Copenhagen: What to Eat, Drink and Do This Summer

Over the course of the coronavirus pandemic, Copenhagen somehow seems only to have become more thoroughly itself. With restrictions long gone (they were lifted in January) and summer at hand, the city’s outdoor spaces, designed to extract every bit of joy from summer, have multiplied. There are more harborside spots to sip wine and swim, while devotion to environmental sustainability has generated an entirely new hangout for the green-minded. The Danish fetish for buttery pastries has transformed itself into a veritable eruption of new bakeries, while the broader dining scene — already world class — has become bigger and better. And in a city where bikes already constitute the primary method of transportation, Copenhagen is preparing for its cycling apotheosis: The Tour de France starts here on July 1.

What’s happening

For the first time in history, the Tour de France’s Grand Depart begins in Denmark, with a 13-kilometer time trial through the streets of Copenhagen before moving on, during Days 2 and 3, to stages that start farther west in Roskilde and Vejle. On June 29, the competing teams will be presented first on a ride through the city and then in a special event, complete with live music, at Tivoli Gardens. The first day’s race ends at Copenhagen’s city hall, but a big cycling-themed party will take place in Fælledparkenon Days 1 and 2, with live music, bike games for kids and large screens for watching. On the morning of July 2, the route will open for cyclists of all skill levels to bike a “Tour de Copenhagen.”

But that will hardly be the only celebration. Danes love a festival, and they are greeting a summer calendar that is once again full of them with palpable relief. This year, all the old favorites — from the heavy metal paroxysms of Copenhell and smooth vibes of the Copenhagen Jazz Festival to the gastronomic excesses of Copenhagen Cooking to the highbrow discussions of the Louisiana Literature Festival are back, and have been complemented with new additions like Syd for Solen. But the biggest of all — more rite of passage than mere festival — is Roskilde, which takes place June 29 to July 2. This year it will attempt to channel all that pent-up energy with a postponed 50th-anniversary celebration and the largest roster — 132 acts, including Megan Thee Stallion, Dua Lipa, Post Malone and the Strokes — in its history.

What to see

Several of Copenhagen’s cultural institutions used the pandemic to finish…