When FED, the association for Festivals & Events in Denmark, was founded at the end of 2005, the initiative was taken by IFEA members Lars Blicher-Hansen (Visit Denmark) and Allan Xenius Grige (Copenhagen Art & Culture Consult), who were at the time also members the “Event Denmark” task force. 

“Event Denmark” was created in 2003 jointly by the Danish Ministry of Culture and the Danish Ministry of Economy and Commerce and was charged with developing the festival and event market in Denmark.

The task force focused on professionalisation of festivals and development of new festival concepts - all with the aim of developing tourism through the use of festivals and events as “brands” for local markets and Denmark as a country. In addition to initiatives such as the creation of FED, the task force established a web site with advise for new festival organisers, held seminars, and joined forces with a number of educational institutions to secure the best possible education for newcomers to the event industry.

While the task force had hoped to continue its work and possibly set up a more permanent office to develop the festival and events industry, the ministries decided not to extend the original 3-year grant to Event Denmark at the end of 2006. While some of the activities of Event Denmark will be continued by FED, it is felt that the loss of a government funded national task force means stepping down from the 2003-ambition to market Danish cultural festivals internationally.

As a result of the negative press given to Denmark after the publishing of the Mohammed cartoons, the government has instead launched a rather ambitious plan to “market Denmark” internationally in a wide range of areas. Festivals and cultural events unfortunately only play a minor role in these efforts, while the Ministry of Culture instead seems to put importance on promoting Denmark as a host country for international sports events, and has allocated substantial funds for this purpose. 

While festival organisers had hoped that more annual festivals would have had the opportunity to develop into branding “flagships” for Denmark, it now appers that the Roskilde Festival, an annual music festival, will remain the only Danish festival with a fairly strong international brand well into the foreseeable future.