15,000 students and staff defied the chilly spring weather on Friday 23 May for this year\u2019s KU Festival, the festival for University of Copenhagen (UCPH) students and staff.<\/p>\n
With the help of 300 staff and student volunteers, the Universitetsparken<\/em> \u2014 normally home to the Faculty of Science \u2014 was transformed into a festive meeting place across all faculties.<\/p>\n And while 9,000 litres of cold draught beer were poured out in vast quantities, and the aromas from food stalls whetted the appetite, the festival\u2019s tents offered entertainment for every taste, from cider tastings, to talks, to a karaoke party.<\/p>\n This year, several members of university management took part in performances \u2014 the prorector for education acted as host, deans debated, and the university director took to the stage as a casual jazz pianist. Exactly 150 years ago, the University of Copenhagen admitted its first female students into its previously male-dominated lecture halls. This is being celebrated by UCPH this year \u2014 and it was the theme of this year\u2019s festival.<\/p>\n All tents and stages were named after the university’s most prominent women: They included seismologist Inge Lehmann who discovered that the Earth had a solid core, Nielsine Nielsen, the first female student and Danish female doctor, and Astrid Friis, Denmark’s first female professor who did research on the interplay between politics and economics. And inclusive talks focused on topics like desire and equality.<\/p>\n \u00bbI think it was great that we could incorporate this story into the festival,\u00ab says Jacob \u00d8rum, director of the Studenterhuset caf\u00e9 and co-organizer, and continues:<\/p>\n \u00bbAnd I hope it sparked some curiosity, even if you might wonder how much you reflect on the fact that you\u2019re standing in front of the ‘Lehmann’ stage at one o\u2019clock in the morning,\u00ab he says. It was time for a rain dance when the Danish pop star Medina took the stage at 6 PM and brought the house down.<\/p>\n \u00bbWe\u2019ve never had as many people in front of the stage as we did for Medina. And they were dancing in the rain all the way to the middle of the square,\u00ab says Jacob \u00d8rum, adding that the bar near the stage had its lowest sales ever \u2014 simply because no one could get to it through the dancing crowd.<\/p>\n And if you found yourself in the midst of the roaring fans, there was no doubt: every current UCPH student has grown up to the sound of Medina\u2019s music.<\/p>\n \u00bbThere aren\u2019t many names that can bring people together like she can. So that was a booking we were really pleased with,\u00ab says Jacob \u00d8rum. The festival has cost UCPH around DKK 2 million, excluding income from drinks and sponsorships. But it is worth every penny, says Jacob \u00d8rum:<\/p>\n \u00bbWhen we organised the first festival in 2014, it was the first time in over 100 years that everyone at UCPH was invited to the same event. And this is by far the cheapest way to invite the entire university,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n On a daily basis, students and staff hardly notice how diverse UCPH actually is \u2014 or that its population is comparable to a small Danish town:<\/p>\n \u00bbThe festival brings together everyone from the humanities to the natural sciences, from South Campus to Frederiksberg, and from first-year students to emeritus professors across the board,\u00ab says Jacob \u00d8rum, pointing out that the festival fosters both new communities, research projects, and interdisciplinary romances. UCPH has an ongoing focus on making the festival more sustainable. Last year, beef was completely removed from the menu, and since then the proportion of meat in the food stalls has been further reduced.<\/p>\n \u00bbWe haven\u2019t quite managed to find a replacement for the roast pork sandwich. But otherwise, there\u2019s only fish or vegetarian food on the menu,\u00ab says Jacob \u00d8rum, who also mentions that one of the planned fish stalls never made it to the festival.<\/p>\n The soft disposable plastic cups were also carefully selected in favour of the hard, reusable ones. These turn out to be more sustainable \u2014 as long as they are collected for recycling, which the organisers ensure. In addition, all electricity now comes from UCPH itself instead of the diesel generators used in previous years, according to Jacob \u00d8rum.<\/p>\n Cleared of rubbish, and rain-soaked-but-happy festivalgoers, North Campus looked like its old self again when students showed up for exam prep on the morning of Monday 26 May.<\/p>\n And if you\u2019re already looking forward to next year, be sure to mark your calendar for Friday 8 May 2026, when the lawn will once again be prepped for the twelfth edition of fun and festivities. Despite pouring rain, 15,000 turned up for this year\u2019s UCPH Festival to celebrate the arrival of women at the university \u2014 and to see one woman in particular on stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":177346,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-177413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","expression-news_article"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\n<\/p>\nWelcome to the women<\/h3>\n
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\nAlthough this year\u2019s music line-up was scaled back in favour of more debates to sharpen the focus on the festival\u2019s theme, Jacob \u00d8rum explains, it didn\u2019t stop the musical headline act from drawing the biggest crowd in the festival\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\nYou can\u2019t put a price on community<\/h3>\n
\n<\/p>\nVegetarian roast pork sandwich in the works<\/h3>\n
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"