Kalvebodkilen · protected state land

An event venue for 60,000 people on protected nature

The site lies between Amager Fælled and Kalvebod Fælled, right next to Ørestad. It is owned by the state, protected since 1990, and leased until 2047. On 25 June 2026 the Copenhagen City Council voted 52 to 3 to proceed. The city budget is finally adopted on 1 October.

Write to a council member See the documents

This page is in English. Hele sitet og arkivet er på dansk, because the sources are.

52voted to proceed on 25 June 2026See the minutes
3voted againstSee the minutes
2047the year the lease runs to. The state cannot end itSee the answer
0species surveys carried out before the decisionSee the answer
The case
Six things the city's and the state's own papers show

Every point rests on a document written by the authorities themselves. Quotations are kept in Danish, because that is what the sources say. The English underneath is our rendering, not the source.

Politikerne · Document 001

What has been decided

On 25 June 2026 the Copenhagen City Council decided to proceed with a nature and culture park with room for up to 60,000 people on the golf course in Kalvebodkilen, the protected, state-owned land between Amager Fælled and Kalvebod Fælled. 52 voted in favour, 3 against. It is not a decision to build. It is a decision to investigate, and money for it has been requested in the 2027 budget.

Indstillingen blev godkendt efter afstemning med 52 stemmer imod 3. Ingen medlemmer undlod at stemme. For stemte: Ø, F, A, C, B, V, I og O. Imod stemte: Å og Q The recommendation was approved by a vote of 52 to 3. No members abstained. Borgerrepræsentationen, 25. juni 2026
Lejekontrakten · Document 002

The state cannot deliver the land

The land is owned by the state and leased to the golf club until 31 December 2047. The Danish Nature Agency, which owns the land and signed the contract, has stated in writing that the agreement cannot be terminated by the state, that a political wish does not in itself confer a right to terminate, and that intervening would require expropriation, a specific act of parliament, or a voluntary agreement with the tenant. The state considers itself liable for compensation, and nobody knows how large that compensation would be. The City of Copenhagen has stated that it does not know the terms of the contract.

Nej, et politisk ønske kan ikke i sig selv give staten ret til at opsige en gældende kontrakt. No, a political wish cannot in itself give the state the right to terminate a valid contract. Naturstyrelsens presseafdeling, 6. august 2026
Fredningen · Document 003

The right to walk there is protected in three places

The 1990 protection order keeps the whole area open to pedestrians. In 2023 the Conservation Board for Copenhagen refused permission to fence off the area and charge entry for up to seven days a year for a golf tournament, and in June 2025 the Environment and Food Appeals Board upheld that refusal definitively. The appeals board found that the protection order's list of ways to restrict access is exhaustive. The lease itself also forbids the tenant from closing the area's main paths, including during events.

bestemmelsen i fredningens § 8 efter klagenævnets vurdering indeholder en udtømmende oplistning af mulighederne for at begrænse offentlighedens færdsel inden for hele det fredede område in the appeals board's assessment, section 8 of the protection order contains an exhaustive list of the ways in which public access within the entire protected area may be restricted Miljø- og Fødevareklagenævnet, 3. juni 2025
Arterne · Document 004

Nobody has surveyed what lives out there

The city's own survey recorded five bird species with red-list status on the site, including the black-headed gull in the endangered category. For breeding birds the site ranks second of 45 locations in all of Copenhagen. Even so, the city's entire written assessment of strictly protected species on this particular site consists of two sentences from February 2024, based on a database lookup. On 21 August 2026 the Danish Nature Agency stated that it has not assessed the question in connection with this case. No species survey is planned.

Københavns Kommune har ikke kendskab til eventuelle bilag IV-arter på arealet. Der foreligger ingen nyere observationer på den nationale artsportal. The City of Copenhagen has no knowledge of any Annex IV species on the site. There are no recent observations on the national species portal. Lena Kongsbach, vicedirektør, 26. februar 2024
Fredningen · Document 005

The administration itself concluded in 2024 that it probably cannot be done

As early as 26 February 2024, the Climate, Environment and Technical Administration wrote that the city expects an exemption probably cannot be obtained, because converting the area into an event venue would conflict with the purpose of the protection order. On the protected forest on the site, the administration wrote that an exemption is considered unlikely, and that the Danish Environmental Protection Agency is the competent authority. That memo was on the table when the City Council voted two years later.

Det er imidlertid kommunens forventning, at der sandsynligvis ikke kan opnås dispensation, da omdannelse af området til festivalplads umiddelbart vil stride mod fredningens formål. It is, however, the city's expectation that an exemption probably cannot be obtained, since converting the area into an event venue would immediately conflict with the purpose of the protection order. Lena Kongsbach, vicedirektør, 26. februar 2024
Lejekontrakten · Document 006

It began before the proposal

The political proposal to find a site for a large outdoor arena was tabled on 13 November 2025. But the city's administration was already working on the golf course in December 2024. A meeting was held with the tenant on 17 January 2025, where two specific locations on the course were discussed, and where it was agreed that the tenant would inform the Danish Nature Agency of the interest.

Der er som sagt politisk interesse for en festivalplads i området og vi vil derfor gerne undersøge mulighederne for om der på den lidt længere bane vil kunne tages entré i området, der så både kunne muliggøre festival og golfturneringer. As I said, there is political interest in an event venue in the area, and we would therefore like to look into whether, in the slightly longer term, it might be possible. Mads Monrad Hansen, kontorchef, Team Planlægning, 20. december 2024
The sequence
What the authorities answered, and what was decided

Note the difference between an administration that investigates and an elected body that decides. They are not the same, and the timeline distinguishes them.

An authority said no Administration at work Political step Ahead
July 2023
The Conservation Board for Copenhagen refuses permission to fence off the area and charge entry for up to seven days a year.
See the document (Danish)
February 2024
The Climate, Environment and Technical Administration assesses that an exemption probably cannot be obtained, because an event venue would conflict with the purpose of the protection order.
See the document (Danish)
December 2024
The Finance Administration begins looking into an event venue on the site and writes to the tenant about it. No elected body had decided anything at that point.
See the document (Danish)
January 2025
The Finance Administration asks the tenant to inform the Danish Nature Agency of the interest in an event venue on the site.
See the document (Danish)
June 2025
The Environment and Food Appeals Board upholds the refusal definitively and calls the protection order's list of access restrictions exhaustive.
See the document (Danish)
November 2025
A member proposal in the City Council to investigate possible sites for a large outdoor arena. Five days before the local election.
See the document (Danish)
25 June 2026
The City Council votes 52 to 3 to proceed with the site.
See the document (Danish)
August 2026
The Danish Nature Agency states that the state cannot terminate the lease before 2047, and that it has not assessed strictly protected species on the site.
See the document (Danish)
1 October 2026
The 2027 budget is finally adopted at its second reading.
The words
The same word, nine years apart

Both quotations are the Lord Mayor's own public words. We have added nothing.

2017
Det er enormt vigtigt, at vi politikere kæmper for hver eneste grønne kvadratmeter i byen og på den måde værner om de åndehuller, der er så vigtige for os alle sammen. It is enormously important that we politicians fight for every single green square metre in the city, and in that way protect the breathing spaces that matter so much to all of us.
Sisse Marie Welling, as a candidate · EVI-007
2026
I København skal der selvfølgelig være plads til store koncerter – og det kan vi få med den her nye festivalplads med plads til 60.000 gæster. Samtidig er det virkelig godt, at pladsen også kan fungere som et grønt og naturskønt åndehul i hverdagen. In Copenhagen there should of course be room for large concerts, and we can have that with this new festival site with room for 60,000 guests. At the same time it is really good that the site can also serve as a green and scenic breathing space in everyday life.
Sisse Marie Welling, Lord Mayor, on the day of the vote · EVI-008
No party hid its position. The Red-Green Alliance wrote about a possible event venue on the site as early as October 2025, before the local election, and repeated it in a formal statement on the day of the vote. We do not think anyone concealed anything. We place the words side by side because they are public, and let the reader decide the rest.
The vote
All 55 seats voted. None abstained, none were absent

Eight party letters voted in favour, two against.

Why there are no names here. The City Council's minutes record how the parties voted, not how individual members voted. We therefore do not put names to a vote the minutes do not contain.

Ask for one condition in the budget

No planning or construction funds should be granted for the site until three things exist: a survey of the species, a clarification of the planning status under section 15 of the protection order, and a clarification of whether the lease can be brought to an end at all.

This is not a demand to drop the project. It is a demand to investigate before granting money.

Anyone living in the Municipality of Copenhagen can write to a council member. You do not need to be a Danish citizen. The tool is in Danish, and so is the draft letter, which is deliberate: a letter in Danish to a Danish politician gets read.

Write to a council member
The archive
88 documents, each with its source

The archive is in Danish. Every finding has its own page with the source, the page number and the verbatim quotation, and a short note on what the document does not prove. If something is wrong, write to kontakt@faelledsporet.dk and it will be corrected within a day, with the correction left standing.

Open the archive (Danish) · Forsiden på dansk

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