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Denmark-Sweden bridge half marathon sells all 40,000 tickets in two hours

A half-marathon across the Öresund Bridge connecting Denmark and Sweden, scheduled for June 2025, sold out in two hours after tickets went on sale on Thursday.

Denmark-Sweden bridge half marathon sells all 40,000 tickets in two hours
Massive queuing was seen on the Bridge Run website, with the Denmark-Sweden half marathon selling out in two hours. Photo: Tobi K

The 21.1-kilometre Bridge Run 2025 will be held on June 15th, 2025 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the bridge’s opening in 2000.

Some 40,000 race bibs were available to participants, with no specific requirements for entry. Hopeful runners experienced interruptions and delays on the event’s ticket platform amid heavy interest when bibs went on sale on Thursday. The event sold out in two hours, organisers later said in an Instagram post.

“Interest has been massive. So massive, our systems had a hard time keeping up. But 40,000 runners are now ready for an unforgettable half marathon on June 15th 2025 on the Øresund Bridge’s 25th anniversary. What a sprint!”, the Bridge Run 2025 account posted.

To put this into context, Copenhagen’s annual city marathon, which sold out in January four months ahead of schedule, has a capacity of 15,000 and opened for registration last autumn. The event had not previously sold out in its history.

READ ALSO: Why has the Copenhagen Marathon seen a jump in popularity?

Several social media commenters noted they had problems with the platform freezing, or their payments going through but no confirmation being received as they attempted to enter Bridge Run.

Ticketing platform Sportstiming said via a banner on its website that the confirmation emails had been delayed due to issues with its own provider.

A banner posted on the Sportstiming website on Thursday. Screenshot

Bridge operator Øresundsbron is working with race organisers MAI (Malmö Allmänna Idrottsförening) in Malmö and Sparta Athletics & Running in Copenhagen to plan the Bridge Run event, in which runners will cross an international border.

“We expected great demand, but we did not expect that all places would be sold out so quickly. Now we want to work to create a fantastic running party for all participants next year,” MAI spokesperson Mats Svensson said in a statement.

Sparta CEO Dorthe Vibjerg said the quick sale provided a basis for organisation of a successful race, and referred to the recent capacity sales of the Copenhagen Marathon and CPH Half events.

“This is absolutely incredible. After a few hours of sales, we can add Bridge Run 2025 to the list of big races that have sold out earlier than expected,” Vibjerg said in the statement.

“We are really looking forward to organising Bridge Run 2025 next summer and the quick sale gives us peace of mind to secure the framework for the race so that participants get as optimal a running experience as possible,” she said.

The route for the half marathon will begin in Copenhagen suburb Tårnby, which is located on the island of Amager close to the Öresund Bridge entrance. It will cover the full 16 kilometres of the tunnel and bridge sections of the crossing and finish in Swedish city Malmö.

A running race was held more regularly on the bridge in its early years, but no event has taken place on the crossing since 2010.

Member comments

  1. Myself and several other colleagues joined the ‘queue’ to sign up before 12.00 on 1 Feb but were all unsuccessful. The website kept crashing and pages not loading. Shame to miss the chance for this one-off opporunity

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EUROVISION

Malmö prepares for high-security Eurovision amid Israel protests and terror threat

Malmö in southern Sweden is preparing to host the Eurovision Song Contest in early May under high security, amid protests over Israel's participation during its ongoing war with Hamas.

Malmö prepares for high-security Eurovision amid Israel protests and terror threat

The war in Ukraine, and a heightened threat level in Sweden since August after a spate of Quran burnings angered the Muslim world, mean organisers already had their work cut out to ensure that the world’s biggest live music event, which runs from May 5th to 11th, goes off without a hitch.

“We have the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the war in Ukraine which has affected Sweden, a bigger risk of hybrid warfare, there are cyberattacks,” the head of security for the city of Malmö, Ulf Nilsson, enumerated for AFP.

“We’re living in troubled times.”

In the multicultural city of 360,000 people, where residents hail from 186 countries, police said they were up to the task.

“It’s not uncommon for us to see conflicts around the world affect our work and the daily lives of Malmö residents,” police spokesman Niels Norling said.

With a large share of Sweden’s Palestinian community living in Malmö, the conflict between Israel and Hamas has added an extra dimension to the city’s Eurovision preparations.

“A couple of months before the event we had already received requests to hold demonstrations both in support of Israel’s participation in Eurovision and against it,” Norling said.

Swedish public broadcaster SVT, which is organising the event together with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), said it also has all bases covered.

“We are planning for all sorts of scenarios,” executive producer Ebba Adielsson told AFP.

“We are absolutely prepared for the fact that there will be demonstrations outside the arena so we are planning for that, and also inside the arena of course.”

Malmö is hosting the event after Swedish singer Loreen won the 2023 contest, watched by about 162 million viewers.

Petition and boycott calls

A Swedish petition entitled “No Eurovision in Malmö if Israel Participates” has gathered more than 800 signatures and is to be discussed at a city council meeting in April.

But the move is purely symbolic – the EBU has already ruled Israel can take part, rejecting calls in a number of European countries for it to be excluded over the Gaza war.

The war broke out on October 7th when Hamas attacked Israel, resulting in about 1,160 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures. The militants also took about 250 hostages.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 32,490 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

The EBU suspended Russia after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, effectively banning Russia from the contest.

Israel’s public broadcaster is an EBU member, and Eden Golan, 20, will represent the country after winning a domestic competition.

The EBU did however force Israel to change the lyrics of her song “October Rain”, deeming it too political. It is widely considered to reference the victims of Hamas’s October 7th attack on southern Israel.

Israel became the first non-European country to enter Eurovision in 1973 and has since won the competition four times.

When Malmö last hosted Eurovision, in 2013, residents also protested Israel’s participation.

“This is the first time since the war in Gaza that Israel is participating in an international event,” said Linnaeus University political scientist Anders Persson.

“So it’s also the first time that the BDS (Boycott, Disinvestment, Sanctions) movement has a chance to protest against Israel on a global scale,” he said.

Growing popularity

Karin Karlsson, the Malmö city council official overseeing the event, said she was not overly concerned about the protests.

“This is Sweden and we’re in Malmö. We want to show that you can have different opinions but you express them peacefully.”

Police have vowed to have a large force on hand, but have refused to say whether they will call in extra officers.

Around 100,000 visitors from 80 countries are expected for the event, which has increasing drawing power, Karlsson said.

“Eurovision 2024 is much bigger than in 2013, it’s an event that has grown, both the televised contest as well as the events in the host city,” she said.

Some Eurovision fans are refusing to put on a happy face.

“The Eurovision Song Contest is part of my DNA. I grew up with it,” said Monia Aissaoui, a 41-year-old teacher.

Despite that, she will be boycotting it this year.

“Given their firm position on Russia in the past, they should have adopted the same position for Israel.”

Article by AFP’s Camille Bas-Wohlert

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