Denmark’s consent campaign is moving into the country’s summer festival season, as Sex & Samfund prepares to distribute 70,000 condoms and speak with around 40,000 young people about safe sex, boundaries and consent at more than 12 festivals, public meetings and cultural events.
The initiative, led by Sex & Samfund, the Danish Family Planning Association, is aimed at meeting young people where many of them first experience large social gatherings marked by music, alcohol, flirting and new relationships. The organisation says the goal is not to moralise, but to make conversations about consent, contraception and personal boundaries a normal part of festival culture.
A consent campaign designed for festival life
Sex & Samfund’s summer tour will include some of Denmark’s best-known youth and music events, including Roskilde Festival, Jelling Musikfestival, Skive Festival, Nibe Festival and Bork Festival. The organisation will also be present at Folkely in Hundested, Ungdommens Folkemøde, Copenhagen Pride, Aarhus Pride and other events across the country.
For many young people, festivals are among the first places where they spend several days away from home in a dense social environment. The combination of new friendships, crowded campsites, alcohol and late-night parties can make it harder to recognise one’s own limits or respond clearly to those of others.
That is why Sex & Samfund wants the conversation to happen before difficult situations arise. Its volunteers will use quizzes, games and conversation cards to open short and informal discussions on safe sex, contraception, boundaries and consent. The activities will be led by around 150 young volunteers, recruited and trained by the organisation.
Majbrit Berlau, secretary general of Sex & Samfund, said festivals are places where young people meet new people and explore relationships. According to Berlau, the purpose is to help create a shared language around consent and respect, including in everyday situations such as sharing a beer, dancing closely, kissing or deciding whether to go further.
Why Denmark is linking condoms, consent and youth culture
The campaign comes at a moment when sexual health and consent remain prominent public issues in Denmark and across Europe. Denmark adopted consent-based rape legislation in December 2020, shifting the legal definition of rape away from a force-based model and towards the principle that sex without consent is rape.
But legal reform alone does not change social habits. Sex & Samfund’s festival work reflects a broader Danish and Nordic approach that treats consent as both a legal standard and a social skill. The organisation argues that young people often need language and confidence to talk about desire, uncertainty, contraception and personal limits without embarrassment.
The emphasis on condoms is also part of a public health concern. A recent RFSU Nordic survey found that Denmark has the lowest share of condom users among the Nordic countries. According to the survey, the share of Danes aged 16–65 who used a condom in the previous year fell to 37 percent in 2025, while condom use at sexual debut among Danish 16–20-year-olds dropped from 74 to 64 percent.
This makes the Danish campaign more than a symbolic presence at festivals. It connects sexual health information with the real settings where young people make decisions, often quickly and under social pressure.
Rising STI numbers add urgency across Europe
The initiative also fits into a wider European concern over sexually transmitted infections. New data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) show that bacterial STIs reached record levels across Europe in 2024, driven by sharp increases in gonorrhoea and syphilis.
ECDC reported 106,331 gonorrhoea cases in 2024, a 303 percent increase since 2015, while syphilis cases more than doubled over the same period to 45,577. Chlamydia remained the most frequently reported STI, with 213,443 cases across the reporting countries.
The agency has called for easier access to testing, stronger prevention services and faster treatment. In this context, campaigns that normalise condom use and reduce the stigma around testing can play a preventive role, especially among young people and people with new or multiple partners.
For Denmark, the issue is also cultural. Public health authorities and civil society organisations have long treated sexual education as part of wider welfare and equality policy. The festival campaign is supported through a new cooperation with Dansk Live, with backing from the Ministry of Environment and Gender Equality (Miljø- og Ligestillingsministeriet), the Tuborg Foundation and the Danish Health Authority (Sundhedsstyrelsen).
Parents are asked to start the conversation before festivals
Sex & Samfund is also calling on parents to speak with their teenagers before the festival season. The organisation says these conversations should include consent, contraception, alcohol and the importance of staying aware of friends in potentially unsafe situations.
The message is deliberately practical. Young people are encouraged to check in with each other, especially when alcohol is involved, and to make sure no one is left alone if a situation becomes uncomfortable or unclear.
This focus on peer responsibility is central to the campaign. Rather than treating sexual health as an individual issue only, Sex & Samfund presents it as part of the social environment young people create together at festivals.
A Nordic model of prevention in public spaces
The Danish initiative shows how sexual health education is increasingly moving beyond classrooms and clinics. By entering festivals, public meetings and pride events, Sex & Samfund is trying to reach young people in spaces where conversations about intimacy, safety and respect can feel immediate rather than abstract.
The campaign also reflects a Nordic policy tradition in which public health, gender equality and youth welfare are closely connected. As European countries face rising STI rates and continuing debates over consent, Denmark’s festival-based approach points to a practical strategy: prevention works best when it is visible, accessible and adapted to the places where young people actually live their social lives.
If the campaign succeeds, its impact will not be measured only by the number of condoms distributed, but by whether more young people feel able to talk clearly about consent, boundaries and protection before problems arise.
