Gulden Timur
July 21st, 2020

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Installations, sculptures and flowers are the main sights at the Flower Festival in Aarhus’ Tivoli Friheden (photo: Gulden Timur)

The Local Flower Farm, the Danish Sommerbed, the Power of Flower and the Shed of Stories are just some of the installations on display at a Flower Festival in Aarhus’ Tivoli Friheden this month. 

The annual festival gives guests a colourful summer experience with pink begonias, green boxwood, purple perennials, blue lobelia and red roses among the blooms adorning the theme park.

“At regular periods, we are just an amusement park with attractions and some beautiful flowers. In July, we upgraded the experience,” said Morten Palm Andersen, the park’s sales and marketing chief. 

“Visitors should expect creative installations and sculptures. We hope to surprise and excite our guests – so this all becomes a great summer experience,” he added.

Midsummer Night’s Dream meets theme park in the Flower Festival at Aarhus’ Tivoli Friheden in July (photo: Gulden Timur)

Walking around
When entering the park, visitors are immersed in a flower mecca complete with unique and huge installations of blooms and a sky of colourful tulle flowers. 

The traditional attractions such as the ferris wheel, carousel and the roller coaster complement the picture. Gleeful children and their parents promenade with ice cream and cotton candy in hand – an idyllic summer image. 

The farther guests go, more sights emerge. Visitors can get to know more about the garden through talks by botany experts. They can also explore small inspiration gardens.

Among other things, Claus Dalby – a popular gardener and publisher – gives lectures on gardening here, too.

The Flower Festival won’t be complete without blooms and installations of vivid hues (photo: Gulden Timur)

Flower Power
This park is divided into 4 themes: Urban, Romantic, Fantasy and Life&Death. Each of them addresses the role that flowers play in daily life.

The urban theme represents flowers ubiquitous in people’s houses and city streets. The romantic topic is about the interplay between love and flowers.

Fantasy touches on the imaginary world flowers evoke such as Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. Finally, flowers in the Life&Death concept serve as a reminder of the fleetingness of life and decay.

The creative installation reminds people about the balance between humans and nature (photo: Gulden Timur)

So far, so good
The Flower Festival is the first major event in Tivoli Friheden since the reopening of society following the coronavirus lockdown. 

Tivoli puts in place precautions but did not impose anything extraordinary. There are stations to help guests as well as employees regularly cleaning the park. 

“We do not make face masks mandatory, only on some of our fast attractions like roller coasters. Apart from that, the park is functioning normally. So far, everything is going quite good,” said Andersen. 

Power of Flower is one of the key showpieces of the Urban theme at Flower Festival (photo: Gulden Timur)

Numbers picking up
The park has some limitations in terms of large events because gatherings of more than 100 people are prohibited.

“We haven’t been allowed to arrange our big Friday concerts called Fed Fredag! In normal times up to 12,000 people would attend these concerts. This is what has hurt us economically the most,” Andersen said. 

He added that while the number of guests increased in July due to the Flower Festival, the gap caused by the park’s closure during spring at the height of the coronavirus lockdown leads to low total figures.

Tivoli Friheden visitors are mainly locals. There are also international tourists but Danes constitute the majority of guests. 

The Flower Festival runs until July 31.