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Distortion returns for the first time in three years, but with a whole new style: 'It should be a city party, not a youth party' | Culture | The DR Festival has long struggled with the audience problems that Fredagsrock in Tivoli has recently experienced. But it's over now. A corrosive stench of pee, stiff teenagers, streets overrun by people and a pumping bass right in the diaphragm. For some Copenhageners, this is probably something to think about in connection with Distortion. But when the festival becomes held again this year - after three years of corona break - it is in many ways a more pleasant event with long table dinners, children's party and even Distortion for dogs, which will meet the residents of Vesterbro and in the inner city. © Scanpix DenmarkFinder this year place from 1 to 5 June in Copenhagen. The big payment events are Distortion X and Distortion Ø. There is a free street party on Thursday in Vesterbro and the other free events are called Actionhygge, Havnehygge and Chill. The Partout bracelet, which applies to all payment events, is sold out. The big, wild and hard-pumped events take place instead behind payment walls - the so-called music zones - under the names Distortion X and Distortion Ø, which all require entrébi And the "transformation" has been necessary for Distortion to continue to be allowed to take place in Copenhagen, explains the festival's director, Thomas Fleurquin: - We want to put a damper on the street parties' growth work, because people should not use the bridge quarters as festival sites. Distortion should be a city party, not a youth party. So we hope that our new Distortion X areas will have the free street parties, so that there will be better space and air for the great variety of parties that take place - and so that the biggest scenes do not take all the focus. Specifically, this means that will not be any stages or major music venues in Vesterbro and in inner Copenhagen when the festival kicks off today. Distortion that that year attracted 120,000 people per day. The year before, the number was 40,000 daily guests. In the same year, chaotic conditions arose on the narrow streets in inner Copenhagen, when, among other things, Kidd had to perform at a free street party. , because otherwise he would not play.During the spring, how many have tried to climb over the garden fence, which, among other things, has led to that, and that Tivoli has had to introduce a new reservation system for the free Friday concerts.But the planning of this year's Distortion has not happened with the events of Friday Rock in mind, says Thomas Fleurquin. On the contrary, the festival has almost preceded the problems for Friday Rock. - We have previously had the same challenge as Tivoli, where too many guests think they have bought access to an area, he says and compares Tivoli's annual card and Distortion's previous street bracelets, which "provided the opportunity , but not a guarantee "to get into Distortion's many parties.- We make sure this can not happen now by having a number of tickets that only apply to a ticket-based area. On the open street, we have not had problems with large crowds since 2011 - therefore we feel safe in relation to the free street parties. These are not our concerns. © Scanpix Denmark In 1998, the first Distortion was held. It was a one-day festival with 400 participants. In 2000 it was expanded to a five-day festival with 1,800 daily participants. In 2008, 8,000 daily participants came. In 2010, 40,000 daily participants flocked. In 2011, the audience exploded with 120,000 daily participants. In 2016, 150,000 appeared. daily participants. Source: Distortion and. Instead, according to Fleurquin, Distortion must be especially well prepared for what happens in the city when the official Distortion program closes, and the audience may seek further. in mind when planning the handling of this year's Distortion.- We of course follow what is happening, but we have to a greater extent looked at how Distortion has previously been settled. You can not compare Distortion with Fredagsrock, because the latter takes place behind a fence, says Peter Dahl, who is a leading police inspector in the Copenhagen Police. But what is Distortion really for a size in 2022? - The young people have hijacked Distortion's free street parties, and they are more interested in one than a city party and folk festival. We love the young, but we would rather have a festival for all people and all ages. So right now we are in a transition from street party to in terms of the individual scenes that have the most appeal to young people, says Thomas Fleurquin. Previously, Distortion has kicked off the festival on Wednesdays with street parties that have attracted large crowds. But this year, the events have been canceled for the first time, and only on Thursdays are there street parties in Vesterbro. This is done to raise the average age for the Distortion audience. Wednesdays. It takes place inside some so-called music zones, and here you must be able to present a ticket to take part in the festivities. Distortion street parties have - despite complaints from residents and politicians - not led to special police challenges, says senior police inspector Peter Dahl from Copenhagen Police. - The primary challenge for Distortion is that there has been too much noise and too much clean-up, but that has nothing to do with the police. So from our point of view, there is nothing that flashes red, he says. necessarily the way the audience sees it.- Many Copenhageners will still rate Distortion as a big street party, so we have an expectation that many move out into city life anyway. It may take a while to change that perception, says Peter Dahl. However, he emphasizes that the Copenhagen Police have "very clear agreements" with Distortion, among other things about the so-called "rescue routes", where ambulances can come in if it should be current. And that leads us back to Thomas Fleurquin, who officially has the title of director, but calls himself something else: - I call myself chief architect, because it's all about staging the city - and I think we have learned to control the human flow over the years. Sources: Politiken, Soundvenue, DR, Distortion.