BornHack is moving to a new venue!

We are moving BornHack to a more central location in Denmark, on the west side of Funen. The new venue is called Hylkedam. The address is Hylkedamvej 54, 5591 Gelsted – which is on Funen.

Why Move

We love Bornholm, but transporting people and stuff to and from the island is expensive. Ferry tickets can be hard to get, especially with trailers or large vehicles. These concerns obviously apply to participants too – availability and convenience means a lot when people are planning participation in events.

The secluded location also means that some things are much more expensive than in the rest of the country – such as tent rental. We had to rent tents elsewhere and transport them to Bornholm, because it was cheaper, even with the transport.

Jarlsgård is not ideally suited for camping – the open areas are not very flat, and the flat areas are covered by forest. This makes it difficult to find a suitable site for a large village.

Neighbours are very close to Jarlsgård on both sides. Noise complaints are hard to avoid. The Jarlsgård venue is small enough that we found it difficult to place the Bar and Noisy Areas far enough from the Quiet Area to avoid conflicts.

The New Venue

Hylkedam is similar to Jarlsgård (the previous venue) in a number of ways. Hylkedam is owned by The Danish Scouts and is primarily used by scouts – just like Jarlsgård.

Hylkedam has a bunch of other advantages over Jarlsgård though, apart from just the location on the map.

Hylkedam is almost four times larger than Jarlsgård – 189.000m² vs 50.000m². Part of the venue is forest and all of it is lovely and protected nature – just like on Jarlsgård.

Hylkedam is more suitable for camping: It is made up of large, flat grass areas naturally separated by bits of forest. This layout is ideal for separating the various areas of BornHack, such as the Family Area, Caravan Area, Quiet Area, Noisy Area and so on. The venue is mostly surrounded by forest – the neighbours are far away (except for one area). The ground is sandy like on Bornholm, thus water will sink fast in case of heavy rain.

Hylkedam is much more conveniently situated in relation to public transportation. Only 3.5km to walk from the train station in Gelsted means our Shuttle Bus Team will have much shorter trips to make. Grocery shopping is available in the same town, and it has a hardware store and other neccesities as well.

Ticks on Funen have a significantly lower chance of carrying Lyme disease. The first three years of BornHack at Bornholm all had cases of Lyme disease – some more serious than others.

Hylkedam is further from the ocean than Jarlsgård was – but the nearest water is still pretty close.

What About the Name?

BornHack will keep the name. Bornholm will always be part of our history. The friendships and relationships we've built with people, suppliers, and sponsors there will last forever. But realistically many of the local suppliers of food, drinks and services we've been using will have to be replaced with new suppliers, which are local to the new venue.