What a nice day for a Spring Festival. Well, actually, kinda not since the weather was gray but there was nothing to worry about, the vibes were prime. Since I got to Copenhagen I have been trying to be involved in the goal to get to meet new interesting people....and I have. For some months now I have been volunteering at Studenterhuset. It´s this cafe/bar (everything in Copenhagen is a cafe/bar) located in the center by Rundetårn and is the meeting point for students from across all of University of Copenhagen. Students stop to grab a fresh coffee and croissant on their way to classes, or gather to study in the study halls. It´s cheap, it´s cozy, and it´s cool. The café is always lively, with a constant flow of students from nearby UCPH campuses. In the evening the café transforms into a bar, with live music, and sometimes dancing. It is really quite the atmosphere and I like working at the bar because it´s so relaxed, and chill. I can stop by in between classes to get a cup of coffee and finish that paper I have been procrastinating on as easily as I can stop by at night for happy hour and get a beer. While the bar is nothing special since there are in fact many awesome bars and hangouts I found around Copenhagen, it is the only place I can tolerate in the centre of the city. Usually the center is filled and filled with people during the weekends. Young, old, tourist, and local revelers roam the streets all night long. Sometimes I don´t fit too well with the drunken frat-type crowd so I flee to the less posh Norrebro or venture to the next-coolest-thing, the Meat Packing District. Regardless, Stundenterhuset has served as my safe haven and base. Here is the unrelated tip of the day: Volunteer at Stundenterhuset. For one you will be introduced to a nice network of other international students who might just coincidentally never been to X, have never tried Y or are still trying to get used to Z. But most importantly, it means free coffee or tea and discounted things. If you don´t believe in the power of free coffee in a city with no cheap anything then you are so hugely mistaken that I´m just going to end the sentence here. I would get these tickets for working and suddenly I didn´t have to waste a single kroner when I was in the city. Now that´s a party! Look at some of the pics I stole from friends who also work there.
When it turned out that Studenterhuset was heading the volunteering for University of Copenhagen´s Spring Festival me and my friends did not hesitate for one second to sign up. And I´m glad I did because I had a really really good time!
I was assigned for one of the bars under the more intimate tent which ended up being perfect. At some point a really funky jazz group started playing on the stage and it had me grooving to the moving. Everyone was ordering drinks, everyone was pretty happy, and I kept busy. After my shift, I met up with the rest of my friends who are also volunteers and we got a chance to hang around and enjoy the festival. Most of the music performances were big Danish musicians. I found it really cute when we were watching the main rappers and all the Danes were rapping along to words I have never heard off. They seemed pumped. I am specifically talking about Østkyst Hustlers who are this old Danish rap band famous for making the world´s longest rap song. Woah. They seemed like they were having the time of their life singing this song which was funky, cool, and lively. Catch some of it, or all of it if you´ve got an hour+, it´s called Verdens Længste Rap. I asked my really good Danish friend what it was about and said that it was pretty much this long funny rambling. I wish I spoke Danish, but I jammed nonetheless. After that, a couple of beers later, some fun dancing at the other tent, and friendly laughs we saw Sorte Skole which had sampling music from all across the world and genres as diverse as folk, psych rock, early electronic music, reggae, classical and all kinds of field recordings that took me on a truly unique journey through musical history and beyond. The sound is original, massive and highly enchanting. It´s experimental, its turntabled, it´s folk, it´s electronic. It´s everything. Me and my friend were in the front dancing with the rest of the crowd. At some point we were mindlessly being swayed back and forth forcefully in a sea of happiness. Everyone was jumping, dancing, and mosh pitting. It was good energy. At some point I must´ve lost my scarf but I wasnt even mad about it. It was worth it.
At end I left feeling really good and really happy to be a part of something!
I was assigned for one of the bars under the more intimate tent which ended up being perfect. At some point a really funky jazz group started playing on the stage and it had me grooving to the moving. Everyone was ordering drinks, everyone was pretty happy, and I kept busy. After my shift, I met up with the rest of my friends who are also volunteers and we got a chance to hang around and enjoy the festival. Most of the music performances were big Danish musicians. I found it really cute when we were watching the main rappers and all the Danes were rapping along to words I have never heard off. They seemed pumped. I am specifically talking about Østkyst Hustlers who are this old Danish rap band famous for making the world´s longest rap song. Woah. They seemed like they were having the time of their life singing this song which was funky, cool, and lively. Catch some of it, or all of it if you´ve got an hour+, it´s called Verdens Længste Rap. I asked my really good Danish friend what it was about and said that it was pretty much this long funny rambling. I wish I spoke Danish, but I jammed nonetheless. After that, a couple of beers later, some fun dancing at the other tent, and friendly laughs we saw Sorte Skole which had sampling music from all across the world and genres as diverse as folk, psych rock, early electronic music, reggae, classical and all kinds of field recordings that took me on a truly unique journey through musical history and beyond. The sound is original, massive and highly enchanting. It´s experimental, its turntabled, it´s folk, it´s electronic. It´s everything. Me and my friend were in the front dancing with the rest of the crowd. At some point we were mindlessly being swayed back and forth forcefully in a sea of happiness. Everyone was jumping, dancing, and mosh pitting. It was good energy. At some point I must´ve lost my scarf but I wasnt even mad about it. It was worth it.
At end I left feeling really good and really happy to be a part of something!