This year’s programme is the most extensive one up to today. It consists of 21 different productions who in total are performed 48 times. The central stage is placed between Torvehallerne and Nørreport, where there is going to be space for up to 5,000 spectators and one symphony orchestra. But you can also get a glimpse of the best of the best within opera at other locations, such as Tivoli, Nyhavn and many more.

Copenhagen Opera Festival addresses a diverse crowd – both experienced operagoers and those new to it. The programme is a well-balanced mixture of classical opera repertoire, contemporary projects and concert arrangements in untraditional places. The arrangers thereby hope to create an art form that seeks new borders whereas it remains at a high level of quality.

At least the last point should be easy to achieve. Copenhagen Opera Festival is about to profile itself with strong international ties. The co-operation with German Bayer Kultur and Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci show the ambitious steps they’re taking. The performances of Händel’s Aci, Galatea e Poliferno as well as the Puccini guest play of the opera in Malmø exemplify the top-notch international co-operation.

However, the opera festival is much more than a short amusement in a warm summer night. The thought behind it is to give Copenhageners and tourists alike an experience, also those who are not primarily looking for it. Therefore there will be solo artists and small ensembles at random places throughout Copenhagen. The idea is to make opera available and easily accessible for a wider range of people than those who came primarily to visit the festival.

Here, a thought has also been made for children. Copenhagen Opera Festival sows the seeds for the next generation of opera visitors through performances directly produced for a younger audience. For the first time ever there is also an award distribution for the “Young Opera Talent of the Year”.

Among the big names within the jazz field, one of the largest ones is Dianne Reeves, who is also referred to as the biggest jazz singer of her generation and has been compared to legends such as Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. But there are also other famous artists, such as the singers Cassandra Wilson and Macy Gray, the pianist Chick Corea, the saxophonist Branford Marcelis as well as the bassist Marcus Miller.

Copenhagen Jazz Festival is known for its diverse programme and the attention it pays to new trends in both Danish and international jazz. It has been founded in 1979 and with more than 10 decades on its back, this large annual event has become one of Europe’s most renowned jazz festival, as well as one of Denmark’s most important music events.

Copenhagen has always had the reputation of being one of the world’s jazz capitals, and this event with more than 250,000 visitors is the proof that jazz is still alive in Copenhagen. The ten days in July also have a strong impact on the businesses in town, as they have an economic impact of 80 million Danish kroner on the local and tourism-related industries.

Behind the Copenhagen Jazz Festival stands the Copenhagen Jazz Festival Fond – a business-oriented fond whose goal it is to strengthen the jazz milieu in Denmark through this annual festival. In addition to organising some of the concerts themselves, roughly 160 concerts are organised by them, they are also responsible for the marketing of all events of the festival.

For the first time this year it is possible to buy a 24-hour ticket for public transport during the festival. This takes the shape of a SMS-ticket which is valid for 24-hours in the tariff zones 1-4. From a central location such as the Savoy Hotel, this makes it even easier to get around in town to and from the many stages involved in the festival.

The astronomer Tycho Brahe has been the inspiration for the new, 1.200 m2 large extension and therefore the theme includes planets, starts and galaxies. The cheerful corner is located in a part of Tivoli that previously has been in the employees’ use and roughly 600m2 are completely new for visitors. Among others, the inspector’s house facing Bernstorffsgade has been remove to make space for the extension as a part of the plan to make Tivoli ready for the upcoming years.

The big news of the year is a breathtaking attraction for adults, daredevils can see the world upside-down while they are opposed to the harsh forces of gravity. The attraction is the only one of its kind in Denmark and can otherwise only be found in a small number of other amusement parks, as for example Coney Island in New York.

Another new attraction is the 8 meter high „drop tower“ for children who get lifted by an airship from Tycho Brahe’s era – the 16th century before they powers are released and they move quickly towards the ground again. The is also a aircraft attraction for the youngest among us, The Small Pilot, where the children themselves can steer the airplane vertically.

The price tag for transforming the cheerful corner has been in the double-digit million kroner range, and quite near the upper end. One of the goals for the project was to show that Tivoli fits visitors in any age group, not just small children, parents and their grandparents.

If you choose to visit Tivoli on a Friday, you can also be part of the famous Friday rock, where both currently popular artists and old classics perform live.

The construction of the 12.000 m2 large building has costed an estimated 700 million kroner which makes it the most expensive building in Denmark. It is divided into five distinct parts: the ocean aquarium, the coral reef, the African lakes, the Amazonian rain forest and the Faroese bird field. The building has a self-supporting water pipe system, that both pumps up water to the aquariums and also supplies the building’s cooling systems.

The architecture is inspired by the water’s whirlpools and the building is surrounded by a beautiful water basin. Through the main entrance, the guests enter the centre of the whirlpool, the round entree, and from here they can go towards the 53 aquariums that in total house more than 7 million liters of water. The building consists of five main „fingers“, which room one of the main parts each.

The ocean aquarium, the largest of its kind in the Blue Planet, gives you the great experience of seeing hammerhead sharks swim next to rays and moraines i four million liters crystal clear saltwater. Another large aquarium houses the coral reef with all the colorful fish and other sea animals that lives in and of the corals. And in the African lakes , you can in addition to the animals below the water surface also see birds and small crocodiles.

In addition to being one of Denmark’s leading tourist attractions, the Blue Planet also functions as an international research institute for marine biologists. The institute houses a number of water tanks that are not open to the public, but that provide the biologists with an outstanding possibility to conduct their research.

It only takes you 12 minutes by Metro from Kongens Nytorv to reach the Blue Planet which is located just next to the metro station called Kastrup. But otherwise as well – the building is hard not to see, because of its supreme location next to the Oresund bridge and the Copenhagen Airport.

Everything culminates in May with a wide array of themed exhibitions, concerts, theatre performances, debates, events and much more here in Copenhagen. The actual birthday gets started with a special service in the cathedral. This will be followed by a special lecture in the university of Copenhagen, which will also host the international Kierkegaard congress.

The exhibition “Love’s deeds and subjects” will open on the same day in the town museum of Copenhagen, just a short walk away from the Savoy Hotel. It focuses on very personal and symbolic objects from Kierkegaard’s live, that have been donated to the museum in the past few years. The Nicolaj Art Museum has already opened its door for an exhibition of international contemporary artists, which all focus on Kierkegaard’s famous “Either – Or” from 1843.

This is just a small excerpt of all the arrangements that will take place in honour of his 200th birthday. There will also be a small lecture about Kierkegaard’s daily environment and guided tours to places that meant something to him, concerts with music that he liked to listen to and much more.

Last year’s topic were the 1950s, and the main age group of visitors was from 25 to 40 years. Many visitors were amazed by how the untraditional and intense presentation created to willingness to learn more. It was that feedback that was full of inspiration for the arrangers to dedicate a historical festival to one of the most difficult subjects possible – philosophy.

Sweden’s national TV-channel SVT, who is responsible for the event, has already pre-booked all hotels in Malmö to accommodate the delegations from the more than 40 participating countries. Everything is therefore sold out from the 1st until the 19th of May and this implies that the hotel and restaurant industry on this side of the sound may await some busy weeks when thousands of enthusiastic fans invade Sweden’s third largest city.

Wonderful Copenhagen is not in doubt that the Danish capital can look forward to a decent increase in tourist revenue in May. But even more important is the great branding value the ESC has for the entire metropolitan region. This may imply that more international events find their way to us – especially when the brand-new Copenhagen Arena will be ready in a couple of years.

The Danish ESC fans are also more than happy that the event is taking place so close to us. Many will be at the Malmö Arena to support the Danish participant Emmelie De Forest, and even more might just cross the sound to be part of the excitement. This is where it comes in particularly handy that the trains between Copenhagen and Malmö run all day (and night) long.

The choice of Malmö as this year’s site for the ESC has created some debate in Sweden. Almost everyone had expected the ESC to be hosted in the Friends Arena in Stockholm. But the new arena with space for 60,000 spectators was deselected in favour of the Malmö Arena, which has roughly a quarter of the capacity. This was among others in order to make sure the event was hosted in a place that was not to large, especially in terms of holding costs low.

But in Copenhagen we’re clearly on the bright side of the sund. Large events in Malmö have proven to have a great impact on the entire Øresund region.

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The walking tours “Sunday Morning Walks” are filled with architecture and history. One of those tours will take you to the classic part of town called Frederiksstad, where royal palaces and other great buildings form the 18th century are part in shaping an almost Parisian atmosphere. A bit less royal is the North West –part of Copenhagen, where there also will be tours in February. But here, in Copenhagen most multicultural part of town, there will be hidden backyards, creative studios in run-down industry buildings and many other things that will inspire many.

Ørestad, the newest part of town can be seen as lab for new city development and shaping of residential, industry and business buildings. During the course of another Sunday walk, you will be able to see yourself, why Danish architecture is as well-known as it is. Are you more interested in older industrial architecture, you can participate in a tour through the buildings of the Carlsberg factory.

Even for those not fancying to take the chance of walking in Copenhagen in the rainy spring weather, there are plenty of things to explore. Under the heading “Behind the scenes”, the two most influential architect companies Cobe and JDC & KLAR invite you to have a look at an architect’s everyday life, their ongoing projects and much more.

Finally, the Danish Architecture Center on Strandgade also has a number of events and special exhibitions, such as “a dialogue with the world”. Here, they present what is of importance for them

when they shape and develop their architechture. For example, how Henning Larsen Architects get acquainted to the culture they are building in, or how a school designed by Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects has had influence on a large number of young people in England.

Copenhagen Cooking celebrates the Scandinavian food culture, the good quality and the raw ingredients of the season. This might for example be a blue shell mussel, which you may get acquainted with in different forms of cooking. As one of the main parts of festival, you can also participate in a so called “gastro cruise” where you will taste different seafood from the waters that surround us.

During the Copenhagen Dining Week, from the 11th through the 17th of February, you can have a three-course menu in the best restaurants in town for only 200 DKK. All those restaurants are known for their good quality and food experiences that usually cost far more than this. The goal is to get 100 restaurants in Copenhagen to join the initiative, to make sure that there is something for everyone.

If you are more interested in Nordic specialities, you may get to know these when the 10 best restaurants in town distribute free food samples that have been made of the best seasonal raw ingredients. This will take place in Axelborg, which is also the setting of the annual Fine Food Festival, where quality-conscious food producers come with exclusive kitchen news in addition to delicious food and interesting wines.

The culinary month ends with the food fair Copenhagen Food Fair in Bella Center, where in addition to extremely many tasting experiences also will be cooking performances and gastronomic entertainment. The titles Cook of the Year and Waiter of the Year will be distributed, and you will also get the changes to participate in a thematic tour.

In other words, you’ll have many opportunities to discover new tastes all February. You can learn how to bake high-quality bread, participate in a debate about the future’s food culture or go on a walking tour through the culinary parts of town. Of course, this is only to present some of the over 100 events.

The third edition of the culture festival WonderCool starts on February 1st. Throughout February, Copenhagen will be marked by plenty arrangements within categories such as food, art, fashion, design, architecture and music. The goal with this initiative is do make February, which isn’t exactly known for its excitement, to a recurring part of the cultural year in Copenhagen, in a way that there is something going on in the Danish capital all year long.

WonderCool is being arranged by Copenhagen Jazz Festival, Danish Design Centre, Copenhagen Fashion Festival, Copenhagen Cooking, the rock festival FROST and Wonderful Copenhagen. This is the first time that there are so many active parties in a collaboration like this, which mixes fashion, design, jazz, rock and entertainment in a whole new manner. In total, there are more than 130 events going on in the winterly cold capital.

One of the biggest summer successes, the food festival Copenhagen Cooking, invites in its winter edition to for example the celebration of mussels. Copenhagen Fashion Festival sets its focus on music, fashion and identity, whereas the Danish Centre for Architecture arranges Sunday walks through the “forgotten” boroughs of Copenhagen. They will take the participants to e.g. the boroughs of Ørestad or North West.

FROST is a somehow different rock festival, where carefully selected Danish and international artists perform in specifically for this purpose chosen location in mostly untraditional settings. The aim is to use the cityscape as a playground where music, light and location unite in a higher unity. Jazz lovers can look forward to the festival WinterJazz, where music is a bit more mainstreamed and mostly takes place in more established locations.

The Capital Region’s three most well-known art museums, Louisiana, Arken and the Danish Art Museum are also part of WonderCool and throughout February they participate with free tours. Louisiana displayed as the first museum in the world a collation of Andy Warhol’s early paintings followed by the exhibition PopArtDesign, whereas Arken shows Carl-Henning Pedersen’s works, who would have turned 100 this year.