Travelling to a new destination to be part of an event is a great way to find some travel inspiration for your wish list. Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, is a great city to visit at any time of year, but if you get the chance to time your visit with their annual music festival then it’s definitely something you should be adding to your calendar.

Distortion

Taking place each summer, Copenhagen’s annual music festival is called Distortion. In 2018 it will be taking place from Wednesday 30 May until Sunday 3 June. The 2018 festival will be the 20th anniversary of the event.

The Distortion festival is a really big deal – with an estimated 100,000 people attending the festival each day.

Location

What makes Distortion something really special is that it is the ultimate street party. It kicks off on opening day with street parties in the Nørrebro and Vesterbro neighborhoods of Copenhagen. These are some of the coolest residential neighborhoods in the city, usually busy with people enjoying the great cafes and restaurants – you’ll often see Copenhagen food tours passing through.

For the Distortion festival, whole city blocks are totally shut down as the music is cranked up and everyone is out in the streets dancing. Distortion is often described as a party tsunami, because it effectively rolls from one neighborhood of the city to another, finally finishing up with a massive party on an industrial island in the harbor of Copenhagen.

History

The history of the Distortion festival dates back to 1998, when a one-off party was held in a nightclub in Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens. By the year 2000 that had evolved into a five-day festival. This model was fairly successful, and during the early years Distortion was almost a guerrilla music festival – small and chaotic, not really legal, crawling through the underground art and music scene of the city. By 2007 the parties had become too big for the guerrilla festival approach, and so things got professional, with the Copenhagen City Council and the Copenhagen police both getting involved to help ensure the safety of the festival and to help it to continue to grow. Today, Distortion is one of the largest annual gatherings in Europe.

Logistics and Tickets

While a lot of the street party action is free of charge, to get the most of your Distortion festival experience you will need to buy a ticket. There’s a range of different ticket options available – from a pass that gets you into all parties, to specific day or club event. The good news is that the ticket options are not that expensive – when you compare it to other music festivals around the world, Distortion remains a fairly affordable option.

Another way of keeping your costs down for your visit to Distortion is to try camping. The festival includes a special camping option, located at Refshaleøen – close to the venue for the closing parties and well-serviced by public transport options.

A trip to Distortion is the perfect way to experience Copenhagen and the perfect summer music festival.