To some ears, heavy metal is just noise.
To eight-year-old Le Krogh Runge, the hard-hitting music is a pleasure she shares with many other children.
She and her six-year-old brother Max had tickets to the 'Children's Metal Festival', which was held at the venue Tobakken in Esbjerg this weekend.
- I hope we get to go on stage and throw some hand signs, said an expectant Le Krogh Runge before the concerts began on Saturday.
At the children's metal festival in Esbjerg, children could get their faces painted. Eight-year-old Le Krogh Runge and her six-year-old little brother Max were going to try it. (Photo: © Private, DR)
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Venue reaches new audience
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Children like Le Krogh Runge have good opportunities these days to throw hand signs to heavy metal. The 'Children's Metal Festival' has, by the end of the weekend, visited eight cities in Denmark in 2026.
- We can see that we are reaching an audience we don't see very often at Tobakken. Here we get some very young people and their parents into the venue. It's fantastic, says Torben Seldrup, director of Tobakken.
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> If I've had a bad day, it can be nice to listen to some music
> where they also sing about being angry.
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Besides her little brother, Le Krogh Runge also had her mother Denise Krogh with her at the Children's Metal Festival at the venue Tobakken in Esbjerg. All three also attended last year:
- It was such a cozy day, says Denise Krogh.
The adults were not allowed to stand in the front row when Hatesphere played for the children at the metal festival in Esbjerg. So Denise Krogh recorded a video from a proper distance while her children jumped close to the band.
She believes heavy metal does not get enough attention on the radio or in music education at school. Therefore, Denise Krogh wants to show her children what the music genre can offer:
- People who don't know heavy metal think it has something to do with Satanism and that it's dangerous. I experience that the people who go to heavy metal concerts are some of the kindest people you can meet. I want to broaden my children's horizons and show them that this music also exists, she says.
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Big emotions
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Le Krogh Runge explains that she likes that "they shout a lot" in metal music.
- If I've had a bad day, it can be nice to listen to some music where they also sing about being angry, she explains.
Le Krogh Runge's favorite musician is Rasmus Seebach. But she also loves metal: "You can love several genres," she tells DR. (Photo: © Private, DR)
That metal music can be used to manage emotions is something Mikkel Smith Hein can relate to. He books metal bands to play for children in Aabenraa. Most recently, he booked the band Trold ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bquh8L5bfyM&list=RDBquh8L5bfyM ) to play a morning concert at the end of November.
- Metal is very energetic. It's full blast on the big emotions. So I think many children are drawn to it. And we think it's great to be able to support that, says Mikkel Smith Hein, acting manager of Aabenraa Live.
For three years, Aabenraa Live has organized metal concerts for children together with Aabenraa Library.
- I think metal music can be used to reflect some feelings and some anger that all children also contain, says the South Jutland concert booker and adds:
- Here, children also encounter some disorder. I think that's also important in a child's life.
After the concert, the two siblings Le and Max got the piece of paper that the band Hatesphere used to remember the order of the songs. (Photo: © Private, DR)
Back in Esbjerg, Le Krogh Runge and her six-year-old little brother Max experienced the Danish band Hatesphere, which plays thrash and death metal. After the concert, Le Krogh Runge called DR's answering machine and could report that the siblings had gotten t-shirts from the band and had been on stage throwing hand signs. Exactly as the young metal fan had dreamed of.
In the clip below, you can hear Le Krogh Runge's thoughts after attending the children's metal festival.
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