Smash!Bang!Pow! festival upscales to new home

Organisers of Denmark’s Syd for Solen have revealed the festival is relocating to Copenhagen’s largest park.

Promoted by Smash!Bang!Pow!, the event has been staged in Søndermarken since launching in 2022 but will switch to Valbyparken for 2024.

Syd for Solen is billed as a “three-day urban festival experience”, with each day featuring “its own musical flavour”. It will take place from 8-10 August with headliners Fred Again.. and Queens of The Stone Age, with other acts still to be announced.

“Our vision, right from the beginning, has been to create a dream festival that brings international music excellence to Copenhagen, a capital that truly deserves it,” says Smash!Bang!Pow! CEO Nikolaj Thorenfeldt. “Our journey in Søndermarken has been incredible, but to elevate the overall festival experience, a new, lush, and green setting is essential.

“Valbyparken provides the perfect canvas, allowing us to enhance our offerings while retaining the intimacy and warmth that both our audience and we associate with Syd for Solen. We’re merely providing better logistical facilities.”

“The festival-in-a-day concept has been enthusiastically embraced by Copenhageners, and the change in location enables us to enhance the concept further”

The festival is being pushed back from early June to August as part of its aim to be the year’s “last summer celebration before everyday life takes over”, and “to become a beacon of anticipation” for locals returning from their summer holidays and reuniting with friends.

“Syd for Solen is designed to be a summer tradition in the capital,” adds Thorenfeldt. “The festival-in-a-day concept has been enthusiastically embraced by Copenhageners, and the change in location enables us to enhance the concept further. We aim to set the musical backdrop for the city’s internationally recognised design, fashion, food, and culture.”

Former headliners include Aphex Twin, Bon Iver, Peggy Gou, Liam Gallagher, The War On Drugs, Jungle, The National and Iggy Pop.

“We brand ourselves as ‘Music to Copenhagen’ to fill the void of a city-based music festival, aligning with Copenhagen’s international image as a place of curiosity, open-mindedness, and a strong entrepreneurial spirit in the entertainment and experience industry,” adds head of festival programming Xenia Grigat.

FKP Scorpio became an international partner to Smash!Bang!Pow! after acquiring a 25% stake in late 2018.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.