I almost forgot about Kulturnatten. Again.
Last year, it slipped by completely unnoticed. This year was going the same direction until my social media started bombarding me with reminders. Copenhagen transforms for one night only, the ads insisted. Maybe it was time to actually show up.
For those who don’t know what Kulturnatten is, I’ll quote from their website.
“The Culture Night is Copenhagen’s biggest annual one-day event, where more than 200 cultural institutions open their doors on the Friday before the autumn holidays to invite the public inside for an unforgettable evening in the diverse world of culture.”
So, when Ahmet casually mentioned his plans for the evening, everything clicked. I’d just wrapped a K7 Week marathon, and the momentum was still there. The immediate question popped into my head: could we tackle Kulturnatten’s compressed timeline and actually experience something meaningful?
The questions followed: How much of Copenhagen can you really explore in just a few hours? Can you balance absorbing culture with the temptation to simply tick boxes? Can you experience truly unique programmes at scale when you’re racing against the clock?
We set out to find the answers.
How Did We Choose the Spots?
We set ourselves one rule: every stop had to be completely unique. No two churches, no two museums. We wanted variety, not repetition.
Meeting at Nørreport meant Sømods Bolcher became our natural first stop. From there, we mapped a rough route based on what was closest and when programmes were running.
However, we kept it flexible. In fact, some of the best moments came from spontaneous detours.
By closing time, we’d covered seven locations: Sømods Bolcher, Marmorkirken, Operaen, Nyholm, the Black Diamond, Glyptoteket, and Copenhagen City Hall.
Now, buckle up, and ride along with our journey through Copenhagen’s Culture Night 2025.
Sømods Bolcher
Have you ever wished to be in the Willy Wonka Factory? Well, Copenhagen has the next best thing. Sømods Bolcher is a traditional candy shop that was founded in 1891.
But what makes them special? I’ll quote from their website directly – “Sømods Bolcher is the only one in the world that has retained the old manufacturing method (candy), which is why the candies here are still made as they were over 100 years ago.”
While looking through the programme list, this one stood out to me. And as we were meeting in Nørreport, this was the most logical destination. When we were entering, we could already hear live music going on. And the moment we went to the premises of the shop, it felt so lively, and one could feel the joy in the air.
I felt a profound sense of nostalgia seeing children laughing with their parents. Moreover, it was really difficult to resist myself from gobbling up all these different flavors while being a sweet tooth.
Apart from the live music, there was a games section and a pop-up station that was selling candies. However, the most attractive part here was probably the live candy-making exhibition. There was this huge line for that, and we were giving it a second thought. To make a solid decision, we asked a random person at the start of the line. He explained that he’d been waiting there for at least 30 minutes, and if we had wanted to join the line back then, it would have taken us at least 1 hour.
So, we decided to move on to our next stop.
Marmorkirken
Copenhagen has many beautiful churches, and it’s hard to resist the idea of seeing Marmorkirken at night. Moreover, we had to listen to the Grammy-winning vocal ensemble Ars Nova.
Upon arriving at the doorsteps of the church, we were awestruck by the lit-up beauty of the marmorkirken ceiling. However, the real magic was in the musical brilliance of the ensemble. We sat down to enjoy the concert.
At one moment, I closed my eyes and focused on the music. It was 5 minutes of heavenly peace right there.
At the end of the concert, we took a good look at the church and went off to our next destination.
Operaen
After getting out of Marmorkirken, we decided that we would only take boats for the rest of the night. So, we walked to Nyhavn and then took the harbor waterbus to Operaen.
To give you all more context, this was the first time I was taking the waterbus and going to the Opera, even though I’ve lived here for more than 2 years.
At the very entrance, we saw a small musical exhibition going on. We listened to them for a minute or two and then proceeded upstairs to have a better view. People were sitting on the stairs and were genuinely enjoying the musical prowess of the young musicians. So, we figured going up would make things better for us.
However, there was something else waiting for us upstairs. A pop-up exhibition of opera costumes and a dressing room with a full-on theatrical vanity mirror. So, our curious minds drifted onto the display, and that led us to a corridor to the gallery.
Soon, we were sitting in the gallery and discussing the cultural nuances we faced after arriving here. We saw that people were having a tour of the center stage. And surely the spotlight was on them. We were genuinely enjoying the views and relaxing there.
However, the reporter side of ours took control, and within no time we were discussing approaching people about how they perceive Kulturnatten and how they are enjoying the night.
And within a minute, we threw our first ‘Hej’ to a random stranger. We were having an interesting talk with him, and as he was looking at his watch, we figured he was in a hurry. At that moment, we learned that there was a workshop happening in the building.
We gathered our courage and signed up for the workshop conducted by the performers of the upcoming show ‘West Side Story’. However, the immediate show was already fully booked, and the next one was 1 hour later. But we decided to experience that anyway.
To spend the next 1 hour, we consulted the Kulturnatten Map and found our next destination.
Nyholm
We walked from Operaen to Nyholm to catch a glimpse of Danish Navy ships. And here we saw THE ship, which became infamous for Denmark’s most humiliating military moment.
As we arrived at the naval base, there were three ships in the harbor, the hulls of which were outlined with fairy lights that sparkled in the reflection of the dark water. The whole thing was surprisingly bright and merry. Children were playing among the boats, military personnel in full uniform looked after us at the entrance of each ship, and there was this lively atmosphere which can only exist when a usually closed military area invites the public in.
We started with the smallest ship, working our way up in size until we came to the star of the fleet: HDMS Peder Skram. This was no typical frigate. This was the ship that was at the center of the “Hovsa-Missilet” scandal of 1982, when a live Harpoon missile was accidentally fired during a training exercise and destroyed four summer homes on Sjællands Odde. Being present on the deck where all this happened further enriched the overall experience.
But most of all, I was impressed by something that had nothing to do with the history. It was the openness of the military to visitors. On one of the smaller ships, officers were simply standing around over dinner preparations in the galley, having casual talks with the visitors drifting through.
On another, we saw a radar system actively scanning Copenhagen in real-time. The screen swept across the whole city as if we’d stumbled into a command center during an ongoing operation.
And then, naturally, there were the crew quarters. I was genuinely stunned at how small the beds were. These sailors spent their days in rooms that were barely bigger than cupboards, sleeping in bunk beds that seemed impossible. It kept us thinking about the reality of life at sea.
However, if you’re interested in the military, then there’s news for you. In one of the ships, we saw an invitation letter for people interested in joining the Danish Naval Home Guard.
We spent about 45 minutes walking through the ships, and it was surreal. This was not a Disneyfied museum exhibit. It was real military equipment, real military personnel, and real immersion in a world most of us don’t ever get to see. For a couple of hours, the divide between civilian and military life was completely erased.
And it all happened under fairy lights.
Operaen Part 2
We ran from Nyholm to Operaen and managed to cross the distance in only 12 minutes. We needed to cool down for a minute in the chilly wind outside the opera.
However, soon after, we went inside to attend the workshop.
This is the part where I confess. I’m an awful dancer.
The artists tried to teach us a dance set. Some people slayed, and some people performed like your average Joe. However, the most important part is that every time, everyone was screwing up, and we were all laughing. So, we enjoyed the workshop to our fullest.
After the workshop, we had a question-and-answer session where we learned that it takes them 8 weeks of hard work to get this ready. Our respect for the performers increased tenfold after attending this workshop, and maybe this was the highlight of the night.
After the workshop, we set out to go to Glyptotekt. However, a turn of events took us someplace else.
Den Sorte Diamant
After getting out of Operaen, we boarded a boat by Stroma. Usually, these boats don’t stop here, but as part of Kulturnatten, they were substituting one of the harbor buses.
Next, after a brief consultation with 2 different maps, we figured that getting off at Black Diamond would be the best decision.
Now, after jumping into the Black Diamond, we decided to take a quick look inside to see if there was something special here.
To our surprise, there was a special exhibition going on inside the building. Moreover, the light show inside was mesmerizing. Nonetheless, we went to see the exhibition about mysticism and alchemy.
At one point, we were discussing the possibility of any of the items being haunted. But shrugging off the eerie vibes, we went upstairs to visit the main library. As we were on a tight schedule, we looked around and tried to find an ancient book. With no luck on our side, we pledged to come back someday and find something super old.
With that motion in place, we moved towards our next destination.
Glyptotekt
This museum actually shouldn’t be on the list, because this was a last-minute stop on our Culture Night tour.
However, the museum decoration was spot on. It gave this subtle ‘Night at the Museum’ vibe. The concert by Bilal Ishrad was ongoing by the time we reached there.
In fact, we only managed to attend the last 7 minutes of the concert.
Soon, we headed towards our final destination of the night.
Copenhagen City Hall
Should we really mix politics with culture? But isn’t politics a part of culture? These are the questions I was pondering while walking to the City Hall.
However, it was a completely different vibe once we entered. You could certainly feel the tension inside. Everyone is busy explaining their cause. Moreover, because of the upcoming municipality elections, one could feel the urgency in the air.
We were lucky to talk to a few politicians, and they had time for short interviews. So we were able to speak to ‘De Skamløse Demokrater’, and with the ‘Youth Council’.
In our discussion with De Skamløse Demokrater, we became aware of the fight about Palads cinema. The building was set for complete renovation, but now it’ll be renovated on the inside only while keeping the facade intact.
Overall, the vibe there was lively. And at 23:55, the bell inside the city hall rang, reminding us that Culture Night 2025 had come to an end.
We went out into the chilly night and set foot towards our homes.
Reflection on the Programmes
We went to seven destinations throughout Copenhagen within one night. Some of them were mere minutes, and others were almost an hour. We did silly dances at Operaen, we gazed in awe at Marmorkirken, and we crawled through naval ships beneath fairy lights.
In hindsight, it was never a matter of seeing everything. It was about seeing Copenhagen in a manner that only happens once a year.
The beauty of Kulturnatten is its contradictions. You’re constantly racing against time, yet you end up slowing down for moments of authentic connection.
We spoke with strangers, we stumbled into performances we hadn’t planned on seeing, and we let the city reveal to us sides we wouldn’t have otherwise seen. The Black Diamond wasn’t on our original agenda, but that detour gave us one of the most atmospheric moments of the night.
It was access, more than anything, that resonated. To witness theatre vanity mirrors set out in the opera house corridors. To watch military personnel setting out dinner whilst tourists traipsed through their ship. To watch a radar sweep across Copenhagen in real-time. These are not things you can model on a standard Tuesday. Kulturnatten doesn’t just open doors. It annihilates barriers.
The Operaen workshop might have been the gem. Finding out that artists rehearse for eight weeks for what looks so effortless on stage, attempting (and failing) at choreography with strangers, and laughing together about our common misfortune. It was participatory culture in its best sense. We were no longer onlookers.
Did we tick boxes? Yes. But somewhere between Sømods Bolcher and City Hall, the boxes no longer mattered. What mattered was the rhythm of the night itself. The loops of inspiration, the boat rides between performances, the decision to dash back to Operaen because a workshop was it.
With that being said, it’d be awesome if the night could get stretched a bit more or the ticket prices were a bit lower. We were happy with the current settings, but as we’re humans, we can always hope. Coming from big cities, both of us loved seeing so many people out at night.
Kulturnatten demonstrates that you don’t require days or months to immerse yourself in Copenhagen’s culture. At times, a few condensed hours with the proper attitude can give you more tales than a week of meticulous planning ever could.
End Note
Kulturnatten reminded us why Copenhagen’s cultural life is important. It’s not only that the institutions are open late; it’s that a city invites you to experience it differently. One night was enough to fall in love with the city again.
So, if you missed it this year, mark your calendar and get ready for Kulturnatten 2026.
