Features
Danish Media Cans The Can
The Danish media doesn’t appear to be impressed with the way the old state prison at Horsens has been turned into an open-air music venue, complaining that the sightlines are poor and the place couldn’t cope with an act as big as
The hugely popular metal band, which includes Danish-born drummer Lars Ulrich, was the first act to play there June 6.
The papers also moaned because they felt the building’s too narrow, the gig was overcrowded and the performance space is too far from the car park.
“And how did the old state prison do as concert venue?” asked Michael Jose Gonzalez, writing in monthly music magazine Gaffa, “It was ….. okay, but not quite good.”
“The immediate guess is that the organizers have overestimated the capacity. In several places people were like herrings in a barrel, and there was certainly an issue in relation to sightlines for the concert-goers who had not found a place right in front of the stage,” he continued.
A reporter for daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten said: “We are talking about exotic settings, but the elongated concert area gave poor views of the stage for many guests and it was a long walk from the parking places for visitors who came to the city by car.”
At press time it wasn’t possible to get comment from
The prison at Horsens fell out of use after Denmark started to send its worst convicts to the new state prison at Enner Mark.
Turning the old prison into an outdoor concert space was part of the local authority’s bid to change the image of Horsens, which is on the east coast of Jutland, transforming it from a prison city to a cultural centre.
Horsens itself is no stranger to staging large shows. In recent years Madonna, Robbie Williams, The Rolling Stones, AC/DC and U2 have all played Horsens, although at the local football stadium.