The cultural differences between Copenhagen and in particular Jutland have always been known to the Danes. Half of them are a bunch of idiots who have no clue how to think before acting on their wild instincts while the other half are slow, overanalysing farmers. Now they are fighting over the battle of Eurovision.
Ok, things might not be as bad in Denmark as they are in for example Belgium where the political atmosphere is threatening to split the country in two or maybe three parts, but when you digg into the Danish culture you will find two parts of the country where the population behaves so different that it might appear like they are seperate countries.
In Copenhagen people will find it quite precious when a TV station drags a cow into a football stadium to show that the stadium isn’t full as it supporters are busy at home milking their cows. They find it an accurate description as to many who are born and raised in Copenhagen, Jutland consists of thousounds of farms and a few wanna-be cities with three churches, a small local store to buy the few things you don’t make yourself at home and a tractor repair place.
Jutlanders are used to it when people from Copenhagen talk about Jutland as a foreign country, where they constantly are surprised they can travel to without showing their passport. But the offence is no longer a one way thing. In Jutland you can come across people who are comparing Copenhageners to sperm cells with the explanation that only one out of a million makes it. The many big companies in the capital are easily explained by, the somewhat fact, that most of the top bosses orginates from Jutland.
There might not be that much thruth in the many jokes flying across the Great Belt, but if you visit both parts of the country for more than just a few days, you will see clear cultural differences shining through. You will experience how things do tend to happen a lot faster in Copenhagen, but also that speed sometimes seems more important than quality. They have a tendency to act before they think – and yes, that does make things go faster.
In Jutland it is quite the opposite. Things don’t go as fast as they here tend to think a lot and analyse the entire situation before anyone wants to do anything. Sometimes it gives the best result, but other times the moment might have passed before they are ready to act.
Now Copenhagen and a total of four Jutlandic cities have thrown themselves into the fight for the Eurovision Song Contest 2014. To people in Copenhagen it has become a running joke that every small village with five houses and a common toilet along the road are applying to host the event. Since DR decided that national finals can be taken outside the capital, the fans there are getting more and more frustrated knowing that they can’t be entirely sure anymore of what will happen. In many blogs online you will find examples of them concluding that there surely can’t be any other city than Copenhagen matching the hotel requirements. You will even find a prominent fan being so set on showing that no Jutlandic city can be considered that he exaggerated the numbers soo much that all cities in Denmark are out of the question, the capital included!
To the ones living in Jutland the frustrations naturally go towards that most things still take place in Copenhagen. They are frustrated at the politicians prioritising the capital too much leaving every few kilometres of motorway a 20 year long project, the football accociation for placing each national football match in Parken and in general for feeling left out. They want to show that they are not all farmers and that it is a long time ago they got rid off the horse carriage for every day traffic.
Between Copenhagen and Jutland you find Funen. No one really pays much attention to this part of the country, but everyone however agree that all they can talk about is Hans Cristian Andersen, and that whenever they talk, it sounds like they are singing. A good compromise might be to place the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest somewhere around Odense, but they haven’t expressed any wish to host it and no one really seems to know if they have a suitable arena or not.
So, who will be hosting the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest? We don’t know yet, but if it will be in Copenhagen don’t believe the Jutlanders when they tell you that all you will meet there will be big crowd of hyperactive idiots. And if it will be in Jutland don’t think about bring your own saddle in order to get around and don’t expect to be sitting on haystacks – unless they arrange a happening in order to tease the Copenhageners.
All I can say so far: See you in Denmark next year!
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