Guide: Culture in Copenhagen at student prices

A student income will seldom let you go on city trips abroad or to fine restaurants. But if you want to live a life of culture, there is a wide range of experiences in the city of Copenhagen that, with your Student ID card, can be had for just a few kroner.

Members prices and swing at the Studenterhuset café

In Købmagergade 52, just off the round tower, is the student bar and café, the Studenterhuset. Here there is peace and quiet for reading and a café atmosphere during daytime, and festivities and live music in the evening. Behind the bar are volunteers, typically exchange students, and they serve everything from latte and blueberry muffins to Paris toasts and specialist beers.

All students at the University of Copenhagen get serious discounts on presentation of a student ID card.

As a student at the University of Copenhagen, you are automatically a member of the Studenterhuset and get a good set of real discounts by showing your student ID card. A beer, for example, costs DKK 27 for members and DKK 37 for other guests. The Studenterhuset also hosts plenty of interesting events. Every Tuesday evening, for example, you can put on your dancing shoes and learn the basic steps of swing. It’s free.

See the film classics at the Cinemateket

The Cinemateket is on Gothersgade street and is part of the Danish Film Institute. Here you can both see new films and old classics. A ticket normally costs DKK 80, but if you show your student ID, you get a DKK 10 discount.

If you are really into films, you can become a member of the Cinemateket and get up to 40 per cent discount on normal screenings, bring someone with you at membership price, and much more. The membership fee for students is DKK 195, while others pay up to DKK 275. Read more about Cinemateket, and see the programme for 2019 here.

Have your coffee at Zaggis

There is a hidden gem on Frederiksborggade 43. At Café Zaggis, the barista coffee is not just good, it is cheap, and it includes the milk froth. And it’s not just students who can benefit from the student-friendly prices. Everything costs DKK 15, full stop. Both delicious cakes, paninis and various hot and cold drinks you can take with you on your walk around the beautiful lakes of Copenhagen. The bridge Dronning Louises Bro is just a stone’s throw from the café, and half of the city’s young people hang out here during summer, so there is always something exciting to look at.

See DR’s choir and orchestras in the concert hall

In the Koncerthuset hall, you get a discount on most concerts with the Danish National Concert Choir and Danish National Symphony Orchestra, if you are under 30. If you are a student and past 30, your student ID will not help you, unfortunately, even if you, like your young fellow students, live on a student grant (discrimination, DR?).

With the discount scheme U30, young people under 30, can for example, get in and see the legendary guitarist John Scofield performing with the DR Big Band on 26th October for half of the ticket price. You can’t afford to stay at home.

Get the cheapest exercise in the swimming pool

Quit the fitness centres – for DKK 455 (!) you can, as a student, get an annual card for all (!) public swimming pools in the City of Copenhagen. An annual card for non-students usually costs twice the amount. This means that you can swim every day of the week for a whole year in the swimming pool closest to you.

For DKK 455 (!) you can, as a student, get an annual card for all (!) swimming pools in the City of Copenhagen.

If you are studying at South Campus, you might go for a swim in the Frankrigsgade street swimming pool before the lecture. And when you go home, let us say you live in Vesterbro, in the afternoon you can swing past Vesterbro swimming baths.

The only thing you need to be aware of is that you can only swim in what is called ‘green time’, i.e. from the swimming bath’s opening hours and until 3 pm.

Copenhagen Contemporary: International contemporary art

In an old welding factory building in the Refshaleøen district is the Copenhagen Contemporary (CC) or what is considered the »Copenhagen International Art Centre«, as described on the exhibition’s website. As one of Scandinavia’s largest exhibition venues for contemporary art, Copenhagen Contemporary has since 2016 exhibited artists like Yoko Ono, Bruce Nauman and Ragnar Kjartansson.

In mid-August, the art centre’s first floor opens, which offers two site-specific exhibitions: ‘Art is Life’ by the Swedish artist Jacob Dahlgren and ‘Eyescape’ by Christian Lemmerz and Lars Top-Galia from the band Sort Sol. Right now you can see the exhibition ‘Diversity is Real’ which brings together two notable works by the American film maker and performance artist Wu Tsang.

As a student, you can visit the place and see current exhibitions for an entrance fee of DKK 65, a standard admission fee is DKK 90. Copenhagen Contemporary is at Refshalevej 173A.

Music, comedy and specialist beers at Bartof Café

If you are studying at Frederiksberg Campus, you should drop by Bartof Café on Nordre Fasanvej or its little sister Bartof Station, which is near Frederiksberg Metro. There is a 10 per cent study discount on everything here, which consists of beers from micro-breweries like Herslev and Skands, not forgetting their specialist red strawberry/weissbeer.

Every Tuesday you can get a good laugh at Bartof Café when there is free comedy

The cafés also have small kitchens with simple dishes, and in the evening there is usually live music in different genres. Every Tuesday you can have a good laugh at Bartof Café when there is free comedy Big Danish comedy names like Frank Hvam, Mick Øgendahl and Christian Fuhlendorff often drop by this special café on Tuesdays.

Get the newspaper Information for half price (learn Danish!)

»See the graphics and hear the warnings: This is what a loan with a negative interest rate will cost you,« the newspaper Politiken writes on its website on 5 August. But if you want to know what the loan costs, your curiosity is halted by a big, ugly paywall.

Here is the solution: For DKK 49 a month, you can, as a young person under 30 (it is apparently not only DR that discriminates against students over 30, but all Danish media) break through the wall. Good for keeping yourself informed, and good for learning Danish if it is not your native language. It is a discount of 50 per cent on a subscription to their digital newspaper. The same is offered by the Danish daily newspaper Information (the monthly price is just DKK 105), Zetland (DKK 64.5) and Berlingske (DKK 49.5).

Psst…The University Post’s independent journalism is completely free.