Kulturnatten 2004

Dorthe on the floor of Folketingssalens debating chamber.

Friday night was Kulturnatten 2004 here in Copenhagen. Yes, that's right, Kult-tur, with a capital K.

Kulturnatten is an annual event in Copenhagen where all of the local museums, libraries, cafes, and just about anything else you can think of, open up and hold cultural events of different forms. You pay your DKK 70 and then you get free entrance to all of the events. And talk about events to choose from - somewhere close to 200 different things going on simultaneously - of course you can't go to them all, but with there being so much on, there's a little bit of something for everyone.

First up Dorthe and I went to visit the Masons ("Oh, I do so desperately want to be a mason. Can you get me in?" Kudos to anyone who can name the origin of that quote). Just on the other side of the park from where we live is the local lodge for the Copenhagen Freemasons. Like most lodges seem to be, this is a behemoth of a building, that looks very suspicious and makes you wonder what goes on inside. Well, they had opened their doors to the public for the first time in 120 years for Kulturnatten, and so Dorthe and I went along to have a look. I had no idea what to expect really - it was quite a nice, if somewhat empty, building, and they went to efforts to show you various parts of the building and all the various different uniforms for the different levels, and famous masons in the past etc etc. But Dorthe and I spent all our time trying to figure exactly what it was all about, relating the stories that we knew about them, and trying to figure out exactly what the mason thing was all about. After about an hour of getting lots of answers that made sense on the small scale, but not the larger scale, we tucked into the free juice and biscuits (tak frimasons!), politely declined joining up, and then beat a hasty retreat. We are still none the wiser what its all about, but we do now know that their building is utterly cavernous, has 350 rooms, and there are a lot of old men in the Freemasons. If anyone wants to fill us in on the rest, please do so.

Next up was a thing that I wanted to go to in an old church, but on the way we passed the Neils Bohr Insitute - they had a comedy night. Physicists and comedy? All I could envisage was this:

Two atoms walk into a bar. One atom suddently says "Oh no, I think I've lost an electron!" The second atom says "Are you sure?". "Yes", the first one replies, "I'm positive!"

Wocka, wocka, wocka!. But they did have quite a cool thing outside though - a guy in a lab coat with a bottle of hydrogen gas bubbling through a bowl with a lot of soap in it - the bubbles and foam formed were lighter than air, and so floated up, up, and away. And then if you put a burning torch to them... Whoompah!! Very cool.

Anyway, the church was an old church that had had all the pews taken out, and a couple of DJs playing nordic electronica and minimal chill, with images of the solar system projected on the roof and arches inside the church. Everyone was just lying on the floor looking at the ceiling, and it was just exceedingly relaxed. Very nice. Then it was on to an exhibition of Fæore islands paintings, which wasn't quite what we expected, but we still managed to take advantage of the free wine ;-) Then we went for a walk down through Strøget, the pedestrian heart of town, to the newly refurbished Christiansborg Slotskirke, the church associated with Christiansborg Slot - an old castle that is now the parliament. Very nice church. Then as we were right next to the parliament, we went in there for a tour around, and were able to actually get down onto the actual floor of the debating chamber (see above photo), which is actually quite a rare thing, even on tours. Then finally we went out the back of Christiansborg slot to see the royal stables, where they keep the Queen's official horses, and all the carriages and buggies that they have to go with them. Then, finally, it was a walk back home, powered along the way by Danish rød pølser (danish sausages, world renouned for the red colour their obtain from the use of a carcinogenic dye (nice! Actually, they weren't half bad)) because my bike has a flat tyre.

The nicest thing about the night I would have to say was just how many people there were out (every man and his dog) and how much stuff there was going on - going between one place and the next you would encounter about five other things that would distract you away from your original goal. The atmosphere in town was really festive, and it just for a pleasant night out. I'll be lining up again next year.

København. Pure Klaaaaaaaaaaaaas!