Tønder
Festival - A Very Friendly Takeover

On Tuesday 8 July 2025, Tønder Festival is bringing three important new artists to the Roots & Jazz Festival in Copenhagen. This year's ‘Friendly Takeover’ involves Jake Vaadeland & The Sturgeon River Boys, Elias Rønnenfelt and Northern Assembly. Admission is free.

Copenhageners, tourists in town and other music lovers will have the opportunity on 8 July to enjoy a foretaste of the special Tønder Festival atmosphere. The annual ‘Friendly Takeover’, a joint effort between Roots & Jazz Copenhagen and Tønder Festival, invites you once again to three free concerts on Den Røde Plads (the Red Square) at Nørrebro.

The musicians are the Canadian country, bluegrass and rockabilly neo-traditionalists Jake Vaadeland and The Sturgeon River Boys; the Danish punk poet Elias Rønnenfelt, and his trio; and the folk pop quartet Northern Assembly. All three will also play at this year's Tønder Festival.

On Den Røde Plads that day, you can enjoy the music, food and drink from the stalls, including South Jutish pickled eggs. Representatives from Tønder Festival will be on hand.

Tønder Festival ‘Friendly Takeover’ at Roots & Jazz Copenhagen

When? 8 July 2025

Where? Red Square (Den Røde Plads), 2200 Copenhagen N - access from Nørrebrogade

Programme

16:00: Northern Assembly

18:00: Elias Rønnenfelt

20:00: Jake Vaadeland & The Sturgeon River Boys

Admission is free to all the concerts.

Read more about Roots & Jazz Copenhagen at www.rootsjazz.dk

THE MUSICIANS

Jake Vaadeland & The Sturgeon River Boys (CAN)

Jake Vaadeland and his band, The Sturgeon River Boys, took the Tønder audience by storm in 2024, and here they are again.

This promising, 22 year-old multi-instrumentalist and songwriter from Saskatchewan in Canada has already achieved imposing status on the Canadian folk roots scene and internationally.

He has won two Saskatchewan Music Awards and four Saskatchewan Country Music Awards and is the youngest ever winner of the Canadian Road Gold Certification prize.

This prize was awarded to him and his band for selling 25,000 concert tickets in 12 months in 2024. Authenticity is the key to Jake Vaadeland's success. He masters the guitar and banjo and flies the flag for traditional country, bluegrass and 50s rockabilly music. Among his idols are bluegrass legends Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. His classic, old-school learnings are apparent in his personal style, his musical preferences and his stage performance. As he says in his song Retro Man from 2021, “I’m a retro man with a retro plan”.

Jake Vaadeland's latest album Retro Man… More and More (Expanded Edition) clearly displays his talent for storytelling and his musical virtuosity, and his songs are frequently heard on radio stations in Canada, USA and UK. www.jakevaadeland.com

Elias Rønnenfelt (DK)

Elias Rønnenfelt is best known for his dynamic work as frontman for the post-punk band Iceage, who had their international breakthrough in the 2010s. Now we see him as a soloist too. In October 2024 he released a closely personal country album Heavy Glory. The album took shape in the spring of 2022, towards the end of the pandemic, when he travelled through Europe with an acoustic guitar, a notebook, and the aim of playing for anyone who would listen. He wrote songs along the way,and played them the following day. The songs were born in woods, in living rooms, bookshops and chapels, and became the core of the album.

Heavy Glory (2024) has won plaudits from critics at home and abroad for its unpolished poetry and stories of isolation, excess and endurance in the midst of chaos. Four short months after that solo debut, Elias Rønnenfelt released the EP Lucre (2025), a pop, rock and country mix he made in collaboration with British artist Dean Blunt and the producer Vegyn.

Accompanied by a good band, Elias Rønnenfelt has played many concerts for full houses, and both critics and listeners have reacted positively. Now it's Tønder Festival's turn. With his intense singing and raw presence, Elias Rønnefelt (and his trio) will show us what music across genres sounds like when it comes from a full-throttle punk poet. www.pitchperfectpr.com/elias-ronnenfelt

Northern Assembly (DK/FO/UK)

Northern Assembly's storytelling is the core of this quartet from Aarhus, while their sound is folk pop music weaving enticing beats, double bass, guitar, piano and sweet harmonies.

Fronting Northern Assembly is Danish-Faroese Dina Dánialsdóttir and British Andreas Bevan, whose passion for authentic narration and music is shared by bassist Jesper Smalbro and drummer Jens Hedegaard.

Northern Assembly's two releases, Death, won’t you marry me?(2018) and Closer Together (2019) met with critical praise, the latter being one of the most played albums of the year on Radio Denmark's P5. Their latest album The Choir of Trembling Hands (2023), prompted the Danish music magazine GAFFA offering: "...it's like the sun bursting through after a long, rainy autumn" and crowned the review with four stars.

After a couple of hundred concerts at home and abroad, three albums plus annual Xmas releases since 2017, Northern Assembly have established quite firmly that they are capable of writing and

playing fine music. Powerful songwriting, magnificent production, mellifluous harmonies, magnetic stage presence, humour and storytelling assure Northern Assembly's place at the absolute top of Danish folk music. www.northernassembly.com

Tønder Festival 2025 – so far:

Lyle Lovett and his Acoustic Group (USA), Take Me To The River (USA), Joe Henry (USA), Sons Of The East (AUS), Natalie McMaster & Donnell Leahy (CAN), Elephant Sessions (SCO), Oysterband (ENG), Rikke Thomsen (DK), John Smith (UK), Jeffrey Foucault, (USA), Tina Dickow and Helgi Jonsson (DK, IS), Melissa Carper (USA), Fantastic Negrito (USA), Adeem The Artist (USA), The Lonesome Ace Stringband (CAN), The Langan Band (SCO), Quote the Raven (CAN), Michael Falch & Zonen (DK), Jake Vaadeland & The Sturgeon River Boys (CAN), Flook (IRL, ENG, UK), The Hello Darlins (CAN), Trousdale (USA), Allan Olsen & Norlan (DK), Kellie Loder (CAN), Matt Andersen (CAN), Stundom (DK), The Complete Recordings of Hezekiah Procter (CAN), Talisk (SCO), Nanna Carling Swingband (SE), Hans Theessink Band (NL, ZW, A), Avi Kaplan (USA), S.G. Goodman (USA), Elias Rønnenfelt (DK), Evan Honer (USA), Mànran (SCO), Kellermensch (DK), Dervish (IRL), ULD (NO), Crowe Boys (USA), Väsen & Hawktail (USA/SE).

Tønder Festival 27th, 28th, 29th and 30th August 2025

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