HOW DO I GET THERE AND BACK?
nlike certain other festivals located far out in a field between cows and motorways, the people behind COPENHELL once had the brilliant and logistically downright sadistic idea of placing the festival on Refshaleøen right in the middle of Copenhagen. As a result, transport to and from COPENHELL is something of a chapter in itself, and there are several interesting details that first-timers should be aware of:
Setting aside the journey to Copenhagen, which you will have to figure out yourself if you are coming from far away, there are five ways to get to the festival from the city:
One hundred percent the best and fastest option and one that grants you the well-earned self-satisfaction and moral superiority of zooming past a queue of stationary cars with the wind blowing through your freshly washed headbanger hair. The COPENHELL festival site is only 10–15 minutes from Copenhagen’s city center, and you can bike via either Christianshavn or the Inderhavnsbroen bridge in Nyhavn.
Remember to park your bike in our designated bicycle parking area on Refshalevej on the right-hand side just before the festival site. Don’t leave it anywhere else, because you risk it disappearing faster than your dignity in the Biergarten if it is blocking fire routes, production transport or anything else.
Also remember a good lock for your bike. Not because the other festivalgoers are criminals, but because Copenhagen is generally a city with a tireless bike theft scene that doesn’t take the festival week off.
Lines 2A and 666 will take you all the way to the festival’s entrance area. Rejseplanen.dk and Travelplanner.dk know exactly where they run from and to, so consult those and then just follow the directions from official-looking people with signs at the stops, and everything should work out fine.
The most important thing that we can add here is that the buses between the city and the festival require payment, so remember to use either your ’Rejsekort’ or your travel ticket on your phone. Nothing kills the festival mood like having to pay an annoying fine with money you would much rather have spent on beer and merchandise.
Line 993 sails from both Nyhavn and Toldbod to Refshaleøen, docking at Sønder Hoved a few minutes’ walk from the festival site. It is a wonderfully Viking-like way to arrive, standing proudly at the bow and imagining that you are sailing toward land on a grand raiding expedition – at least until reality hits when you get there and just have to queue with everyone else at the ticket and wristband check. Remember to buy a ticket here too.
A genuinely great transport option that many people overlook. It takes about 25–30 minutes to walk between Christianshavn or Nyhavn and the festival site, and it is an extremely pleasant stroll on a beautiful summer day – and if you are not on a bike, it can be the best way to get home (see below).
It is possible to drive along Refshalevej to the intersection at Vindmøllevej/Forlandet and drop festivalgoers off so they can walk the rest of the way to the festival site (10 minutes), after which the car must be turned around and driven away – and possibly parked in our car park at Kløverparken, if you have secured a parking spot there.
Please note that we generally do not recommend arriving by car, as Refshalevej is not exactly a four-lane motorway and can at times be severely congested with traffic going back and forth between the festival and the city.
… And then there’s the journey home, where the logistical evil truly reveals itself:
It’s just past midnight. You’re half-wilted. You just watched a band whose name you can’t remember at all, which sounded like a chainsaw in a blender, and now you just want to get home as fast as possible. You follow the stream of people out of the festival site and quickly discover that apparently all of Copenhagen has had the same idea at exactly the same time. The buses are packed, the road is full of pedestrians and cyclists are weaving all over the place in one glorious mess.
If you are visiting COPENHELL for the first time, please be aware that it is not worth leaving the festival immediately after the evening’s headliner has finished their set. Transport home is typically at peak chaos between 23:30 and 1:00, when everyone is standing around wondering why they can’t just get going quickly, why more buses aren’t coming, whether the festival can do anything about it and so on.
The combination of so much both soft and hard traffic on such a narrow public road means that it simply takes a long time for all forms of transport to move back and forth during precisely this period. Our traffic team does of course do their best to direct people safely and ensure that things flow as smoothly and efficiently as possible, but they can’t perform miracles – so if you absolutely must leave at the same time as everyone else, you will need to arm yourself with a certain degree of patience.
We always recommend that people stay on the festival site a little longer into the evening and night and wait for the traffic pressure to ease – or simply walk (and remember to keep to the side of the road) rather than taking the bus, as it will typically be far faster and less frustrating. Grab some good late-night food, find a quiet spot, have a chat with others about the day’s experiences and head home once things are flowing freely outside the festival site – you will thank yourself for it.