Ben Hamilton
March 11th, 2022

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Fælledparken will welcome an anticipated 20,000 guests to a festival taking place from July 1-2 to mark Copenhagen hosting the opening day of the Tour de France.

FestiVélo, which is being billed as a bicycle festival, will be specifically located between Øster Allé, Fælledsøen and Café-Pavillonen.

It will be open from 12:00 to 22:00 on the Friday and 09:00 to 22:00 on the Saturday.

Quite a peloton!
The roads on the route will continue to be car-free on Saturday, giving the public a chance to cycle the exact same route between 09:00 and 12:00, ahead of the second stage starting in Roskilde. 

On the first day, visitors will be able to watch the prologue live as the entire field take on a 13 km time trial weaving through the streets of Copenhagen. 

Paying the lion’s share
The budget to host all three stages, the Danish Grand Départ, is 88 million kroner. The state is coughing up 17 million, the regions 15 million, Copenhagen Municipality 50 million and the other hosting municipalities 5 million.

A fan park will open at Kongens Nytorv on June 29 and the municipality will start closing off roads to traffic on June 27.

Domestic violence counselling initiative to go nationwide
A new initiative to tackle domestic violence is being rolled out across the entire country following a successful pilot project in the capital that began last year. Copenhagen Police recently teamed up with Lev Uden Vold to offer telephone counselling to both perpetrators and victims of violence. Lev Uden Vold gave 89 counselling sessions following 124 Copenhagen Police referrals: around 75 percent were victims, 9 percent were perpetrators and 12 percent both victims and perpetrators. According to Lev Uden Vold, 38,000 women and 19,000 men are exposed to physical partner violence every year – and around the same number to psychological violence. 

Dragør Municipality to have its drinking water piped in
Concerns are growing that the water in Dragør Municipality is not fit for drinking. Two wells were recently closed following the discovery of pesticides and PFOS residue originating from Copenhagen Airport. Last year the municipality hired COWI in a consultancy role, and it has advised Dragør to pipe in its drinking water from the capital region (possibly Hvidovre) – neighbour Tårnby Municipality, one of three municipalities on the city island of Amager, buys about 70 percent of its drinking water. The decision will result in a significant rise in water charges. Another possible problem might be caused by not using the available groundwater. While levels will rise, it is not anticipated it will cause flooding to homes.

Parking fine numbers grow, but still below pre-pandemic numbers
Copenhagen Municipality issued 277,558 parking tickets in 2021 – a rise of just over 50,000 on the previous year. However, the number was still low compared to corona-free years, when the number ranged between 300,000 and 330,000. The most common offence, in the case in 60,000 of the tickets, is parking too close to a junction. Motorists are not allowed to park within ten metres of one. A further 17,000 fines were handed out to motorists who parked on the pavement, a cycle path or a footpath.

Nowhere to swim? Summers ahead could be sticky due to extensive pool renovation work
Copenhagen Municipality has announced plans to renovate five swimming pools in the capital that could result in them being closed for lengthy summer periods over the next three and a half years – and maybe up to 10 years. The five pools are: Vesterbro Svømmehal, Sundby Bad, Emdrup Bad, Frankrigsgade Svømmehal and Valby Vandkulturhus. It is judged that some of them are in a state of disrepair and need extensive work. Meanwhile, another pool, Bellahøj Svømmestadion, will be closed for seven weeks for renovation work from July 3.

Ukrainian arrivals with volunteers to get asylum accommodation ready
Around 130 Ukrainians have moved into Ottiliahus in Valby where volunteers, orchestrated by Beskæftigelses- og Integrationsforvaltningen at Copenhagen Municipality, have been busy getting the accommodation ready for the anticipated arrival of many more. Most of the Ukrainians have been lending a hand. Ottiliahus is gladly receiving beds and fridges from the public, along with clothes, shoes and toys for the onsite volunteer-run store. The accommodation, which has two Ukrainian-speaking employees, previously housed Syrian refugees. 

Cyclist vandalises Russian Embassy with red paint
Police are seeking a cyclist who went around the back of the Russian Embassy, which is located on Kristianiagade in Østerbro, and threw red paint at a wall. The embassy informed the police at 06:57 on Thursday morning.