About /
Heartland
About
Heartland combines live talks and contemporary art with the best parts of the music and food scene.
Heartland is a contemporary culture festival where people can meet and evolve alongside one another through the forming of communities and entertaining experiences. The festival takes place in the stunning, magical surroundings of Egeskov on the island of Funen, and is deeply rooted in and committed to the local community. The festival presents an international line-up of Music, Art, Talks, and Food, introducing a new festival format to Denmark.
Since the very beginning, Heartland has presented a variety of contemporary works from different cultures that venture through the ecstatic, the challenging and the liberating – exploring gastronomic evolution and political entanglements as well as musical heroes from the hitlists and new, up-and-coming artists. The festival program supports a multitude of voices, backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives, and aims to create a contemporary festival that triggers new ideas and thoughts.
Music
Heartland strives to create a musical program with great variety, presenting some of today’s most modern and ground-breaking artists. The international music program proudly presents well-known stars from the history of music as well as new, up-and coming artists.
Artists presented at Heartland in previous years include Eddie Vedder, The Smashing Pumpkins, Van Morrison, The Good, The Bad & The Queen, Solange, The Minds of 99, Jada, Brian Ferry, LCD Soundsystem, Lykke Li, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Katinka and Miguel.
Art
Although festivals usually are not associated with other cultural institutions such as galleries and museums, Art is nonetheless a special part of Heartland’s identity. The aim is to present art from established and promising international and Danish artists, and to show our guests that contemporary art is relevant for everyone.
Artists presented at Heartland in previous years include Brian Eno, Jeremy Deller, Hesselholdt & Mejlvang, Olafur Eliasson, Wolfgang Tillmans, David Shrigley, Henrik Vibskov, Jeanette Ehlers.
Talks
One of Heartland’s core values is to engage our guests and provide new perspectives for viewing the world. We hope to achieve this through another very important part of Heartland’s identity: our Talks program. Danish and international participants are invited to discuss and address ideas, problems, and solutions relating to the time and the world we inhabit.
We have had the pleasure of international names such as Slavoj Zizek, Judith Butler, Salman Rushdie, Jonathan Franzen, and Vivienne Westwood joining us at our Talks stages.
Food
Our ambition to create unique eating experiences with an emphasis on local produce and exclusive quality is what drives us to bring Food to the table at Heartland. Of course, everyone has to eat when attending a festival, but at Heartland, we are not content with just filling stomachs. By inviting a vast range of chefs, culinary experts, and food entrepreneurs to join us at Egeskov, we encourage our guests to think about and enjoy food in new exciting ways.
Some memorable names from our Food program are Claus Meyer, Jesper Gøtz, David Zilber, Frederik Bille-Brahe, Sine Klejs, Thomas Rode, Kong Hans Kælder, Jasper Koch, Mette Martinussen.