COPENHAGEN, Denmark (CN) — People walking around Copenhagen this week are at high risk of hearing a real banger.
For five days, selected streets in the capital city are hosting Denmark’s biggest street party, known as Distortion. The festival is back after a three-year slumber because of Covid-19 lockdowns.
What started as a one-day festival with 400 participants in 1998 transformed into an event with 150.000 daily guests in 2016, with attendance numbers most likely not dropping before the pandemic hit.
While Distortion attracts many joyful participants, local Copenhagen critics highlight the event's size as a major problem. It requires crucial traffic hotspots to be closed for days and the music keeps blasting for hours through tiny streets in the capital.
For more than a decade young participants also dominated the party, making it tough for other potential audiences to join the fun. The aftermath, with trash lying on the street around urine-soaked doors and gates, has received the most criticism from those not keen on the public street party, with opponents even nicknaming the event “Pisstortion.”
After two canceled festivals in 2020 and 2021, Distortion was able to finally invite everyone back for the 2022 party, which started on Wednesday and runs through Sunday.
But this year has a different format, after organizers listened to concerns from critics and the municipality of Copenhagen.
“We want to lower the street party’s growth because people should not use brokvarterne [The Bridge Quarters] as festival spots. Distortion is a city party, not a youth party,” Thomas Fleurquin, the festival's director, told Danish media. The Bridge Quarters includes the Copenhagen neighborhoods of Vesterbro, Nørrebro and Østerbro.
For the first time, Distortion is dividing up the festival into sections. There's an area for dogs, children's parties and a spot with long dinner tables, among others.
And for young people? They can continue to party hard. That is only allowed in certain areas, where you must pay for entrance. But those who do will get to enjoy some big names on stage.
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