Denmark and Lithuania embrace the drive-in concert

Danish fans attend Mads Langer's show at Tangkrogen, Aarhus
Danish fans attend Mads Langer's show at Tangkrogen, Aarhus (Image credit: Mikkel Berg Pedersen / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP - Getty)

The world of live music has been thrown into turmoil due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Most spring and summer tours and festivals have either been postponed or called off entirely, due to limits on mass gatherings and the issuing of social distancing guidelines.

One health expert last month even reported that concerts and sporting events as we know them were unlikely to resume until at least autumn 2021.

But in Denmark and Lithuania, they’ve come up with a new way of giving fans a live music fix: the drive-in concert.

Danish singer/songwriter Mads Langer recently sold 500 tickets for a concert at Tangkrogen on the outskirts of Aarhus – at an outdoor location that was transformed into a drive-in cinema the following day, according to Forbes.

Langer later posted images from the concert, saying: “That feeling when you reunite with your audience although they were sitting safely in their cars.”

And in Lithuania, a series of drive-in concerts are being held at the Palūknio airfield close to the country’s capital Vilnius.

LRT report that several of the country’s best-known artists have been playing, with Giedrė Kilčiauskienė telling the crowd: “It's something unreal. You can’t imagine how it all looks from the stage.

“Instead of shouting, ‘Show me your hands,’ I feel like saying, ‘Move windscreen wipers left to right.’”

Could we see more drive-in concerts across the world as the year moves forward?

Despite the lockdown affecting the live music scene, artists have been coming up with ingenious and creative ways to share their music online.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent 35 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott keeps Louder’s buyer’s guides up to date, writes about the best deals for music fans, keeps on top of the latest tech releases and reviews headphones, speakers, earplugs and more. Over the last 10 years, Scott has written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog. He's previously written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald newspapers, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to tech reviews, video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.