Skagen Festival is Denmark's oldest music festival having been held each summer since 1971. The annual event takes place on a number of stages in Skagen in the far north of Jutland over the first weekend of July.
The first festival in 1971 titled "Skagen Visefestival" (Skagen Song Festival) was held in Tuxen's Villa, the former residence of Laurits Tuxen, one of the Skagen Painters. The participants came mainly from Norway and Denmark. It then moved to the Sports Center where there was more space before being held in the Skagen Kultur- og Fritidscenter. From 1996, the festival was held outdoors with tents pitched on the sand dunes or close to the harbour. It now takes place at various locations in the town and around the harbor. [1] Initially the festival was held over the last weekend in June but since 1989, the first weekend in July has been the preferred date. [2] [3]
The festival's slogan is "It's good to see you!", the title of Allan Taylor's song which Alex Cambell sang at the festival back in the 1970s. [2] Some 650 volunteers get together for a week or so to make the necessary arrangements. Now an international festival, it presents various types of folk music including folk rock, jazz and blues. As well as 26 acts from Denmark, the 2014 program [4] included four Australian acts, one from Belgium, four from England, two from Holland, seven from Ireland, one from Italy, two from Norway, two from Scotland, one from Spain, two from Sweden, one from Germany and one from the USA.
As a result of low ticket sales in 2013, Skagen Sports Center will no longer be included as a festival venue in 2014. [5] However, Skagen Culture and Leisure Centre, Harbour scene and Culture Kappelborg, got an extra day of play - the latter as the small intimate venue. [6]
Frederikshavn is a Danish town in Frederikshavn municipality, Region Nordjylland, on the northeast coast of the Jutland peninsula in northern Denmark. Its name translates to "Frederik's harbor". It was originally named Fladstrand.
Skagen is Denmark's northernmost town, on the east coast of the Skagen Odde peninsula in the far north of Jutland, part of Frederikshavn Municipality in Nordjylland, 41 kilometres (25 mi) north of Frederikshavn and 108 kilometres (67 mi) northeast of Aalborg. The Port of Skagen is Denmark's main fishing port and it also has a thriving tourist industry, attracting 2 million people annually.
Denmark's most famous classical composer is Carl Nielsen, especially remembered for his six symphonies, while the Royal Danish Ballet specializes in the work of Danish choreographer August Bournonville. Danes have distinguished themselves as jazz musicians, and the Copenhagen Jazz Festival has acquired an international reputation. The modern pop and rock scene has produced a few names of note, including MØ, Lukas Graham, D-A-D, Tina Dico, Aqua, The Raveonettes, Michael Learns to Rock, Volbeat, Alphabeat, Safri Duo, Medina, Oh Land, Kashmir, King Diamond, Outlandish, and Mew. Lars Ulrich is the first Danish musician to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Jens Fink-Jensen is a Danish poet, author, photographer, composer and architect.
Martinus Christian Wesseltoft Rørbye was a Danish painter, known both for genre works and landscapes. He was a central figure of the Golden Age of Danish painting during the first half of the 19th century.
Jens Ferdinand Willumsen was a Danish painter, sculptor, graphic artist, architect and photographer. He became associated with the movements of Symbolism and Expressionism.
The Bristol Harbour Festival is a festival held annually in the English city of Bristol, and which the celebrates the city's maritime heritage and the importance of Bristol's docks and harbour. Most of the activities, including live music, street performances, fireworks and a variety of other live entertainments, are held on or near the waterfront of Bristol Harbour. Venues include Queen Square, Lloyds Amphitheatre, Millennium Square and Castle Park, with seagoing vessels moored nearby. The liveliest part of the festival is quayside, but the main attractions are entertainment designed to engage all the communities of Bristol, as well as entertain the thousands of visitors to the city.
Laurits Tuxen was a Danish painter and sculptor specialising in figure painting. He was also associated with the Skagen Painters. He was the first head of Kunstnernes Frie Studieskoler, an art school established in the 1880s to provide an alternative to the education offered by the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.
Norwegian National Association for Traditional Music and Dance(Norsk Folkemusikk- og Danselag) is a nationwide organization that aims to support the folk music and rural dance tradition in Norway.
The Skagen Painters were a group of Scandinavian artists who gathered in the village of Skagen, the northernmost part of Denmark, from the late 1870s until the turn of the century. Skagen was a summer destination whose scenic nature, local milieu and social community attracted northern artists to paint en plein air, emulating the French Impressionists—though members of the Skagen colony were also influenced by Realist movements such as the Barbizon school. They broke away from the rather rigid traditions of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts, espousing the latest trends that they had learned in Paris. Among the group were Anna and Michael Ancher, Peder Severin Krøyer, Holger Drachmann, Karl Madsen, Laurits Tuxen, Marie Krøyer, Carl Locher, Viggo Johansen and Thorvald Niss from Denmark, Oscar Björck and Johan Krouthén from Sweden, and Christian Krohg and Eilif Peterssen from Norway. The group gathered together regularly at the Brøndums Inn.
Hip, Hip, Hurrah! is an oil-on-canvas painting from 1888 by Norwegian-Danish painter Peder Severin Krøyer.
Skagens Museum is an art museum in Skagen, Denmark, which exhibits an extensive collection of works by members of the colony of Skagen Painters who lived and worked in the area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Important artists include Marie and P. S. Krøyer, Anna and Michael Ancher, Laurits Tuxen, Viggo Johansen and Holger Drachmann. The museum also hosts special exhibitions. Its facilities include a café located in the Garden House, an old building which for a while served as home residence and studio of Anna and Michael Ancher.
Højen or Gammel Skagen on the west side of Skagen Odde is an old fishing community which now forms part of the town of Skagen in the far north of Jutland, Denmark.
Gad Frederik Clement, generally known as G. F. Clement, was a Danish painter. After an early encounter with the French Symbolists, he took an interest in the Italian Renaissance period before turning to the more relaxed style of Naturalism in Skagen and Civita d'Antino.
Drachmann's House, also known as Villa Pax, is one of the major houses of Skagen, northern Denmark. Located on Hans Baghs Vej towards the western side of the town, it was built in 1829 and is now a museum. It is a writer's home museum dedicated to the writer and marine painter Holger Drachmann who lived in the house from 1902 until his death in a sanatorium in Hornbæk in January 1908. Drachmann had regularly visited Skagen from 1871.
The Port of Skagen, also Skagen Harbour, is located in Skagen, northern Denmark. The country's leading fishing port consists of an industrial harbour that supports the area's fishing industry as well as facilities for cruise ships. It also has a shipyard and fish-processing facilities. The harbour's marina is open to visitors during the summer months.
Skagen's White Lighthouse is a historic lighthouse just north of the town of Skagen in the far north of Jutland, Denmark. It was operational from 1747 to 1858 when it was replaced by Skagen Lighthouse.
Midsummer Eve Bonfire on Skagen Beach is a 1906 painting by P.S. Krøyer. The large work, which took several years to complete, shows many of the artists in the group known as the Skagen Painters as well as influential members of Skagen's local community.
The North Sea in Stormy Weather. After Sunset. Højen is a 1909 painting by Laurits Tuxen. Although his paintings of Skagen date from the beginning of the 20th century, Tuxen is now considered to be one of artists known as the Skagen Painters who gathered in very north of Denmark in the 1870s and 1880s.
Summer Evening on Skagen's Southern Beach is a painting by Peder Severin Krøyer (1851–1909), from 1893, and is counted as one of his masterpieces. Krøyer was one of the most notable members of the Danish artistic community known as the Skagen Painters. The works of Krøyer often emphasise the special effects of the Skagen light, with several memorable works depicting beach scenes.