Christian Wenande
May 26th, 2016

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Sister festival of Distortion to play at Refshaløen. (photo: Distortion)

There is good news for those looking forward to the upcoming Distortion Festival on the streets of Copenhagen in early June.

The festival has all but secured its 2017 edition following a new sponsorship agreement with the brewing company Royal. The deal involves the brewer buying 4,000 of the 10,000 voluntary donation festival wristbands that Distortion has targeted to stay afloat.

“It’s fantastic news,” Thomas Fleurquin, the founder and head of Distortion, told Metroxpress newspaper.

“We are elated that Royal has sent such massive support. We’ve been nervous whether we could reach our goal, but it’s fantastic that the Vesterbro party is now secured. Now we need to ensure Nørrebro with the last 4,860 wrist bands. We still need to reach our million.”

READ MORE: Distortion desperate to raise 1 million kroner

A costly success
The festival’s goal is to sell 10,000 wristbands in total, and only then can the free street parties in Vesterbro and Nørrebro continue in 2017.

The festival consists of three major parts: the two free parties in Vesterbro and Nørrebro (June 1 & 2) and a paid entry, two-day festival party at Refshaleøen (June 3-4). There is also a chill-out event on June 5.

In recent years, over 100,000 people have attended each street festival, but the success has been a costly affair too, in terms of the expenses of providing security and cleaning up afterwards.

That led to Distortion launching the 100-kroner wristband in 2012 to encourage party-goers to voluntarily donate to help balance the books. A street party traditionally held in the city centre on the first day was also cut from its schedule.

Since 2012, sales have fluctuated between 8,000 and 13,000 bracelets annually, earning a gross 800,000 to 1.3 million kroner, which suggests the sale of 4,000 to Royal will make the target easily achievable.