept is and who they can meet, with a basic synopsis of what happens during the tour. But again, that’s not the purpose of it: to come in and see Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’. You’re seeing people who live here, and we make reference and homage to Shakespeare.

CPHPOST: How has Hamlet Live changed through the years?

PHB: Everything has been rewritten. Everything is in modern English, so most people can understand.

PHB: The cast is bigger now.

We have Yorick now as the jester, which we didn’t have the first year. This year we have archery as well, and lots of recreational activities, so guests can try some archery and games. It really is an interactive, 360-degree experience. Things are happening everywhere, and the guests can put their Hamlet experience together themselves.

BM: We’re trying to be clear to people from at least 92 different countries, and even if they can’t speak English at all, they get something out of it. Shakespeare has written a play that is set in this castle, so you see Polonius stabbed to death in the queen’s chamber, which is where it happens in the play.

CPHPOST: How do the visitors know how to experience the performance?

CPHPOST: Why did you decide to make this an interactive performance?

BM: We have a blackboard and we have castle hosts who work here every day to make sure people can find the right places to be, and we have a herald who announces things, or you can just go up to him or her and ask. So, you don’t actually have it in a brochure because it’s so changeable that we didn’t want to print anything up. But we

BM: You’re playing in all these wonderful spaces and not making theatre as much as providing a 360-degree experience, and to do that this year we have added scenarios that we call ‘slices of life’. When Laertes is about to go on a sea voyage, he is packing his suitcase and asking what the audience would take on a long trip because he’s going off to

BARRY MCKENNA • British director and actor with

over 20 years experience working in theatre in Denmark • Frequent collaborator with That Theatre Company and Why Not Theatre Company

• Acclaimed Danish productions include ‘Flammen Muse’, ‘S’Wonderful’ and ‘Romeo og Julie’

PETER HOLST-BECK • Danish actor who has had roles in

both theatre and television, including ‘Rejseholdet’ • Creator of ‘Hamlet Live’ and ‘Kors-

bækbyen at Bakken’ performances • Appeared in shows across Den-

mark as part of different theatre revues

COVER

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study. So, we have things that people nowadays can relate to.

It’s really involving people – and even more so physically with the archery. You can learn to make a quill pen, you can learn to write in a Renaissance style. It’s really a family attraction. For everyone: Danes, Swedes, Americans, Koreans.

PHB: We get a lot of Chinese people coming here so we had special lessons on how to work with Chinese tourists. All the actors have to learn specific Chinese words to say hello and goodbye and so on.

CPHPOST: How long do the performances generally last?

BM: It’s the whole day. There are photo opportunities by the fountain. Japanese and Chinese buses carrying the tourists come, and they take photographs and we interact with them. That’s from 10 o’clock and then from 10:40 the actual story begins to be told. Then we have a coronation scene where the king and queen come to greet their people on the podium out there.

Gradually, you go through the royal apartments and you experience meeting the king and queen. Suddenly there might be a scene in which they portray something from the play or you just chat with them and they’ll ask you where you’ve come from − to which we have to respond to and deal with people as if we are living in the 16th century.

CPHPOST: What does the future hold for Hamlet Live?

BM: It’s really grown. This year we are bringing in more props and furniture, and we’ve altered the costumes quite radically. I’ve always wanted a marketplace

p6a Interaction with the guests has become a key element of the experience

out there. I want horses and a blacksmith. I see a good future in this and I can see it fleshing itself out if we become more and more successful financially. Although, whatever we earn belongs to the government. But it would be nice to have even more characters: to have a Horatio, to have proper servants. It’s all built around the story, so the characters’ background is very much grounded in ‘Hamlet’, but our everyday lives are based on the court life of Frederik II and Queen Sophie. So, this year we are trying to marry that.

We’ve been inspired somewhat by Hampton Court, where Peter and I went for a business trip.

CPHPOST: What’s your experience working in English language theatre in Denmark?

BM: I’ve worked with English the-

Judging by the haircut, Hamlet’s been at a monastery

atre since I came here. I’ve worked for Vivienne McKee, I’ve worked on some independent plays. My major experiences have been with Ian Burns at That Theatre, for whom I’ve done 12 productions through the years, maybe more.

And then Sue Hansen-Styles, who runs Why Not Theatre – I’ve done several productions for her. I think we are very much on the periphery of the Danish theatre scene.

CPHPOST: What do you think about English language productions not having the same access to funding as Danish productions?

BM: Well I really think is it is a lottery and I’m just finding out myself about how to go about it, because I’ve got plans to do a Danish production of an English play with Rasmus [Mortensen, one of the actors playing Claudius] through Stuart Lynch, who runs the Copenhagen Film and Theatre School. I feel that we have to make more of an effort if we want to be taken seriously when we apply for funding, as there’s some very set ideas and rules you have to follow, and if we deviate from that, we don’t get funded. But we are, I think, perhaps marginalised by the state because it’s not necessarily seen as, maybe wrongly, necessary for Danish culture or for kids, which I think is wrong because obviously, I, Ian and Sue have a network where people plead with us − teachers and people in education − and we often go to

them and bounce ideas off them to see what would be the right kind of production for people.

CPHPOST: What are the biggest hurdles in staging English language productions in Denmark?

BM: I think because we are not a huge organisation at That Theatre, we just settled for two productions a year, and that’s very doable and maybe the audience for this kind of theatre. But when we do our productions we get fantastic reviews and fantastic feedback from our audiences.

But maybe we are on the fringe, and maybe that’s enough because we are able to fulfil our art and that’s how we all feel. I mean we all do other things – we can’t possibly rely on those productions.

I don’t know what to say because we are a peculiar commodity and Danish theatre is in a sense very closed in on itself.

CPHPOST: Does theatre in Denmark lack originality?

BM: I think there is when you see that they are restaging Chaplin’s masterpiece ‘The Great Dictator’ – what’s that about?

I find it a bit tedious, and this happens in London, I’m sure, that they will stage a film. You know, put a film on stage and it’s like why? You’ve got the film and that’s an art form in itself. It’s like doing ‘Grease’ over and over again and doing ‘Phantom of

the Opera’ over and over again.

I don’t know really because the experimental theatre I’ve worked in on the Danish side is Teater Republique, where I worked on ‘Bollywood Trip’ and also wrote an original play based on ‘Othello’ called ‘Iago: An Eye for an Eye’. What I’ve seen here in Danish theatre is that they prefer the absurd: the off-thewall rather than the traditional type. So if they are doing ‘Miss Julie’, they will do it in flying gear. It tends to be gimmicky, so I was one of the few people who hated ‘Hamlet’ at Skuespillhuset with Nicolas Bro. There were so many gimmicks going on that they ran out of gimmicks. Horatio is a six-foot stuffed pink rabbit. Why do they have a game show at the end when they have the fencing? It’s like the director was unable to make his mind up so let’s do all four. So that kind of thing irritates me, but that’s just my personal hang-up really. I would much rather see beautifully produced things: new and inspiring productions with ideas. But I don’t know … those are just my ramblings.

THEATRE IN DENMARK • There are 314 theatres in Den-

mark

• Productions are awarded ap-

proximately 1.2 billion kroner every year in grants

• Two million Danes visit the thea-

tre annually

18 HISTORY

THE COPENHAGEN POST | CPHPOST.DK

1 - 14 June 2018

Lad, Pheasant, Shooter Lars – when poachers were the pop stars Denmark has a long history of outwitting the gamekeeper: from weapons disguised as walking sticks to the wearing of shoes back-to-front to occlude their whereabouts CPH POST

P

OACHING used to conjure up romanticised notions – for which you probably have to blame Robin Hood and his merry men, tucking into another helping of royal venison, Friar Tuck already enquiring about seconds.

William the Conqueror was the first English king to decree that all the deer were his – to such an extent that even startling one could lead to you losing your eyes or a hand, while killing one would almost certainly lead to execution.

So when other absolute monarchies followed suit, it’s no surprise that public opinion sided with the poacher in his eternal game of cat-and-mouse with the warden of the

forest, and then the gamekeeper or ranger.

It has only been in recent times through the hunting of endangered species for their tusks, horn or penis that the term ‘poacher’ has become such an ugly word.

A little like ‘pirate’, they were socially acceptable and a regular staple of children’s literature when they were white European underdogs, but now they’re predominantly Africans on the make, they’re universally despised!

Tricks of the trade THE FIRST floor of the Danish Museum of Hunting and Forestry in Hørsholm is an excellent place to visit to learn

more about the history of Danish poaching. You will be transported to a very different world.

A thick, dark forest surrounds you and the eerie cries of animals can be heard in the background.

If you are lucky, you might catch a glimpse of a poacher or two stealthily hunting their prey as law-abiding gamekeepers try in vain to apprehend the animal pilferers.

Glass cases abound, exhibiting a wealth of hunting equipment as well as some of the mysterious accoutrements used by poachers throughout the centuries, such as weapons disguised as walking sticks, which enabled the ingenious poachers to extract

THE POACHER BY FRÉDÉRIC ROUGE (1867–1950)

That will leave a trail in the snow, Mastermind ... unless of course you’re clearing your footsteps. Cunning!

themselves from tricky situations if need be.

women will not make one an enemy of the Lord.’’

Steal from the rich …

RELATIONSHIPS between gamekeepers and their arch enemies were always strained.

Tales of old recount the many brutal confrontations between the two and how they have often ended in violent bloody deaths on both sides.

In days gone by, poachers were loathed by the landed gentry and the punishment for these rustlers was harsh. A 1662 law states decreed that poaching the king’s game could be punishable by hanging, while the luckier offenders usually escaped with a minimum of three years in irons.

However, not everyone held the poachers in such contempt.

Poverty-stricken tenants and small farmers often saw poachers in a heroic light, frequently regarding them as romantic, exciting adventurers brave enough to defy the much-reviled landlords. lt was not unusual for poachers to take from the rich and give to the poor. Sometimes impoverished farmers and pensioners would wake to find that poachers had come during the night, leaving a gift of a delicious piece of game on the doorstep.

In esteemed company JACK WAS not Denmark’s only famous poacher. The antics of several equally colourful characters are recounted in the history books.

Niels Nielsen was famous for wearing his shoes backwards so that on his nightly jaunts to Vallø Forest, gamekeepers tracking him would think that he was leaving the forest instead of entering.

Nielsen also made his name by publishing a magazine for poachers that included hunting tips and anecdotes, as well as awarding hunting trophies.

When the magazine failed, Nielsen became an unsuccessful inventor. One of his more bizarre attempts was the fleacrushing device.

Another renowned poacher was Shooter Lars who stalked his way through the early part of the last century. A written account of Shooter’s nightly hunting escapades and his countless run-ins with armed gamekeeper patrols still exists.

Shooter spent a period of time in prison where he was reportedly tortured. He did, however, live to poach another day.

Not so lucky was Christian ‘The Pheasant’ Fasan from Lolland who ended his days in a wheelchair after a violent confrontation with a ranger.

Laddish and lauded AT THE museum you can purchase a copy of an old engraving depicting one of Denmark’s most famous poachers, Jens ‘Jack the Lad’ Omgang of Grib Forest.

The inscription on the engraving reads “A faithful description of the widely travelled free shooter .”

Jack was an ingenious hunter who always managed to bring home his quarry and yet still escape his pursuers. He was renowned for the countless tricks he played on gamekeepers and wardens, always managing to slip through the fingers of the law at the last minute.

Gamekeepers and the gentry considered Jack to be a dangerous criminal but the general population loved and admired him. They looked on him in wonder and gloated over how a ‘mere farmer’ could dance circles around the aristocracy and its representatives. ln the eyes of the poor farmers, the forest belonged to all. As the old saying goes: “What one takes from the forest and from

A forgotten artform POACHING is not so common these days. Those who do venture out into the ‘great wide yonder’ have a far easier time than their fabled ancestors.

The Jack the Lads of today usually drive into the forest, park their cars close to animal lairs or watering holes, roll down their windows and sit silently, comfortably waiting. If he is lucky enough to nab his prey, all he has to do is hide the unlucky animal in the car boot and simply drive home. It´s not quite as romantic as the stories of old.

The Danish Museum of Hunting and Forestry, which opened in 1907, is situated at Folehavevej 17, Hørsholm and is open daily (excluding Monday) from 10:00 to 16:00. Admission costs 70 kroner, while under-18s enjoy free entry.

FOOD & DRINK

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19

A pinnacle à la pillion nestled in naughty Nørrebro awaits

CAMILLE MAJA CHRISTENSEN

SIDECAR

Skyttegade 5, Cph N; open Mon-Fri from 08:00, SatSun from 09:30, open late Tue-Sun; breakfast/brunch (without drinks) 149-165kr DOUGLAS WHITBREAD

S

IDECAR was established on a side-street off Rantzausgade in Nørrebro in 2015. The owners took a chance by rejecting a common restaurant model defined by a singular style of cuisine.

Instead they opted for a hybrid concept that allows their premises to seamlessly accommodate different dining experiences.

With this in mind, over the course of a day Sidecar begins as a cosy coffee and brunch spot, later specialising in smørrebrød and salads, before finally finishing as a lively Asian street-food and cocktail joint.

However, the restaurant’s regular metamorphosis doesn’t just provide for a rich, diverse menu.

Rather, the most impressive part of this novel idea is that Sidecar can effortlessly fit the needs of guests at any given moment of the day.

Nevertheless, the precision and care taken to combine all these sumptuous ingredients into one serving make it unrecognisable from the fare dealt out of an average diner or greasy spoon.

Life and dining in sync SIDECAR’S original concept was marked with possible pitfalls, as its owners sought to combine a variety of different experiences into a restaurant that still possessed charm and warmth.

However, they have not simply accomplished this feat, they’ve created a space and menu that truly fits the requirements of any modern Copenhagener.

SIDECAR- FACEBOOK

Fresh, modern feel IT’S OBVIOUS that those charged with Sidecar’s design brief had an eye on the current trends emanating from the fashionable Copenhagen district where it is situated.

This is particularly demonstrated by the rejection of the small and often cramped, traditional Danish café aesthetics.

Instead, Sidecar is furnished with light wood and bright colour tones that create an exceptionally airy and palatial space – when compared to many of its competitors.

Despite this, when I came to dine at the restaurant on a weekday morning, I was aware of certain features chosen due to their value for locals.

For example, a large communal table close to the entrance emphasises the idea that eating should be a collective experience.

Small personalised touches, such as budding branches and Easter eggs placed in the centre of the room to mark the arrival of spring, further serve to humanise the restaurant’s cool, elegant conception.

Surpasses expectations AMID SIDECAR’S diverse menu, its brunch options stand out as signature offerings.

In general, this concept has in recent years sadly become a catchall term to describe any breakfast-based meal served between 10:00 and 14:00.

But, in the case of Sidecar, the restaurants chef ’s have embraced its true meaning – creating a dish that will, without doubt, fully satisfy your hunger until the evening.

The two potential options don’t just simply offer quantity though. In my opinion, the thought and technique they display almost put them in the category of fine dining.

The vegan breakfast plate is punctuated by two key flavours − mint and ginger − that effortlessly complement the arrangement of fresh fruit and salad.

Standout features come in the form of beetroot pesto, homemade humus and chickpea waffle – all of which delight with their elegance and simplicity.

Alternatively, the breakfast plate “with all the good stuff”, as its title suggests, doesn’t hold back on classic options such as eggs, sausages and crispy bacon.

20 INOUT: EVENTS THE COPENHAGEN POST | CPHPOST.DK

MORTEN VEST

MUSIC

PERFORMANCE

Punch Line June 8, 17:00, 18:00 & 19:00; Copenhagen Muay Thai Bokseklub, Ragnhildgade 1, Cph Ø; free adm Martial arts and rap come colliding together in spectacular fashion. The participating Thai boxers’ punches and kicks and the performers’ lyrics fly off one another as they punctuate the air. The result is a cacophonic tour-de-force like no other.

HENRIK OHSTEN

THEATRE

EVENT FACEBOOK PAGE

QUIZ

THEATRE

A Doll’s House May 31, 17:00, June 1, 19:00 & June 2, 13:00; Nørrebrogade 208, Cph N; 100kr A staging of Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 play in a real home – its position on gender roles feel as fresh today as it did back then.

Fix&Foxy has already taken this production to Oslo and London – with great success. Are you going? Me too.

Copenhagen Stage ongoing, ends June 9; various venues; cphstage.dk Since making its debut in 2013, CPH Stage has quickly become Denmark’s biggest theatre festival. A fair proportion of the performers are international, coming from countries such as Syria, Germany, Turkey, Brazil, Belgium, Iceland and the UK. BÜRO JANTZEN

GLOBE PUB

SANDSKULPTUR.DK

KIDS

Hamlet Live June 1-Aug 31; Kronborg Castle, Helsingør; 140kr; kongeligeslotte.dk Hamlet Live, which continues to get unbelievable feedback, will once again be returning for another three-month run at Kronborg Castle from June 1. Guests walk the corridors of the castle, watching scenes of the play performed in the very rooms in which the play is set.

THEATRE

FIX&FOXY

Othello June 4; Operaen; 150-825kr; kglteater.dk This masterpiece was first performed in Milan in 1887 and has captivated audiences ever since. Verdi retained the dramatic elements of the Shakespeare play – sexual jealousy, murder and suicide – and somehow succeeded in making Iago even more evil.

EXPERIENCE

CPH STAGE

HASSE FERROLD

CAMILLA_WINTHER

OPERA

1 - 14 June 2018

THEATRE

Sand Sculpture Festival ongoing, ends Sep 16, daily from 10:00; Kajgaden 7, Hundested; sandskulptur.dk The seventh edition of the popular Sand Sculpture Festival has a ‘myths and legends’ theme.

Some 40 local and international sculptures, including several world champions, will display their biodegradable masterworks. (DW)

Big Quiz Nights May 31 & June 14, 19:30; The Globe, Nørregade 43, Cph K; 30kr, five per team June 4, 19:30; Kennedy’s, Gammel Kongevej 23, Cph V; 25kr, four per team The winners get 1,000 kroner at the Globe, and 800 at Kennedy’s. And who knows, the odd rollover has been known to go too.

The Great Dictator June 1 & 5-8, 20:00, June 2 & 8, 15:00; Nørrebro Teater, Ravnsborggade 3, Cph N; 75-395kr; text in English Nikolaj Cederholm’s staging of the Charlie Chaplin movie has proved popular with Danish audiences thanks to a strong cast including Søren Pilmark (‘Downsizing’), and now Englishspeakers have a chance to enjoy it.

KLANG ongoing, ends June 8; various locations; 80-250kr; klang.dk KLANG, the Copenhagen Avantgarde Music Festival, will host over 30 Danish and international music acts. The festival, now entering its tenth year, is the country’s largest event for contemporary music and will have programs for all ages. (EK)

Rocky!

June 7, 19:30, June 8, 20:00, June 9, 15:00. text in English, June 6, 22:00 in English; Husets Teater, Halmtorvet 9, Cph V; 50-210kr; Inspired by the Stallone film, Morten Burian narrates and then acts in this politically-charged monologue about how modern Denmark has trampled on the underdog. Served by powerful imagery, this one is hard to forget.

DR Summer Festival June 16-17, 10:00; DR Koncerthuset; 80-140kr; drkoncerthuset.dk Some of the hosts of children’s TV show Ramasjang will pair up with DR’s musicians for the family-friendly festival. With a focus on combining music and play, the event is sure to be a fun time for all. (EK)

Mr Tesla Played June 6-8, 17:30, June 9, 15:00; Teatret ved Sorte Hest; 100kr This Why Not Theatre production charts the life of the inventor Nikola Tesla, the true father of the electric age. The monologue has already been seen by many Copenhageners. Find out why they’re buzzing.

Gabriele Münter ongoing, ends Aug 18; Louisiana Museum; louisiana.dk Münter did not receive widespread acclaim during her lifetime. However, her striking contribution to art in the 20th century is being celebrated in a new solo exhibition this summer. (DW)

Worldwide Rhythms June 6; Kvarterhuset, Jemtelandsgade 3, Cph S; free adm Canadian acoustic guitarist Don Alder performs live in Denmark for the first time as part of his European tour. Alder, who has won plaudits all over the world, brings a unique fusion of jazz, blues, roots and folk music. (OR)

Warm-up Jazz June 3; Pumpehuset, Studiestræde 52, Cph V US jazz virtuoso Kamasi Washington is serving up a preview of his appearance at the Haven festival in August. The saxophonist is known for his work with the likes of Kendrick Lamar as well as his adventurous solo releases. (OR)

INOUT: EVENTS

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Hieroglyphs – Symbolist Drawings 1890-1910 ongoing, ends Aug 12; smk.dk The exhibition showcases over 100 works of art from a time when draughtsmanship came to the fore. Among the notable featured artists are Jens Lund, JF Williamson and Johannes Holbek. (DW)

Vogue like a Painting ongoing, ends Aug 26; glstrand.dk The exhibition explores the intersection between fashionphotography and the fine arts.

The images come from Vogue’s archives – taken by world-renowned photographers such as Nick Knight and Annie Leibovitz. (DW) SKY JUICE REGGAE FACEBOOK PAGE

COPENHAGENCLASSICO.DK

ACTIVITY

ART

MUSIC

GALOPBANE.DK

SMK.DK_PERNILLE KLEMP

ERWIN-OLAF

ART

21

SPECTACLE

Day at the Races June 2, 16 & 24, from 12:00; Klampenborg Galopbane, Klampenborgvej 52; 60kr; galopbane.dk Enjoy the fun and competitive spirit of Klampenborg Racetrack.

Enjoy a flutter or two, listen to music and enjoy some great food and racing at the track. (MA) OUTDOORS

Copenhagen Classico June 17; Dybbølsgade 59, Cph V; 99kr; copenhagenclassico.dk If your idea of a bicycle race involves leisurely riding and breaks for coffee and champagne, this is the one to sign up for. After then after the race, participants enjoy lunch and drinks. Don’t forget to dress up and find an old bicycle to use. (CC)

Celebrating Natasja June 22; Den Grå Hal, Christiania; 190kr Sky Juice Promotions presents a night of music to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the death of Natasja. The event will celebrate the life and music of Natasja and features performances from Sister Nancy and Bikstok Røgsystem. (OR)

Furesø Picnic Festival June 1; Naturpark Mølleåen June 2, Furesøbad; free adm Come enjoy a day out in nature with food and good weather at the Furesø Picnic Festival. The festival offers delicious food, picturesque sights, and various activities for all ages. The festivities will be spread out over two days at two unique locations.

(OR)

Copenhagen Photo Festival June 7-17; Photo City, Cph Ø; 80kr; copenhagenphotofestival.com Set out for some abstract travel where the only limit is the sky.

Whether you’re into philosophy and self-reflection or an uncensored version of reality, the exhibition will surely meet most tastes in art. (DA)

Decoration of Montana Room ongoing, ends Feb 2019; glstrand.dk The Danish artist duo Randi & Katrine, who began collaborating back in 2004, combine architecture, objects and narration to create large, immersive installations. This new work takes the macaw as inspiration. (DW)

Nostra night June 17, 20:00; Spillestedet Stengade, Stengade 18, Cph N; 220kr; stengade.dk Get into the zone with hip-hop group La Coka Nostra performing from their latest album ‘Two Thine Own Self Be True’.

Performers from bands such as House of Pain and Non Phixion will also be there. (MA)

Warrior Dash June 16; Valbyparken, Cph SV; 485kr; copenhagenwarrior.dk Grab your friends and team up against some of the fastest, strongest and most competitive warriors.

The run will test your physical skills over 30 obstacles. (DA)

Fringe Festival ongoing, ends June 2; Krudttønden, Cph Ø; 88kr; ctcircle.dk Directors, playwrights and actors will show a series of one-act plays over three nights. The plays compete for a prize and the bragging rights. (CC)

Copenhagen Beer Festival ongoing, ends June 2; Lokomotivværkstedet, Otto Busses Vej 5, Cph SV; 150kr; ale.dk This long-established festival at Lokomotivværkstedet was born out of the campaign for real ale.

Distortion Ø June 1-2; Refshalevej Copenhagen; 550kr; cphdistortion.dk The Distortion club event offers two nights of dance music and occasional decadence. The emphasis is partying until you drop. (CC)

Jewish Culture Festival June 1-10; most events at Great Synagogue, Krystalgade 12, Cph K; more details on Facebook Come and experience concerts, movies, lectures and debates and sample Jewish cuisine. (CC)

It finishes when it finishes June 6-7, Gamle Scene; 200kr Choreographer Ioannis Mandafounis plays with our perception of reality in this fusion of movement and magic performed by Corpus to live Ethiopian jazz.

Whole in the Head June 1, 19:00, June 2, 16:00, June 3, 14:00; Touch of Vintage; 135kr Scene 42 tackles the devastating effect Alzheimer’s can have on a couple’s love – particularly one in which the man’s son is the same age as his partner.

Friday Night Skate June 8 & 22, 20:00; Solberg Plads, Frederiksberg; free adm; fns-cph.dk Put on your skates and join people of all ages for an evening skate around town. Whether you’re a greenhorn or a pro, this event is for everyone. (DA)

Theatre Flea Market June 2, 10:00-17:00; Riddersalen, Frederiksberg; riddersalen.dk Theatre-goers have a large selection of costumes and props to choose from. Sourced from both large and small productions, it’s a great chance to find your next party costume. (DA)

The Executioner ongoing, ends June 10; smk.dk This large-scale installation lets you explore Ursula Reuter Christiansen’s film through pictures, sound and objects. The Germanborn artist also worked with the gallery to review feminism themes present in the movie. (DW)

22 MUSEUMS

THE COPENHAGEN POST | CPHPOST.DK

1 - 14 June 2018

24 hours in Copenhagen – family adventures around the city JOSEPHINE LAU JESSEN

C

OPENHAGEN is a familyfriendly city. Everywhere you see parents with strollers playing with their kids at the local playgrounds, at coffee

shops or on their way to one of the many activities the city offers for the entire family.

It can be overwhelming assessing your possibilities, so

allow Museums Corner to be your guide on a summer’s day dedicated to indulging your little ones!

S

TART YOUR day off on one of the most vibrant and trendy streets of the neighbourhood: Jægersborggade. In the morning, you can smell pastries being made at the little bakery Meyers Bageri (meyersmad.dk).

Try out Kanelsnurrer, a Danish cinnamon-bun pastry and local favourite. Enjoy breakfast outside and soak up the lively morning

atmosphere on the street. Making a start in Jægersborggade is never complete without a visit to Assistensens Kirkegård (assistens.dk), the most famous cemetery of Copenhagen and a popular hangout spot for locals. Stroll through and visit the graves of renowned Dane such as the fairy-tale writer and father of the Little Mermaid, Hans Christian Andersen.

MEYERS BAGERI

09:00 − LOCAL GEMS IN NØRREBRO

10:00 − LIVING AS A CIRCUS ARTIST animals and artists who shaped the history of Danish circus. On the first Sunday of every month, you can try out life as a circus artist and challenge each other in a variety of activities, like learning how to juggle, testing your strength with the trapeze, or walking on a tightrope.

KENNETH SØRENSEN

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XPERIENCE some circus magic and trace the steps of clowns and ballerinas at the Circus Museum (cirkusmuseet. dk). The museum is located a little outside the city, but it is definitely worth the travel. The staff are former circus artists and they will tell you stories about the

13:00 − LUNCH ON THE PIER

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N YOUR way to your next cultural experience, stop by La Banchina (labanchina.dk) for lunch on the progressive island of Refshaleøen.

Let your feet, big or small, take a rest on the pier, facing the sun

and Copenhagen Harbour. The restaurant has lots of space to relax and it never gets boring to look at the many amazing ships sailing by. The menu is a simple yet creative mix of seasonal, organic vegetables and fish.

14:00 − ALL ABOARD THE SUB bunks, sit in their kitchen and get an insight into their daily lives during what is a fascinating and historical experience for the entire family. The vessels are located at Holmen where the Navy still operates, so you might even see the sailors during their training.

17:00 − DINNER AT THE AQUARIUM

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OT FAR from Refshaleøen you will find the Blue Planet (denblaaplanet.dk). The unique location combined with its stunning architecture creates an all-encompassing experience for the senses. Watch the spectacular feeding of the sharks and

let the evening pass by as you discover creatures of every colour and shape from the coral reef to the Arctic. End the day by having dinner at Restaurant Great Tang (greattang.dk) overlooking Øresund. Dine and relax after a long day of adventure.

FOR MORE INSPIRATION FROM THE MUSEUMS, VISIT COPENHAGEN MUSEUMS & ATTRACTIONS AT CPHMUSEUMS.COM

DISCOSOUR

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AVE YOU ever wondered what it would be like to sleep or eat on a big ship or a submarine? Thanks to the National Museum, you can experience life on board three vessels that participated in the Cold War (natmus.dk). Try out the sailors’

ON SCREENS

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Deadend Roman’s contribution … he comes to bury the name of Coppola BEN HAMILTON

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OU COULD write an entire pub quiz about the Coppola family. With unabashed nepotism, obscure cameos, cruel decapitations – of both horses and men – and some of the finest and worst offerings Hollywood has ever produced, Francis’s clan has got you beat.

The Corleones … they’ve shit ‘em.

King of cameos THE REGULAR reader of this column (a stalker by the name of Steve) will remember we have already dissected the movie career of the matriarch, Eleanor Coppola, who has carved out her very own genre: making movies from the sidelines of infinitely better movies – a career choice that reached its nadir with The Making of Marie Antoinette.

Where’s that guillotine when you need it?

And now it’s time for the son who knew getting into a boat with the offspring of Barry Lyndon saboteur Ryan O’Neal was a bad idea. Standing mostly in the shadow of sister Sophie, but head-and-shoulders above brother Gian-Carlo, is Roman Coppola – a tour-de-force of tasty trivia. Not only was he in both Godfather films, he played different parts, firstly manning up as Tom Hagen’s son, and then as the powerfully-packaged Sonny (his girlfriend’s vagina surgery is a major subplot of the original book that was wisely cut from the film) in the sequel.

And he and Sofia also managed to wangle walk-on roles in The Phantom Menace – starting off an annoying trend that continues to this day.

These days he writes scripts – not least the screenplay for the 2012 Wes Andersen film Moonrise Kingdom – for which he gets paid in dog food, or at least that’s one way of describing the speaking-part cameos he’s performed in the stop-motion animated films Fantastic Mr Fox and, more recently, Isle of Dogs (82 on Metacritic; released on May 31).

Set in Japan, the film has (like this year’s Eurovision winner) been accused of cultural appropriation by critics who think way too deeply about cartoons. Then again, the familiar ‘white saviour’ cinematic trope is as strong here as it is with Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai, Peter O’Toole in Lawrence of Arabia, and … errr … John Candy in Cool Runnings.

Chemistry issues FRANKLY, it’s a stronger fortnight for TV than films, although nothing is unmissable – unless you’re talking about Amy Schumer’s arse in I Feel Pretty (47; May 31). Rewind!

That was a deliberately crass comment as we have entered character to critique the butt (sorry) of the film’s central premise: namely that this is a soulless, shallow, superficial world in which inner-beauty should know no bounds (unless those bounds are the waist measurements of a pair of skinny jeans). Schumer certainly has her moments, but this is not one of them.

Jurassic World 2: Fallen Kingdom (Not Released Worldwide; June 7) will equally thrive or die based on the performance of its stars – no, not the so-1990s CGI dinosaurs, Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, whose

Dogs, a whole island of them ... we’re salivating like somebody’s holding up an enormous sausage

onscreen chemistry won over reptile-weary fans in the original, sorry reboot of this franchise.

The sparks in Breathe (51; May 31) – between Andrew Garfield as a polio sufferer who invents a breathing apparatus so he can enjoy his final hours sitting up, and Claire Foy (The Queen) in a Mrs Stephen Hawking kind of role – are sorely lacking.

Alex Strangelove (70; June 8 on Netflix), a teenage ‘two menage à trois’, meanwhile, has them in abundance.

Finally a Murdoch series RETURNING to the dynasty theme, this coming fortnight’s most anticipated small screen debut is Succession (June 4 on HBO Nordic), a series about a media mogul (Brian Cox) passing on the reins of power to his children, which looks set to prove that the talents of its British creator Jesse Armstrong stretch far beyond comedy. An

early draft was entitled ‘Murdoch’.

Armstrong, who has been honing Succession for almost a decade, is best known for cocreating and writing Peep Show and his work on The Thick of It, although he has already flexed his dramatic muscles with the Black Mirror episode many consider its finest: ‘The Entire History of You’.

But Armstrong has a long way to go before he can emulate Ryan Murphy, the creator of Glee and most of the successful anthology shows doing the rounds (American Horror Story, American Crime Story, Feud).

Nevertheless, the jury is out on Pose (June 4 on HBO Nordic), a LGBT drama set in the New York fashion scene in the late 1980s, as many are taking issue with its overall look, which more resembles current fashion trends inspired by the decade than the period itself.

Angel amongst the dross ELSEWHERE in TV land, popular series Arrested Development (May 29 on Netflix) and The Affair (June 18 on HBO Nordic) return for seasons 5 and 4 respectively; November 13: Attack in Paris (June 1 on Netflix) speaks for itself; Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger (June 8 on HBO Nordic) looks like it has been shot in the dark; and Impulse (June 6 on YouTube) closely resembles Jumper – a film whose premise began to tire after 15 minutes, so how will this fare over multiple hours?

If there is one series to look out for it’s Strange Angel (US release on June 14), an intriguing dramatisation by Mark Heyman (Black Swan) of the relatively short life of the rocketeer Jack Parsons who became a disciple of the occultist Aleister Crowley on his way to reaching for the stars.

Reaching for the stars, or as Roman Coppola likes to put it: taking Daddy by the hand.

GOOD MANNERS FILM OF THE MONTH JUNE 7th-17th experience the warm-blooded Brazilian adventure-horror movie ‘Good Manners’, full of surprising spookiness and strong social themes.

We present some 50 films with English dialogue or subtitles every month.

See what’s on at cinemateket.dk or visit us in Gothersgade 55

WELCOME HOME

Since 2004, we’ve worked to cherish that special feeling of ‘home’. Without boasting too much, we can say we’ve succeeded rather well. Today, we are Denmark’s largest housing agency. We rent everything from the small, one-room flats in town to the 500 sq metre villa on the coast. Furnished or unfurnished. On a monthly or yearly basis. We know for sure that a new existence away from familiar surroundings requires tranquillity on the home front. That applies whether you are the landlord, who is moving on – or the tenant who just wants to settle in comfortably.

It’s all about making you feel right when you step inside the door.

Welcome Home to Denmark’s largest housing agency housingdenmark.com

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