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New Danish festival: Music, art and talks in castle setting

Heartland Festival, the latest entry on Denmark’s long list of summer festivals, will debut this weekend on the island of Funen.

Published: 7 June 2016 11:53 CEST
New Danish festival: Music, art and talks in castle setting
The festival certainly has an attractive setting. Photo: Heartland Festival
The Heartland Festival is hoping to carve out a niche in the busy festival month of June by combining a short but unique music line-up with world-renowned artists, high-level talks and a focus on Danish cuisine. 
 
And the whole thing will be done in the fairytale setting of the well-known tourist beacon Egeskov Castle. 
 
“Our ambition with Heartland is to challenge exciting perception of what a festival experience can be by offering playful formats, multiple art scenes, instant fun and long-lasting substance. With a strong line-up of artists, a beautiful renaissance castle and new ways of experiencing music, arts, literature and food, I cannot wait to present the new Heartland Festival to the world,” festival director Ulrik Ørum-Petersen said. 
 
Immersive experiences 
Unlike the majority of festivals on the calendar, Heartland guns for a more holistic festival experience that involves immersion in the central elements of music, art, food and conversations. 
 
To this end, some of the names on the music billing include Mark Ronson, The Flaming Lips, Michael Kiwanuka, Mikael Simpson, Kvamie Liv and Sun Kil Moon. 
 
Talks from Brian Eno, performance artist Marina Abramovic and Danish ‘starchitect’ Bjarke Ingels will also take place during the two-day event. 
 
On the food front, Heartland have planned a culinary programme that is designed to stand out from other festivals, featuring, amongst others, top chefs such as Per Hallundbaek.  
 
Danish focus with international roots
With a predicted attendance of 6,000, Heartland is not an event targeting the average festival-goer, aiming instead for a more culturally aware audience.
 
“Heartland Festival is an entirely new festival approach, that does not resemble any of the other festivals that we know in Denmark, but that has had success in other countries such as England and Holland,” Ørum Petersen said. 
 
Practicalities
 
When: Friday, June 10th – Saturday, June 11th
 
Where: Egeskov Castle, Kværndrup, Southern Funen
 
Price: 955 kroner for both days, 655 kroner for one 
 
Accommodation: Guests can camp in their own tent or choose a pre-pitched option. Local hotels, bed and breakfasts and holiday homes are also available (at a separate cost). 
 
Key Names: Mark Ronson, Michael Kiwanuka, Blaue Blume, The Flaming Lips, Mikael Simpson, Anne Linnet, Whomadewho, Brian Eno, Bjarke Ingels, Marina Abramovic.
 
Transport: Trains to Kværndrup Station run from Odense’s central station. Free shuttle buses to and from Kværndrup. 
 
More information is available on the festival's website. 

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CULTURE

New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday’s death

Fans of the late Johnny Hallyday, "the French Elvis Presley", will be able to commemorate the sixth anniversary of his death with two songs never released before.

Published: 17 November 2023 09:05 CET
New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday's death

Hallyday, blessed with a powerful husky voice and seemingly boundless energy, died in December 2017, aged 74, of lung cancer after a long music and acting career.

After an estimated 110 million records sold during his lifetime – making him one of the world’s best-selling singers -Hallyday’s success has continued unabated beyond his death.

Almost half of his current listeners on Spotify are under the age of 35, according to the streaming service, and a posthumous greatest hits collection of “France’s favourite rock’n’roller”, whose real name was Jean-Philippe Leo
Smet, sold more than half a million copies.

The two new songs, Un cri (A cry) and Grave-moi le coeur (Engrave my heart), are featured on two albums published by different labels which also contain already-known hits in remastered or symphonic versions.

Un cri was written in 2017 by guitarist and producer Maxim Nucci – better known as Yodelice – who worked with Hallyday during the singer’s final years.

At the time Hallyday had just learned that his cancer had returned, and he “felt the need to make music outside the framework of an album,” Yodelice told reporters this week.

Hallyday recorded a demo version of the song, accompanied only by an acoustic blues guitar, but never brought it to full production.

Sensing the fans’ unbroken love for Hallyday, Yodelice decided to finish the job.

He separated the voice track from the guitar which he felt was too tame, and arranged a rockier, full-band accompaniment.

“It felt like I was playing with my buddy,” he said.

The second song, Grave-moi le coeur, is to be published in December under the artistic responsibility of another of the singer’s close collaborators, the arranger Yvan Cassar.

Hallyday recorded the song – a French version of Elvis’s Love Me Tender – with a view to performing it at a 1996 show in Las Vegas.

But in the end he did not play it live, opting instead for the original English-language version, and did not include it in any album.

“This may sound crazy, but the song was on a rehearsal tape that had never been digitalised,” Cassar told AFP.

The new songs are unlikely to be the last of new Hallyday tunes to delight fans, a source with knowledge of his work said. “There’s still a huge mass of recordings out there spanning his whole career,” the source said.

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