In the first weekend of August, one of the most popular traditions of the Copenhagen summer months unfolds in the picturesque inner city park Østre Anlæg: Stella Polaris, the biggest outdoor chill out event in Denmark - named after the bright North Star. It is completely free and attracts a mixed crowd of all types and ages.

The very first Stella Polaris event took place in 1997 in Vennelyst Parken in Århus, the second biggest city in Denmark. The idea was born at the end of a long club night and realized two weeks later with a modest setup, attracting around 400 people. During the next couple of years, the event grew in size with 5-7000 people attending each time, and in 2001, the festival was introduced in Copenhagen. Since then, Stella Polaris has been a double-header, unfolding in Århus on Saturday and in Copenhagen on Sunday.

The first event in the capital attracted several thousands, and after two successful events in Frederiksberg Have, the festival moved to Østre Anlæg, the park next to the national gallery, Statens Museum for Kunst.

In Østre Anlæg the dj-booth is situated by the pond, sending out mellow, slow tempo electronic music across the colourful landscape of private picnics and playful palavers sprawled out on the gentle slopes of the park. Speakers are strewn across the grounds, wrapping their electronic blankets of dubby and jazzy slo-mo sounds round the dark green August trees and the thousands of happy people, sunbathing in the grass, dozing off in bean bags or picnicking on chequered blankets. Everyone is relaxed, pleasantly tipsy or plainly absorbed in music, everything bound together by the trickling and crackling electronic sounds that seem to emerge from the landscape itself.

The unique electronic one-day festival has survived the occasional nondescript drizzle and even a year of heavy rain and strange hail showers, but somehow the clouds seem to disappear as soon as the music starts to play, and most years the event is bathed in blissful, sizzling sunshine, the atmosphere in the park reaching paradisiacal heights.

The crowd is a great mix of discerning electronic feinschmeckers, happy families with playing children, intoxicated after parties, smooching couples sharing kisses and cool white wine and the odd surprised group who just happened to walk by and decided to stay. Most of the people are between 20 and 30 years old.

Each year the line-up includes the very top names of the chill-out genre, and many of them keep coming back for more: Mambo resident Pete Gooding has worked his magic at Stella Polaris, and Space resident Steve Harvey has returned a whopping seven years in a row.
In 2007 Stella Polaris celebrated their 10 year anniversary with a star-studded line-up including Andy Cato (Groove Armada), Tom Middleton, Pete Gooding and Trentemøller and of course the festival kingpins and hosts, Buda, Nicka and Kalle B. The event attracted around 20.000 people.

Facts:
Stella Polaris is a non-profit event and is financed exclusively by funds, sponsorships and voluntary work. There is no admission to the event, which starts at 12:00 pm and ends at 09:00 pm. ’ChillOut’ wine boxes, beer and water as well as grilled skewers and noodles are on sale at the site.

The main powers behind Stella Polaris

Nicka Kirsteijn is the original creator of the Stella Polaris events. He has been dj'ing since 1988 and has played at every club in Denmark. He has also had several international gigs around Europe, the States and, recently, China. He has been a resident DJ and A&R for the electronic stage at the Roskilde Festival for several years and runs the label Okyo Recordings as well as the Okyo club nights and the Fresh events. When not involved with music production and party organizing, he works with biotechnology patents.

Kalle B has been a fellow organizer of Stella Polaris since 2000. Through the years he has arranged several different parties and festivals and is usually to be found in the liveliest corners of them himself. He also runs sales and marketing at the Danish music magazine GAFFA and plays drums in the rock band Lowmax. When he spins at Stella Polaris, he prefers the classic Café del Mar sound but is known to throw in the odd pop record in his sets for his own amusement.

The compilations
Since 2005 every Stella Polaris event has spawned a new chill out compilation CD, on sale at the park and available at music stores on the day after the festival. Each CD is compiled by Nicka, Kalle B and Buda aka The Stella Polaris Allstars, with an emphasis on tracks and remixes by Danish artists, mixed with a splash of international contributions. Many of the artists have performed at the Stella Polaris events several times, and the CD’s have received splendid reviews by the music press.

The CD’s always include a remix (or two) by the Stella Polaris Allstars themselves. One of their outputs, the remix of the Tina Dico track ’Break of Day’, has been licensed to numerous top chill out compilations like Hotel 3.14, Mambo and Renaissance. Other tracks on the compilations have had similar success, for instance Nove’s ’Sedatives’ (from the second compilation), which has been licensed to Global Underground and José Padillas Bella Musica 2-compilation.

Amongst the many high points on the albums are Trentemøller’s ‘Miss You’, Von Daler & Low Pressure’s beautiful dubby track 'Real Love' featuring Natasja and The Stella Polaris Allstars’ remix of the Danish band Veto’s 'You Are A Knife'.

Night Music Gallery – moving inside the museum and into the night
Since October 2006 the Stella Polaris crew has moved inside the museum to host two annual evening events, mixing live music and dj’ing with live art.

Night Music Gallery takes place in the magnificent modernist extension of the museum. The main stage is situated by the vast windows stretching from floor to ceiling overlooking the surrounding park, with the audience lounging on the steps in front of the stage or strolling about in the glass-roofed Sculpture Street that connects the old building with the new.

The basic idea behind Night Music Gallery is to mix music and art in a new way, creating a sensuous and relaxed experience in unusual surroundings. Bands and artists like Teitur, Ane Brun, Antophones and People Press Play have performed live at the events, supported by the Stella Polaris Soundsystem, while VJ’s create new visual presentations of the museum’s vast art collection, projecting mixed and manipulated versions of the art pieces onto big screens in the great hall – thereby mimicking the museums own strategy of juxtaposing paintings from different styles and ages to illustrate thematic or surprising connections between them.
Night Music Gallery has attracted the highest number of visitors the museum has ever had at any singular event, and furthermore, it draws a different crowd: The hybrid blend of music and art combined with a relaxed atmosphere appeal to the cultural habits of a younger target group than the usual museum visitors.

Facts:
Night Music Gallery is a collaboration between Stella Polaris, PROACTOR and Statens Museum for Kunst. The events have taken place on the 12th of October 2006, the 5th of May 2007 and on the 13th of October 2007. All the events have attracted between 4000 and 5000 people each. The audio/visual production group WeAre creates the art visuals. Apart from hosting the summer event and the Night Music Gallery, The Stella Polaris Sound System has played at the Roskilde Lounge (the chill out stage at the Roskilde Festival) three years in a row, from 2005 to 2007. They also appeared at the Skanderborg Festival in 2005, and in 2007 and 2008 the Stella Polaris Team was promoter of their own scene at the biggest promotion festival in Denmark – Spot Festival.

The park and the museum:
Østre Anlæg used to be part of the city’s fortification. The public park was created in 1876. Statens Museum for Kunst is situated in the southern part of the park and was built in 1896. It is the Danish national gallery and its largest art museum with a collection of around 1600 works. The modernist extension was added in ’98 to increase the available exhibition space.

Copenhagen:
Since the Danes are submerged in grey and cold weather for the main part of the year, the summer months in Copenhagen seem to carry a particular vibrant atmosphere. The city unfolds its charms with lots of outdoor events by the water, on the squares and in the parks, with Stella Polaris being one of the highlights. During the last span of years the city’s music scene, particularly the more underground and electronic parts of it, has experienced a growing success, due to the opening of dedicated quality nightclubs and the launch of several electronic music festivals, attracting international attention and international top names to the city.