Danish Culture Night at DTU

Project Description & Process

As part of my ESC volunteering journey at the Students Culture Hub of DTU (Technical University of Denmark), I took the lead in designing and hosting our first cultural event: Danish Culture Night. The goal was to create a fun, inclusive, and educational event that would introduce both international and Danish students to the heart of Danish traditions in an interactive way.

Planning Process:

  • I participated brainstorming sessions with fellow volunteers and Culture Hub coordinators.
  • Using our action plan, we broke the night into four main areas: food, art, games and history.
  • I was responsible for the event concept, content creation, logistics, promotion and hosting.
  • We sourced all materials ourselves and coordinated space, decoration and flow of the event.

Our goal was not just to showcase Danish culture but to create community and engagement through with every activity.

Implementation & Results

The event was held at DTU Campus and brought 250 students from many different countries. The night included several engaging activities that we planned:

  1. Smørrebrød Workshop

Participants learned to make Denmark’s traditional open faced sandwiches with classic and vegetarian options. Everyone could customize their smørrebrød while learning about food culture. I designed a poster for guiadence and created the reciepts.

  • H.C. Andersen Paperclip Art

We created a twist on Danish storytelling with a craft station inspired by H.C. Andersen. Participants reimagined stories through paperclip characters like Batman, Gollum, and Daenerys, combining tradition with modern pop culture.

  • Hygge Corner: Danish Pastries & Coffee

We served freshly baked pastries and warm coffee to build a relaxing space inspired by hygge. This helped create natural conversations and a cozy environment.

  • Cultural Presentations

We delivered short, visually-rich presentations about Danish culture, traditions, and everyday life to create a deeper understanding of local values and history.

  • Viking Tournament (Team-Based Games)

A major highlight of the night, the Viking Tournament included:

  • Runic Alphabet Game: Teams decoded messages using ancient Viking runes.
  • Archery Mini-Challenge: A simple but exciting bow and arrow game to hit the target.
  • Paper Longboat Race: Participants “rowed” from Sweden to Denmark using hand made boats in a strategic relay.
  • Banner Creation: Each team designed their own Viking flag with colors and mottos, building creativity and collaboration.

Each element of the night was designed, tested, and run by our team from scratch with a focus on sustainability, fun, and cultural value.

Results:

  • Over 250 students attended.
  • Participants from 15+ nationalities engaged with Danish culture.
  • Strong feedback from attendees who requested more cultural nights in the future.

Reflections & Learnings

This project gave me a platform to:

  • Strengthen my event planning and team coordination skills.
  • Lead public speaking and host duties in an international environment.
  • Explore Danish culture in a deeper and more practical way.
  • Build bridges between diverse cultures through food, art, and games.
  • Experience firsthand how culture-based events can create shared identity and belonging.

I’m proud of the community we created in just one evening. As a volunteer, it showed me the power of solidarity in practice: when people from different backgrounds come together to learn, share, and enjoy something new, meaningful connections are born.

This was just the first of many cultural events to come, and it set the tone for a year full of creativity and collaboration at DTU