H.C. Andersen Festivals

H.C. Andersen Festivals is an annual, cultural festival located in Odense – the hometown of the famous Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. Andersen’s literary works have been translated to more than 150 languages, making him worldwide famous for his many great fairytales. H.C. Andersen Festivals EVERYTHING CAN HAPPEN H.C. Andersen Festivals is a cultural festival where everything can happen. The artistic universe of H.C. Andersen is the framework for a whole week full of original, surprising, and different experiences. At the festival you can experience theatre shows, lectures and guided tours, but also different things like street art, concerts, light shows and much, much more. Every single activity has been inspired by H.C. Andersen and his universe and they will all fuel your imagination. You can access the program for the festival on our website. One of the biggest cultural festivals in Denmark The first time H.C. Andersen Festivals took place was in 2013 and it had around 260 activities included. Today the 8-day-festival offers more than 500 cultural activities, for all ages, and most of the activities are free. H.C. Andersen Festivals is a non-profit organisation that wants to create value for the city, the citizens, and the visitors. H.C. Andersen Festivals is mostly run by volunteers, sponsors, partnerships, a small amount of audience payments, and funds. Odense Kommune is a very treasured partner, although 80% of the festival’s budget comes from private firms and funds. At H.C. Andersen Festivals we value everyone who wants to lend a helping hand. Be it organization members, sponsors, or individual volunteers during the festival or in the office. Volunteering is thus one of the great driving forces of the festival. Up to 250 volunteers help make the festival happen every year, consisting of both private individuals and organisational members working together. H.C. Andersen Festivals is based on a strong collaboration between private companies, culture- and education institutions as well as Odense Kommune. At H.C. Andersen Festivals we work on the vision of the festival by cooperating with passionate people from the field of culture and education all of whom engage in the various committees of the organisation. The vision of H.C. Andersen Festivals is to increase the awareness of Odense both nationally and internationally by way of the universe created by H.C. Andersen. The eternal universe of H.C. Andersen His universe is fairy tales, imagination, experiences, wonderment, and much more. This festival finds itself in this magical universe through five keywords formed by The Hans Christian Andersen Centre and especially professor emeritus Johannes Nørregaard Frandsen from University of Southern Denmark. These keywords act as the focal point of the festival’s programmed content. In the framework of H.C. Andersen’s universe there is room for imagination, tradition, and innovation as well and H.C. Andersen Festivals offers it all. The keywords show the spaciousness and the format of the universe of H.C. Andersen. He is an artist and an icon of such significance that he just simply cannot be worn down. It is thus nothing but respecting his legacy to make his creations the centre of this festival. Odense will be illuminated in his honour, which is what he was predicted as a child, and it is what happened in 1867 when he was made and honourable citizen. His art is remarkably modern! The themes that are present everywhere in his stories are themes and issues that we still grapple with today, says Johannes Nørregaard Frandsen. H.C. Andersen is world famous for his authorship, and he is read, understood, and used across borders – both geographical, ethnical, educational, and generational. With his fairy tales, travel journals, novels, paper cut outs, and poems he communicated the values that he considered important in his time. The themes he put into his fairy tales are themes we still very much must face today in our modern world.