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The rock scene

The Danes still talk about the time when Bruce Springsteen was so inspired by the laid-back atmosphere of Copenhagen that he played a couple of songs with a street guitarist on the City’s main pedestrian street. Denmark’s rock and pop scene is, like the country as a whole, distinctive for its incredibly open and diversified approach.

The season really gets going in summer when the festivals are on throughout the country. The most legendary is Roskilde Festival, which is one of the largest in the world, but the festivals in Central Funen, Langeland and Skanderborg are also firmly on the European rock-festival map, while the festivals in Skagen and Tønder showcase mainly folk music. The Danish festival scene attracts the biggest names but still leaves room for tomorrow’s rising stars.
A guide is also available to all the venues and concert halls where there are programmes all year round. Parken, Valbyhallen, Pumpehuset and Vega are some of the best known in Copenhagen, in Århus Train and VoxHall are popular rock venues, while Esbjerg has Tobaksfabrikken, Herning has Fermaten and all the other Danish cities and major towns have venues for rock and pop.
The Danish music scene is thriving and attracts musicians from many countries. Denmark showcases the major international stars, but has also added to the list of greats with homegrown acts. The biggest success stories in Danish music to date include Safri Duo and their meteoric rise to international fame, but, even before them, bands such as Michael Learns to Rock, Me & My and AQUA were making it big internationally. At the moment look out for the succesful bands of Kashmir, Mew, Carpark North and Outlandish.

New names

A delve into the Danish world of rock and pop will also turn up bands who may not be famous outside Denmark, but surely deserve to be so, and who pull in the Danish crowds at venues around the country, especially at the atmospheric open air Green Concerts staged throughout the summer.