Mads and Kristian don’t really care about the Aarhus Festival

I first met Kristian and Mads 8 months ago backpacking along the coast of Vietnam. After spending some time together travelling, we decided to stay in touch as I mentioned the possibility of coming to Aarhus in the new year to study.

Kristian invited me to visit his new apartment at Grønnegade, he also invited Mads and we were to meet at 18:00 on Thursday the 6th.

Kristian is 22 and studying economics, he has lived in Aarhus all of his life.

Kristian and Mads met in high school when they were both 17 and have been friends for 5 years now.

Mads is 22 and he is studying advance maths to improve his grades.

I asked them, “do you guys want to check out anything at the festival tonight?”

They both replied with “naaaaah man! We don’t really care about the festival, we live here!”

I asked why and they said they just aren’t interested, if they want to see a particular artist play (which wouldn’t happen at the festival), they would travel to another festival.

Kristian only moved in to his apartment very recently, and because of this he only has rye bread and hytteost in his fridge, and of course beer.

With no real intention of seeing anything in particular at the festival, their concentration shifted to finding a nice bar.

Mads looks back to taunt Kristian who is travelling by foot.

Word quickly spreads of the offer happening on the rooftop at No16, and it is decided by the Danish duo that this will be the destination of choice.

Both Kristian and Mads were very excited to find out that each gin and tonic is 25 kroner while the festival is on.

After a few drinks, we decided to part ways, me to the bus and them onwards to a club.

While walking, I had time to sift through my thoughts and try to piece together some kind of outcome from the night. My thoughts lead me to believe that when you live somewhere for an extended period of time, you do grow accustom to its happenings and the repetition can put you in a false lull.

The feeling I got from this night was that there was not a significant pulling factor for Kristian or Mads to latch on to.

Maybe because it was a Thursday night? Maybe because of their particular personas? Or maybe even the festival itself.

Kristian has 360 degree views looking over Aarhus from his apartment in Grønnegade.