Danish venues bring heavy metal to children

More Danish music venues are staging heavy metal concerts for children, with a festival drawing young fans and their families to Esbjerg this weekend, DR reports.

Eight-year-old Le Krogh Runge and her six-year-old brother, Max, attended Børnenes Metalfestival at Tobakken, a music venue in Esbjerg. Before the concerts began on Saturday, Le said she hoped to get on stage and throw the metal horns.

The festival has visited eight Danish cities in 2026. Tobakken director Torben Seldrup said the events bring a new audience to the venue, with young children and their parents coming in.

Le’s mother, Denise Krogh, said the family also attended last year and wanted to introduce the children to a genre she feels receives too little attention on the radio and in school music lessons. She said some people associate heavy metal with Satanism or danger, but her experience of concertgoers is that they are among the kindest people.

Le said she likes that metal musicians “shout a lot” and that songs about being angry can help after a bad day. She also likes singer Rasmus Seebach, saying it is possible to love more than one genre.

Mikkel Smith Hein, acting head of Aabenraa Live, which has organised children’s metal concerts with Aabenraa Library for three years, said the music’s energy and strong emotions can appeal to children. He also said it gives them a chance to encounter disorder, which he considers important in childhood. The organisation has booked the band Trold for a morning concert in Aabenraa in late November.

At the Esbjerg festival, the Danish band Hatesphere, which plays thrash and death metal, performed for the children. After the show, Le and Max got band T-shirts and went on stage to throw the metal horns, fulfilling Le’s wish.