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Party guide — It is a proud tradition to celebrate the week’s academic achievements by burning off brain cells. Read all about the University of Copenhagen campuses’ best bars and clubs here.
This article was first published 17 September 2018. It has been updated 30 July 2021.
After a week of hard study there is nothing better than to snuggle under a warm blanket and watch an episode of Barnaby while you consider how you will become more determined and more oriented towards your own academic future.
Or maybe there is. You could visit one of the many University of Copenhagen Friday bars and leave your brain in the cloakroom. But which Friday bar? Where is it nice to chill with friends? And which of them maxes out with the strobe lights?
Frederiksberg Campus, Dyrlægevej 7
A-vej (or Acaciavej) on Frederiksberg Campus has been named the best at the University of Copenhagen several times, both by the regular customers, the happy guests and the party reviewers. Why? Maybe it is the nice rooms in the former agricultural university buildings, where the walls are adorned by Storm P’s murals.
Maybe it’s the cheap quality-beers that are vended to such an extent that the A-vej is one of Carlsberg’s largest customers, and has for this reason had its own beer glass made by the brewing giant. Or maybe it’s because the regulars, which include veterinary medicine, biotechnology as well as food and nutrition people, are so laid back.
»Low-key, nice and accommodating,« our party reviewer called them the last time we visited – rounding off with »A-vej was a real hit with me. It is worth far more visits.«
Nødebovej 77A, 3480 Fredensborg
Are you up for a trip? The Danish Forest & Landscape College in Nødebo is only a modest 40 km bike ride from the other bars at the University of Copenhagen – it’s the university’s coolest bar location. Because, let’s face it: You can have as many carefully decorated, specially themed, bars on South Campus and Center for Health and Society as you want, but it will never be like a genuine log cabin in the woods.
Nørre Campus, Universitetsparken 15, Bygning 4
The Caféen? is a legendary café association on North Campus, that is older than several of the Friday bar’s guests.
Adventurous guests can choose between changing specialty beers, an impressive selection of shots or the good old limfjordsporter. The clientele is a mix of fun-loving students of science, and parties every Friday until 03:00.
Caféen? is behind some great parties at the North Campus. Fx, last year the Caféen? had an Oktoberparty where you could wear the best pair of lederhosen that you own, and dance to the songs of Hansi Hinterseer. In the late night two good friends of the bar came rolling in with their hot-dog stand and fed all of the hungry and drunk students.
North Campus, the University Park 2, building 10 (lokale Autoklaven)
The pharmacy students love their popular Friday bar. Since the last update of the University Post guide to Friday bars, freBAR has moved to attractive new premises with brand new fixtures in what was previously called ‘the old canteen’ in the basement of building 10.
As always, the first Friday bar of the year is dedicated to the new students at the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Here freBAR offers a party with a live band – and the (ir)responsible people behind the bar assure thirsty students that every Friday bar in the coming academic year will be a bash.
On their home page you can keep yourself updated on which associations organise the various Friday bars throughout the year.
North Campus, Københavns Biocenter, Ole Maaløes Vej 5
mBar is run by volunteers from Biochemistry and Molecular Biomedicine. But it is open to anyone who wants to drop by North Campus. mBar is known for a packed floor, beer pong and cheap drinks. It is one of the few Friday bars at the University, which also organises a LAN party (perhaps the only one?), but that does not mean, that there is no partying going on. Especially mBAR’s October Fest is a crowd-puller.
North Campus, Panum-Instituttet, Blegdamsvej 3b, Building 9
Students of medicine at Panum, the Faculty of Health and Medicine buildings, can be justly proud of their Friday Bar which has the reputation of being one of the University’s best – and with the longest opening hours. Whether the students at Panum have access to special caffeine pills we will leave unsaid, but the fact remains that the Friday bars at Studenterklubben run from 11.00 (in the morning) to 23.45 (at night). Disco lighting, concerts and crowded dance floors are a fixture, and if you for some reason don’t think that 12-hour bars sound wild enough, don’t despair . Studenterklubben at Panum is in fact notorious for its intense 69-hour parties where DJs , live bands , stand-up comedians and themed bars party for 69 hours straight.
The advice given by connoisseurs is that the queue at the parties may be hours long – so come early if you want to party.
Gossip: Panum’s Friday Bar once housed the ‘shaft’ or Skakten – a concrete shaft behind the Friday Bar room which you only had access to if you were topless or bottomless. According to the Studenterklubben the ’shaft’ has been closed.
South Campus, building 24 (Room 24.0.57)
At the beginning of 2018, the Kæ’féen changed its name to Ambarssaden to revitalise the Friday bar and to indicate that the student bar is the link between language nerds at the Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies. There are ample opportunities to practice on foreign tongues with students and in German and Portuguese when Ambarssaden turns into a sizzling Friday bar.
The drinks card is varied and inexpensive, and the cold draught beer is served from Ambarssadens own draught beer system, known under the name of ‘Mother’. You can get one for DKK 15 and one for each hand for DKK 25. If you are more into bubbly applewater you can get a cold somersby cider for DKK 20.
South Campus, KUA2, Building 10
The Friday bar at ToRS (Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies) was totally devastated by the construction of the KUA 3 complex. But BARstionen reopened on the old premises 1 February, 2016 with a couple of selling points: Rooftop and cheap beer. What’s not to like?
Apparently BARstionen loves fridays, indie rock and cold King pilsners. The last you can get for just DKK 6.
South Campus, KUA2, Bygning 12
Saxo – Institute students (of Prehistoric Archaeology, Classical Archaeology, Ethnology, Greek & Latin and History) are fortunate to have the largest Friday bar at the South Campus, where the volume discount on shots may be the cheapest in the entire Faculty of Humanities complex (10 shots for DKK 60). The large rooms are creatively decorated with gold-framed paintings of historical figures – this is after all the student bar for history and archaeology buffs.
Helga is having friday bar every single friday in the semester, and the party committee HAD (HAD spells ‘Helga After Dark’) usually throws the greatest parties, so if you need to frolic or hustle, this is simply the place to be!
South Campus, KUA2, Building 14
At the brand new Department of Communication, the result of a merger between the Department of Information Studies and Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, the students hang out at the student café Olympen, which every Friday is transformed into the bar Kompasset.
Olympen replaced the Department of information’s previous bat Hjorten in KUA 3, but has been extended, so more students from rhetoric, education studies, philosophy, media and information studies can swill their beer next to each other.
Everyone is welcome!
City Campus, Jurahuset, Studiestræde 34
Every other week the Juridisk Diskussionsklub organises a Friday bar in the new home of the Faculty of Law on South Campus. In the old days (read: before 2017) Jurabar only had the space for a few hundred customers in their inner city-dive, but after the move there is finally room for the masses at the largest study programme at the University of Copenhagen.
Jurabar offers its thirsty customers the student classic Grøn Tuborg, but party people with a taste for Somersby, Garage or Bacardi Breezer are alo well taken care of. And as something new, a real bar has been installed in the room behind the canteen.
Rumour has it that the Jurabar is the most well-dressed Friday bar at the University of Copenhagen, so iron your shirt or polish your shoes, if you want to look like the rest of the clientele.
South Campus, Building 22 (Room 22.0.62)
The language acrobats at the Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics only do a Friday bar once a month in the Nordisk Kaffebar on South Campus – so remember to do some research on the coffee bar’s Facebook page before you pull in your study mates. In contrast to many other Friday bars at the University of Copenhagen, Nordisk Kaffebar hold back on the themed evenings – so it is the place for you if you cannot bear to jump into those old carnival costumes, but would rather just guzzle cheap beer in pleasant surroundings.
South Campus, KUA1, Building 21
It has been said about Roland, that you find the bar at the place where the band Aqua and the philosopher Foucault melt together, and where the singer Medina and Adorno coexist on a plane that ensures that the day never dawns.
In addition – to support the arts – Roland Live! is held twice a semester – a successful event with an open stage, where anyone can perform whatever they feel a passion for, whether it is poetry slam, stand-up comedy, or interpretive dance battles.
Again this year, the Friday bars take place without the bar’s talisman, the Golden Banjo which disappeared this year when a tornado of Friday bar sports science students blew through Roland Bar. If you have a tip about where the banjo can be, please write to rolandbar@live.dk.
South Campus
»There are no easy answers to the big questions – and it is not easy to ask them,« Theology writes on the website of the University of Copenhagen. It is certainly not hard to agree, but it may be a little easier to ask the big questions after a few beers. As the Faculty of Theology moved to what they call ‘Sinner Campus’, the much-loved Teobar followed them, and they have managed to
City Campus, Østre Voldgade 10
Geobar is, as the name suggests, the Friday bar for the geography and geology students. The students behind the bar always have a great party, and this positive sentiment usually spreads to a densely packed dance floor. When one of the University Post reporters in 2016 tried to fight their way through 12 Friday bars in an evening, it was Geobar that finally put an end to his evening.
Geobar is held every other Friday, and they only accept cold cash. Each Friday bar has its own theme, e.g., beer tasting bar, bingo with sponsored gifts, après-ski, etc.. The theme is often tied to a craft beer/alcohol specially imported for the occasion.
City Campus, CSS, Building 12
The Kommunen is a meeting place for students of the Social Sciences, and things get out of hand when the smart finance boys and speculating psychology girls meet up in beautiful symbiosis on the dance floor. DJs from the Copenhagen nightlife are often on the line-up and the good Fridays have the dance floor packed to the brim. The Kommunen has table football, shots and cheap beer – and there are many dark corners with shabby sofas, making for perfect kissing corners as the night moves towards an end. Connoisseurs can kick start their weekend, when the so-called municipal beer service (KØS) every Friday afternoon serves specialty beer from microbreweries.
City Campus, CSS, Room 8.01.18
The infamous Friday bar political science is in a low ceiling basement under building 8. Jacques D is named after the former French EU Commission President Jacques Delors, and he decorates the door to the room, where there are two magical refrigerators filled with cold refreshments.
Jacques D is the centre of all social activity at the department. He is a supporter of magnificent quotes, crowdsurfing doors, the drink Ice & Porter – and other insider subtleties that you have to experience to fully understand. There has been a historical rift between political science and the economists, so remember to behave properly if you visit the place as a non-political scientist.
On Fridays, the the board that runs Jacques D serves cold draught beer at a low price in the courtyard of the CSS campus.
City Campus, CSS, Building 16
The sociologists and anthropologists have been able to get a hold of the best rooms at on city campus CSS: the Katedralen (‘Cathedral’) in building 16, offers coffee, lunch, and lessons, and, not least, some of the best parties in the inner city.
And then we’re not even finished with the cool academic puns on favourite theorists and concepts. Two legendary party committees called the Baumen (fans of sociologist Zygmunt Baumann) and ‘DALF – the anthropological liminal phase’ run the Friday bars, which typically take place twice a month. The baumen are well-known for serving large, strong, and incredibly inexpensive White Russians to their cream parties, animal shops and greenhouse parties.
And so this brings our review of the University of Copenhagen watering holes to a close.
Skål!