Smukfest delivers vital income for Skanderborg sports clubs

Local sports clubs earn significant income by helping run Smukfest, Danish broadcaster DR reports. Eighteen associations from Skanderborg are involved in the festival, working in bars, food stands, as guides and with the clean-up.

FC Skanderborg earns around one million Danish kroner from its work at the festival. That represents about 30 percent of the club’s income, according to chairman Thomas Krogh Mathiasen.

“It is very important to us and to the development of the club,” Mathiasen said.

The club has used the money to develop its facilities, including new artificial-turf pitches, as well as its youth department and coaching staff. It has also been able to employ development coaches whose role is to train the club’s other coaches.

For the club’s members, the work also provides a social setting. Different age groups meet and work together in the festival stands.

“The social aspect in the stands means a lot, and the different age groups meet and work together. It is genuine club life,” Mathiasen said.

Twenty-year-old Nikolaj Møller Poulsen, a member of FC Skanderborg, said he enjoyed working at the festival with friends, despite having to get up early.

“I think it is very pleasant to stand here with some of my friends and get a fresh start to the day. And I know that it benefits the club,” he said.

Skanderborg Håndbold, the town’s leading handball club, earns around half a million kroner by helping clean up after the festival, chairman Jens Christensen said.

“It is absolutely crucial that we earn this money at Smukfest,” Christensen said.

Smukfest runs through Sunday, August 9.