2013

Dear visitors of SPOT festival,

When you are in Aarhus for SPOT, you might as well pay a visit to the beautiful city. I was there last february for a few days, and discovered the most amazing places. Mostly cafe’s, since it was very cold. But you will also find recommendations of an art gallery, shops, a museum and a real cool architecture project in here!

All these places have been featured on nordicvibes.com, but I decided to collect them and make this guide to Aarhus for you. These are things you don’t want to miss while you are in town.

Even for the workaholics who think: “I don’t have time for this!” there is a nice café in the city centre: Lynfabrikken, where you can bring your laptop, use their wireless and enjoy coffee and pie or a cookie.

Enjoy the SPOT festival! I just might bump into you there, with a coffee or beer in hand.

Skål!

Janine SterenborgFounder of Nordic Vibes

Fika

Fika is the Swedish word for ‘having a coffee or tea with something sweet with a friend’. And I know, we’re not in Sweden, but at Nordic Vibes we just love the word ‘fika’, because it is a short and beautiful word for something that deserves it’s own name.

In Aarhus I had fika at a few places. Even though I was by myself, the nice café’s made my lonesome visits feel really cosy!

The five best café’s of Aarhus, according to Nordic Vibes:

Lynfabrikken 4

Stardust 5

Løves 6

VW café 7

Råbar 8

Visual art & Design

A lot is happening in Aarhus on the area of visual art and design. Loads of stylish stores have opened, two modern buildings are the landmarks of the city and talented artists surface in this city.

These three places are definately worth visiting:

ARoS 9

Kunsthal 10

Isbjerget 11

Shopping

This is probably more enjoyable for the females among us. These two store sell small items, ideal for gifts of just got to haves for the home:

Søstrene Grene 12

Plint 13

Fika

Lynfabrikken

If you are in Aarhus for business, this is a place you should definately check out. Lynfabrikken has a very nice café to sit down with your laptop and do some work. There is free wireless internet, they claim to have the best coffee in town and the have very tasty pies and cookies!

© Lynfabrikken

The building in which Lynfabrikken is situated used to be a factory. The old pipes are still visible in the café and the minimalistic interior and the iron robust staircase that leads to the roof terrace give the room a nice industrial feel. Besides work and coffee, every now and then you can enjoy an exhibition or a talk at Lynfabrikken. Keep an eye out on their events page at their website!

LynfabrikkenVestergade 49www.lynfabrikken.dk

Wireless internet available? Yes!

Stardust

When you enter a café and the first thing you hear is: “Hey, you were at Efterklang’s gig last night as well!”, you know you have found a great place. It was at Stardust. Stardust is a book store, record store and café in one and is situated just outside the city centre, at walking distance from the shopping area and Voxhall.

Stardust opened in februari 2010, and the owners are Jette and Juha, a Danish woman and a Finnish man. That explains the Moomin books in the windows and in the back of the store. They both love music and that’s what the fellow music loving people in Aarhus know by now: customers crawl through the new and second hand vinyl and cd’s and good music is coming from the speakers. They also have music books for sale, just like Moomin books (translated to Danish). At some days there are instore performances by bands, during SPOT one of Nordic Vibes’ favourite bands will play an instore: Nelson Can on may 4, at 4 pm!

StardustKlostergade 58www.stardustcafe.dk

Wireless internet available? No

Løves

Café Løves in Aarhus is like a mixture between a pub, a livingroom, a book store and a liqor store. It’s a cosy café with walls full of books and wine, wooden tables, candles en delicious tea and brownies. And more fika items of course, like coffee and croissants!

When you enter the store, you feel at home immediately. And that is exactely the intention of founder Kenny Jess Brandt, who started the café in 2012. At Løves you can buy hundreds of new books and you get a cup of coffee for free when you buy one of them. Besides books for sale, you can also read some books during your stay and in the back there is a big wall covered in bottles of wine, that are for sale too!

Løves Bog og Vin caféNørregade 32www.loeves.dk

Wireless internet available? unknown

VW Café

The VW café is situated just accross the street from SPOT venue Atlas, in a building that blends in with the environment. It’s easy to miss, but: don’t! It’s a perfect spot to relax or do some work, especially when you love the retro Volksvagen T1 vans and the vibe that comes with it.

The bar is called VW café because the owners own a Volkswagen van with which they visit festivals to sell their lovely coffe, tea and hot chocolate. This concept is visible in the café too! The counter is decorated by the front of a mini sized VW van, you can see quite some miniature vans in the café, the interior is stylish and the music is good! Just like the food, of course. There’s no wide range to choose from, and that’s a good thing. It fits the tiny café. The few sweets, salades, casseroles and sandwiches are just a perfect selection! In december 2012 this bar opened and it’s definately worth a visit when you are in Aarhus!

VW CaféThorvaldensgade 17www.vwcafe.dk

Wireless internet available? Yes!

Råbar

Råbar is right in the middle of SPOT festival. A perfect place to grab some delicious 100% ecological & raw food and smoothies, for either breakfast, lunch or diner, and hang out in their lovely venue. Or, when the weather is good, take it for a picknick on the grass outside at the bank of Å-Boulevarden.

© Råbar

The menu is quite special. In a good way. For example: they don’t serve traditional snacks, but a Plate with dates, nuts, goji berries and mulberries, or a bowl of fresh fruit. But no worries is you are simply up for a tea with a brownie: they also serve that!

RåbarVester Allé 15www.raabar.dk

Wireless internet available? Unknown

Visual Art and Design

ARoS - museum of modern art

This is not just a museum with paintings on all of the walls. The building is a piece of art itself, and even if you don’t have time to spend some hours in the museum, you can walk through the main hall, visit the café and the shop en get overwhelmed by the enormous hall. This should be easy: it’s situated next to Musikhuset!

One of the floors is built like city full of contemporary art

What makes this museum so special, is the concept: the basement represents the hell. It’s dark and especially designed for international light arts, video and installations. It feels ominous down there, but the livingroom where Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist simulates a whole day in just 8 hours, is a perfect place to sit down and let it all sink in. All the way at the top, you can walk throuh the rainbow circle by Olafur Eliasson, which represents heaven. It’s quite the experience...

Up the stairs, you find a lot of exhibitions. The most recent one is the one of Annika von Hausswolff, ‘It all ends with a new beginning’. Annika is a Swedish photographer, whose photographs reflect a psychological reality dominated by alienation, fear, and dreams. You can see her exhibition until august 11, 2013.

ARoSARoS ALLÉ 2www.aros.dk

Kunsthal Aarhus

Kunsthal Aarhus is located under the wings of the Aros museum, in a cosy building, where you can also just go to have some coffee and read a book or work. You won’t need a ticket for this! If you want to see the exhibitions, you pay a small entrance fee. There are different exhibitions at the same time, and they change every few months.

During SPOT 2013, there are two: Jutland Art Academy, Artists’ Association Guirlanden and KP14 Easter Exhibition//SPRING & SOLO. The first one is the exhibition of the final works of art students at the -indeed- Jutland Art Academy, and the latter will end on may 4: it’s a exhibition with new works of art, which show what is going on in the world of art.

No time for this during the busy SPOT days? Then just pay a visit to the café. They serve home baked bread and cookies, you can read or buy a book or the paper. The bags they sell are very cool: they are made from old exhibition banners!

KunsthalJ. M. Mørks Gade 13kunsthalaarhus.dk

Isbjerget (Iceberg)

If you are up for some nice architecture, come take a look at the Isbjerget buildings in the harbour of Aarhus. The part of the harbour where the old container terminal was situated, is now being turned into a whole new area, with cultural and social activities, work spaces and houses. The first residents moved in early april, during the SPOT weekend the second group of residents will move in.

Besides the rainbow circle on top of Aros, this is another landmark of the second city of Denmark. When you enter Aarhus by boat, these buildings are the first thing you see. Isbjerget ahead!

IsbjergetNear Østbanetorvet and Jette Tikjøbs Plads www.isbjerget.com

Shopping

Søstrene Grene

Søstrene Grene is like the older cousin of Tiger, if that rings any bells. In Aarhus the lovely Søstrene Grene has three shops, one of them is situated in the middle of the city centre. It’s a peaceful place behind a big grey front. The instrumental music combined with the lovely smells here and there and dimmed lights, create a new shopping experience.

Søstrene Grene is the brain child of the sisters Anna and Clara and they started Søstrene Grene in Aarhus in 1973. Now they have stores all over Scandinavia and one in The Netherlands. They sell beautiful items, such as mugs, bags, candles, toys, note books, food,... and way more. Some of the items are even designed by Søstrene Grene’s own design department! Despite this, everything is very affordable.

Søstrene GreneSøndergade 11-13www.grenes.dk

Plint

Plint is a small store, a few doors away from the previous discusses Søstrene Grene. Plint has a typical Nordic vibe, and in this store you can find a lot of beautiful items home decoration: pillows, plates, teapots, towels, teddy bears... everything is pretty.

A lot, if not all of the items, are from Danish designers like Ib Laursen and House Doctor. Plint also had their own collection, which mainly consists of tea related items, but they also have kitchen scales and cutting boards. It’s simple but stylish and available in typical Nordic colours.

Even though the store is small and not at all stuffed, you still discover things you haven’t seen during your first tour through the store!

PlintSøndergade 3www.plint.dk

About Nordic Vibes

Nordic Vibes shows Scandinavian music, fashion, visual arts, design and more on www.nordicvibes.com. All Scandinavian arts have a similar feel: the calm but also rough sea, the power of cities like Stockholm and the loveliness as well as roughness of the wide isle that is Iceland. The space, nature and silence that belong to Scandinavia induce a spark in many. Their eyes start to twinkle, only thinking about the Nordic countries, the Music of Moddi, movies from Susanne Bier and interior design by Marimekko. No one in The Netherlands however knows a place where to find the arts we all like so much. It's time to gather up, exchange experiences and to discover new talents.Nordic Vibes has a special place for music, mainly artists who play in The Netherlands and Flanders (Belgium), but talents who haven't been abroad or don't have plans for that will also be highlightedn. Arts like movies, visual art, design and fashion get more and more attention along the way.

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