Denmark has done a lot of things well but the transportation is an absolute disaster. People are lost and the 3-hour tour to the island may turn out to be 3 years.
Escape from Eurovision Island
When you decide to leave there’s no signage. Nothing to tell you which way to go to find the harbor bus or the regular bus (I arrived via taxi so I couldn’t just backtrack). And there’s no one around to ask. The security people said head around a fence but that was just the start of finding the bus stop. There are several fences as the island remains a massive construction zone.
I have no idea where the harbor bus is (never found it) but I eventually found the regular bus – which stops about 2 kilometers away from the venue. So everyone is going to have a long hike to from the bus stop. For the press, who are carrying tripods, cameras, and other equipment, it’s a total disaster.
Even worse, the bus stop is at the end of a long 2 lane road. It doesn’t matter how many buses they have the evening of the shows, it takes time to load and unload a bus. Expect to be waiting a long time for your bus to finally reach the unload point when you arrive. And even longer when the show ends and everyone is waiting in line to get on a bus, loading them maybe 4 at a time (the loading area is very congested). You may want to bring a gas mask. There is a lot of dust and gravel when these buses start to move. It’s very apocalyptic.
Returning to the Island
So I figured I should check out the harbor bus by boarding it at the other end at Nyhavn. Well sticking with the Danish approach to transportation, again there is no signage. There’s multiple locations along the canal where the harbor bus is supposed to dock, but nothing to tell you which location is where it will be.
And… after waiting there for over 1/2 hour – no boat. Supposedly it is running but if it is, it’s invisible. Or going to a different location from what is shown on the map. If you’re going to the show and are thinking of using the harbor bus, be aware you may not be able to find it. Or it may not even exist.
Public buses 9A and 40 are now running to Eurovision Island, which is great. But when they drop you off you still have to walk for, like, 20 minutes.
Going to the EuroClub
Give Denmark points for consistency. Last evening after the red carpet event there were buses behind the city hall to take press to the EuroClub. The red carpet event ended at 8:20pm but the buses were scheduled for 9:00 so everyone was told to come back 40 minutes later.
And when we did, there were just a couple of us. So the bus didn’t leave because the bus driver was told to wait until it filled (they had a line of buses). He had no instructions on what to do if it never filled. After about 25 minutes I finally convinced them to take a mostly empty bus.
And Back to the Hotel
Ok, so the EuroClub was awesome. And Greece closed it down about 1:30am with about 300 very happy (and mostly drunk) people leaving the club. And… the buses stopped running at midnight. So you then had 300 people stuck in this industrial area away from everything waiting for taxis. I think the final people caught a ride early this morning.
Plan lots of extra time for travelling to and from the event. In fact, you may want to pack a tent in case it takes a day or two to get off the island.
Let us know in the comments how the transportation system has worked for you. Did you need 3 days supplies for the return trip?
Image courtesy of VisitCopenhagen.
Hi – im a dane from copenhagen.
I am not satisfied with the eventmanagers of this eurovision, specially not their overide of the budget.
So please post all criticism so we natives here in copenhagen get a better felling of the screw ups the crew and mannagement has made.
Thanks.
Is it ready already ?
And all previous ESC stages were built in the city, close to the bus stops .However this one is far, so you need to ‘forgive ‘ Denmark for this . And compare less with other stages 😉
Fortunately this stage did not make people homeless right ? ahem lol 😉
Malmo also did a great job, primarily because the main train line stopped at the venue.
To be honest, Azerbaijan did a perfect job with transportation in 2012. There were shuttle buses to and from the Crystal Hall every hour. Those buses would also take you to the EuroClub and the EuroVillage. Traffic police were working day and night in order to avoid traffic jams. The press centre was just next to the hall, so the journalists wouldn’t even need to walk.
It’s an absolute mess out here.
I was under the impression everyone (even the performers) had to arrive there on bikes! hahaha
@Riigi thank you for that snotty and condescending response. I just looked again and I did not see and signage in front of the press area pointing where to go for either the city buses or the boat (there are signs for boarding the press buses – starting today).
As to the boat, yes I looked at the website. However, a schedule does not mean the boat actually shows up. Although, since there were no signs at Nyhavn, maybe it goes elsewhere and the ESC map is wrong.
You can make excuses but Denmark has dropped the ball on this.
Fatima.
I too am accredited and there *are* signs, big massive ones… At least 6 on the walk from the press centre to the bus stop.
Googlemaps might have been helpful before hand to check the route, or even ask the lovely ladies at the Transportation Centre where you get your free bus pass from #justsaying
Riigi A Metnick, I think you’re missing the point that the writer is an accredited person and therefore entitled to use the dedicated (free) transport which has been organised for the event. It’s clear that this system has not worked well. Also websites aren’t much help if there are no actual signs at street level. Which was certainly the case in March and again now, by the sound of it.
Maybe had a little bit of research been done on the part of the writer he would have gone to http://www.movia.dk and clicked their english link where it would have told you everything!!
The boats are Nyhaven to Eurovision Island only – The walk is 8 minutes at most to the bus stop – the busses will be every 8 minutes throughout most of the day.
The harbour bus has a timetable on it, Monday to Friday at the top, Saturday and Sunday – Once again, a websearch of movia.dk would have told you everything (y’all). #justsaying.
And where do you park 10,000 bikes? I didn’t see a single bike rack.
I’m also not wild on the idea of riding on the narrow 2 lane road with buses driving along it – there’s no room.
I’m not there now, but I’m not surprised having attempted to walk to BWH when I was in the city in March. It was obvious that there was no clear road to the venue which was much harder to find that you would expect given that it comprises of two massive structures. I think Lars has a point, the locals are used to getting round on bikes so I expect transportation was not much of a priority. But that’s not good enough for people who have to carry kit, and I wonder how it’s going to work for the masses… Read more »
Rent a bike! Thats what Copenhagen is built for 😉