Save the Culture celebrates creativity and highlights what Aalborg risks losing if the cultural education programs at AAU are shut down.

Since 1976, the music program has been an integral part of Aalborg University, contributing greatly to the city’s cultural life. The program has educated countless high school teachers, music school instructors, musicians, and cultural mediators—all of whom have left their mark on the city’s creative scene.

Now, the program—along with other cultural studies—is facing closure, not only as a consequence of the upcoming master’s reform, but also due to leadership priorities. To emphasize the importance of creative education, students are organizing the one-day festival Save the Culture.

The audience can look forward to concerts by rising artists Daddy Who, Jove, Maaneland, and Shyka Paya, as well as inspiring choir performances composed and performed by students, and art exhibitions from the threatened Art and Technology program.

The festival is a celebration of creativity, diversity, and education, as well as a reminder of how invaluable cultural studies are to both students and the city’s cultural life.

“The festival is not just about preserving certain programs, but about preserving an entire environment where art, music, and creativity can grow. When we lose these programs, we also lose the communities, networks, and opportunities that reach far beyond the university. The festival is both proof of what we risk losing and of the strength and unity surrounding cultural education,” says festival organizer Karoline Westergaard Eskildsen.

“From the sidelines, I’ve had the privilege of watching friends and acquaintances at AAU’s cultural programs create budding professional and creative communities. Many of the projects emerging from Music at AAU have deeply moved and inspired me, and they have had a major impact on my own creative work,” adds festival organizer Bastian Duusgaard.

“It is incomprehensible that the leadership at Aalborg University has now chosen to close down such central humanities programs as Music and Philosophy,” writes psychologist and author Svend Brinkmann, adding: “Universities provide knowledge and enlightenment to all citizens, and we should all be invested in preserving and developing them in the best possible way.”

All participants—both on and behind the stage—are connected to the threatened programs. The festival is free, and everyone is welcome regardless of background. Doors open at 18:30.