[quote]We believe that Halloween in Tivoli still has the potential to grow. By including the extra week, Halloween in Tivoli covers the school holidays in most Northern European countries. We are convinced that Tivoli Gardens can attract more tourists from neighbouring countries such as Sweden, Germany and the United Kingdom.” — Dorthe Weinkouff Barsoe, Vice President, Tivoli Branding & Communications[/quote]
Copenhagen, Denmark — Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens is reaching out to Europe by extending the Halloween themed autumn season for an extra week. Danes and tourists alike have embraced this foreign festival, making it the historic amusement park’s busiest season which now runs for three weeks, from October 10 – November 2.
Halloween in Tivoli, the autumn season at the historic Tivoli Gardens, has become a substantial success in a very short time. Tivoli aficionados initially frowned at the American festival being introduced in that most Danish of Danish attractions, the Tivoli Gardens in central Copenhagen. But seeing and experiencing what Tivoli’s Halloween is all about put all worries to rest. At Tivoli, Halloween becomes a Danish harvest festival as well as a show venue where ‘horrific fun’ is the order of the day.
Famed for its thousands of flowers and hundreds of old trees, Tivoli is no less beautiful when decorated for Halloween with 20,000 pumpkins, autumn flowers and harvest paraphernalia in ornamental tableaux throughout the gardens. The Danish Giant Pumpkin Championships are held on 11 October. It has been a warm summer and pumpkin growers from all over Denmark are looking to break the Danish record set in 2012 by a pumpkin weighing 451.4 kg.
The restaurants and shops will tempt you with hot soups, pancakes, warm beverages and an abundance of trinkets and gift items. But visitors will have to consider whether to eat first or ride first. Tivoli’s 30 rides are a mix of kiddie rides and white-knuckle rides like Aquila (5.2 G) or Vertigo (100 km/h top speed). People of either disposition will enjoy the 100-year-old wooden roller coaster and its classic rickety ride.
Tivoli’s three heroes and five witches perform every day in fun family shows on the open air stage. But visitors will also meet the colourful witches posing for photos, chatting with people and generally making an exhibition of themselves from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.
At night Tivoli turns scarier. The Haunted House, whose employees have an outlandish take on customer service, opens its doors. The Zombie Dance Show is performed on a new open-air stage. Taking inspiration from Michael Jackson’s Thriller, these zombies use dance moves and parkour freerunning to do their dark deeds. 25 October is Monsters’ Night Out and all visitors are invited to dress up.
Opening for the first time in 2006, attendance for Halloween in Tivoli has increased every year. The 2006 season was 10 days long, and a few years later an extra week was added. In 2014, for the first time, Tivoli’s autumn season will last for 24 days. The period from 10 October – 2 November covers the autumn school break of most countries in Northern Europe.
