Photos from the Tall Ships Race in Aarhus 2007

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Aarhus hosted the start of The Tall Ships Races in 2007.
The event ranks among the biggest in Aarhus’s recent history and will hopefully pave the way for more events of the same calibre.

The festive days featured a wealth of beautiful ships moored along every metre of the quay in the inner harbour. The ships ranged in size from over 100 metres to vessels of the ‘private pleasure yacht’ variety. In total, over 100 ships were moored in Aarhus.

Around the ships, countless marquees had been erected, offering a wide (and varied) range of food and drink. Many residents of Aarhus and East Jutland made their way to the harbour during these days, when the public festivities continued with undiminished vigour from Thursday afternoon until midday on Sunday. Heavy downpours on Thursday dampened the festivities without ever putting a complete stop to them.
As a result, many landlubbers from Denmark were given a taste of life on board the large ships. Either as visitors to the many ships open to the public, or chatting to some of the many crew members over a beer in the numerous festive marquees.

The event was probably the largest public festival ever held in the inner harbour areas. The area is well situated in relation to the rest of the city, and it will be exciting to see this area transformed into an urban harbour precinct in the coming years. Pier 1 may well disappear, but in return there will be more development to the north and south of the pier, and the entire site will be specifically designed for this purpose.

The weekend also demonstrated that the current location of the Grenå Railway, as well as the rolling stock currently in use, is not suitable for large crowds at the harbour.
For the harbour areas to be utilised sensibly, it is essential that the railway line is moved into a street route and that the rolling stock is of a type that can start and stop in the same way as buses and ordinary cars.

Aarhus can look back on a fabulous weekend, with a genuine harbour festival atmosphere. It was an event of a truly unique calibre, primarily because it succeeded in combining a public festival with an aspect of the harbour culture that has been so dear to Aarhus’s heart for 1,000 years.