Aarhus, European Capital of Culture 2017

Seeing in the new year is Aarhus, Denmark's second largest city, which is celebrating 2017 as European Capital of Culture. An opportunity to get to know much more about Aarhus, looking forward to greeting visitors with an ambitious programme of culture in the city and beyond.


Aarhus in Denmark and Paphos in Cyprus are this year's European Capitals of Culture, after San Sebastian in Basque Country, Spain (article Zuloark) and Breslau in Poland in 2016.
We took a look at the ambitious cultural programme of the self-proclaimed “smallest metropolis in the world”, which aims to use the #AARHUS2017 initiative to shrug off its second-city status and emerge from the shadow of the capital, Copenhagen. 
To take up this challenge, Aarhus with its population of 320,000 and university has expanded the focus to take in the whole Midtjylland region: the events, under the umbrella name “Let's rethink” are spread across 19 municipalities and involve a hundred or so cultural institutions, as well as the sustainability festival on the island of Samsø.
The programme includes iconic international artworks as well as strictly Danish events, covering a wide range of disciplines - from music to literature, from film to design and architecture, of course.
European Capital of Culture, Aarhus 2017 is just the input the city needed to showcase a somewhat unknown part of Denmark, and you can even get to know it like the Danes do - sustainably, on a pushbike.
The organisers and director Rebecca Matthews are expecting about 5 million visitors and hope that the different perspectives and creative energy expressed by extraordinary artists coming to Aarhus will act as a catalyser and resource to take up the challenges of our world, using art and culture as the means to explore the decisions to make for our future

Christiane Bürklein

Aarhus, European Capital of Culture 2017
Start: 21 January 2017
Find out more: http://www.aarhus2017.dk/
Images: courtesy of Aarhus, European Capital of Culture 2017 - see captions