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Celebrating dark skies at a festival in deepest Denmark

At a novel sci-art festival celebrating the many cultural and scientific needs for dark skies in a time of serious light pollution, Alex Wilkins looks for hope

By Alex Wilkins

3 January 2024

HC Gilje — Installation Pigs in Space by HC Gilje
Tarup Dark Sky Festival

Biennial science and art festival Funen, Denmark

IN A village on Denmark’s third-largest island, a group of astronomers, artists, performers and enthusiasts gather to celebrate the night sky, and to mourn its loss. Its remote location could have made it a tricky place to hold a festival to honour the heavens, but the village of Tårup (population 290) is unique: its residents have chosen to have no street lights, making it an enclave of darkness.

It is a bad time to be a stargazer. …

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