Social Events
Welcome Reception
On the evening of Sunday 8 August, we will hold a welcome reception at the Panum institute, where registration, and most of the rest of the congress will take place. This will be an informal occasion, with hot food available from 19:00.
Tivoli gardens
Every participant and accompanying person will receive an entrance ticket to Tivoli gardens as part of the conference package. This can be used at any time, but we have set aside the evening of Wednesday, August 11 as a time for visiting Tivoli as a social event, and the organized tours for Wednesday afternoon will have Tivoli gardens as their end point.
TIVOLI GARDENS is a famous amusement park and pleasure garden in Copenhagen. The park opened on August 15, 1843 and is one of the oldest amusement park which has survived intact to the present day. Tivoli's founder, Georg Carstensen (1812 -1857) obtained a five-year charter to create Tivoli by telling King Christian VIII that "when the people are amusing themselves, they do not think about politics". The monarch granted Carstensen use of roughly 15 acres of the fortified slopes outside the West Gate at an annual rent of 945 kroner. Therefore, until the 1850s, Tivoli was outside the old city, accessible through the West Gate.
From the very beginning, Tivoli included a variety of attractions: buildings in the exotic style of an imaginary Orient: a theatre, band stands, restaurants and cafés, flower gardens, and mechanical amusement rides such as a merry-go-round and a primitive rollercoaster . After dark, colored lamps illuminate the gardens. Most of these attractions have been improved upon and carried over until present day and Tivoli is today a very special mix of old and new entertainment.
Tivoli is always evolving without abandoning its original charm or traditions. As founder Georg Carstensen said in 1844, "Tivoli will never, so to speak, be finished". During a trip overseas Walt Disney visited Tivoli Gardens with his wife Lilly and was so impressed with the Danish amusement park, he immediately decided Disneyland should try to emulate its "happy and unbuttoned air of relaxed fun." Stroll around the park and enjoy the special atmosphere, the beautiful flowers, the fun rides and the magic that is Tivoli.
Congress Banquet
The congress banquet will be held at the Odd Fellow Palace on the evening of Friday, August 13. The Odd Fellow Palace (1755) was originally built as a private palace for Christian August von Berckentin, and was an important gathering place for the nobility and royalty of Copenhagen. It was later extended, with the addition of a large concert hall in the mid nineteenth century, when it was known as the Koncertpalae. In 1901 the Independent Order of Odd Fellows purchased the palace as their Danish headquarters, and it is used for lodge meetings for all the Copenhagen chapters. The palace was extensively, but sympathetically, renovated in 1992, and retains its rennaissance atmosphere while providing excellent meeting and dining facilities.
The congress banquet will be a three course buffet meal with an extensive selection of hot and cold dishes with a primarily Scandinavian flavour. We will have the exclusive use of the palace for the evening, with some 100 tables set up throughout the building, so you will be able to choose whether to dine in the grand concert hall, the hall of mirrors, the knight's room, the music room, or the more intimate surroundings of the gentlemen's or ladies' rooms. Drinks will be provided with the meal, and there will be cash bar available throughout the evening.