The last NorthSide in Ådalen will be a taste of tomorrow’s festival

On 1 October, ticket sales begin for next year’s NorthSide festival. 2020 will be the last festival in Ådalen in Aarhus, before NorthSide moves to Eskelund – a new venue close by - in 2021. The new festival grounds will be twice as large, which means that a whole range of ideas and experiences which Ådalen could not accommodate can finally become a reality. Already in 2020, festivalgoers will get a taste of what they will meet at Eskelund with initiatives that both push boundaries, surprise and contribute to the feeling of community.

Although NorthSide still has one year left in Ådalen, work on the future NorthSide festival has been underway for quite a while. In just ten years, NorthSide has established itself as an internationally renowned festival with a sharp musical profile within indie and rock and elevating festival sustainability to a whole new level. But NorthSide is also a venue where guests want to be surprised and have their boundaries pushed, which both are in focus when shaping tomorrow’s NorthSide:

“The festival must be ‘a controlled chaos’, which is also the essence of what our guests expect: NorthSide must surprise, challenge and perhaps even disrupt them a bit. The festival must never be ‘just another music festival’, which is why in 2020, we will focus even more on creating the right atmosphere, new scenes and party events at the Festival”, explains Festival CEO, Brian Nielsen.

Inspiration from both abroad and Danish subcultures
In January 2019, NorthSide was named best medium-sized festival in Europe, and being part of the ‘premier league’ of international festivals is a key part of NorthSide’s DNA, which requires always staying in tune with the latest trends.

The team behind NorthSide has therefore spent late summer drawing new inspiration from the world’s largest and most recognised festivals, which will help further define the future NorthSide formula. However, according to Brian Nielsen, this is not just about having a big international outlook:

“A key part of what characterises NorthSide is our local community. For several years, we have supported people on the margins of society, and I hope that in future, we can make them a larger part of the festival, he says.

One of the projects is ‘Sidesporet’ (side-track), which calls itself “a space for people who don’t really fit anywhere else”. In 2019, they moved to a new area in Aarhus and NorthSide production staff are currently working on getting the site ready. The hope is that the roles can be swapped around at the 2020 festival, and that Sidesporet – and other subcultures from the local environment – can eventually become part of the festival and create a wider anchoring with room for subcultures and people from all walks of life.

“NorthSide is a place where everyone should be able to meet. Right now, we’re working on giving the people from Sidesporet their own bar in 2020. We see NorthSide as a place for building bridges between different types of communities, and we really hope this project will be successful”, says Brian Nielsen.

NorthSide is held from 4 to 6 June in Ådalen, Aarhus. Tickets can be purchased at NorthSide.dk