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The fight for Holmen Dirt

In October 2021, after more than 20 years of building, riding, and growing a community in the heart of Copenhagen, we were told it was over. The municipality ordered us to remove all our jumps and ramps within six months. The oldest and most progressive dirt jump spot in Denmark — a place that had been home to hundreds of riders since 1999 — was being shut down.

This is the story of how we fought back.

22 years on Arsenaløen

Holmen Dirt started in the late 1990s on Arsenaløen, near Christianshavn. A few riders started shaping dirt, building jumps, and creating something from nothing. Over the years it grew into a real community — a place where kids, teenagers, and adults came to ride BMX, dirt jump, and mountain bike. We built trails, we maintained the green space, we ran training sessions, summer camps, and partnered with local institutions to give vulnerable and disadvantaged kids a chance to try cycling.

By 2021 we had over 300 members. Hundreds of Copenhagen kids used our tracks every week. The course was free and open to everyone. Everything was run by volunteers who poured their hearts and countless hours into keeping the place alive.

For two decades, we had a good relationship with the municipality. We thought we were on the same side.

The order to demolish

Our tracks sit near Christianshavns Vold — the historic fortification walls that are protected as a fortidsminde (ancient monument) under Danish law. There is a protection zone around these walls where, in principle, no changes to the terrain are allowed.

We had been there for 20 years without issue. But as our membership grew, the municipality suddenly decided to act. On October 6, 2021, Teknik- og Miljøforvaltningen (the Technical and Environmental Administration) denied our application for a dispensation to keep the tracks. The Kultur- og Fritidsforvaltningen (Culture and Leisure Administration) had applied on our behalf, but their own colleagues in the technical department shot it down.

We were given six months to tear everything down. Twenty-two years of work, 300–400 tons of carefully shaped soil, a community of hundreds of kids and families — all to be erased.

What city do we want?

What made the order so hard to accept wasn't just the loss itself — it was the double standard. Other buildings had been constructed on the same protected land without issue. A football field sits literally five meters from our entrance. The municipality claimed our tracks "disturbed the experience of the moat facility and visibility" but couldn't explain how, exactly, we were any different from everything else built on and around the same site.

I asked the question publicly: what city do we want? Only cafés and expensive apartments? Or should there be room for leisure activities, for kids, for communities that aren't driven by profit?

We had built a place where parents felt safe sending their children. You can't just start that over somewhere else. Relocation would cost millions of kroner and years of rebuilding — if we could even find suitable land in Copenhagen, which is nearly impossible.

Fighting back

We refused to accept it. On October 27, 2021, we filed a formal appeal with Miljø- og Fødevareklagenævnet (the Environmental and Food Appeals Board).

At the same time, the community mobilised. A petition on Change.org gathered over 3,400 signatures. The story was picked up across Danish media — TV2 reported on the unique cycling track getting its death sentence after 20 years, Berlingske covered the confrontation between cultural heritage and recreational life in Copenhagen's green heart, BT ran the story,Havnefronten followed the case from start to finish, and Idrætsmonitor covered the resolution. People who had never even ridden at Holmen Dirt spoke up because they understood what was at stake: a living, breathing community space in the middle of the city.

Putting it on the political agenda

November 2021 was election month in Copenhagen. The municipal election was just days away, and we decided this was the moment to make our voice impossible to ignore. We organised a political debate right here at Holmen Dirt — on the dirt, among the jumps, in the space the municipality wanted to erase.

We called the event "Holmen Dirt sætter idræt og cyklisme på dagsordenen" — Holmen Dirt puts sport and cycling on the agenda. And the politicians came. Representatives from five parties sat down for a panel debate about what they would do for culture and sport in Copenhagen after the election:

Fatima H. Ladefoged, a municipal election candidate and active member of Cyklistforbundet (the Danish Cyclists' Federation), opened the event. I gave a status update on Holmen Dirt and the situation we were facing. Then the candidates met our community, walked the trails, saw what we had built over 22 years — and sat down for a live-streamed debate about the future of sport and outdoor recreation in Copenhagen.

The entire debate was live-streamed on YouTube, produced by 4K Projects — a media company run by one of our own community members who stepped up to make sure the world could watch.

Every single one of them expressed support. When politicians stand on the actual ground that their bureaucracy wants to bulldoze, the conversation changes.

The case also reached the formal political level. In April 2022, the Teknik- og Miljøudvalget (Technical and Environmental Committee) at Copenhagen City Hall discussed the case. They proposed alternatives — relocating containers, shrinking the facility — but we rejected those as unrealistic. You cannot fit 22 years of trails into a corner. The committee ultimately postponed any decision while our appeal was pending.

Victory

In the summer of 2022, the ruling came. Miljø- og Fødevareklagenævnet overturned the municipality's decision. The ruling was final and could not be appealed further.

The board found that our tracks had "only limited impact" on the experience of the fortification — which was already visually disrupted by existing buildings on the ramparts themselves. They emphasised that our association has a recognised public purpose: the track is free and open to everyone, run entirely by volunteers, and serves vulnerable and disadvantaged residents. They noted that we had operated undisturbed for approximately 20 years, and that forcing us to relocate would impose substantial economic costs on a volunteer organisation.

We won. Holmen Dirt was saved.

What it cost

I was relieved — hugely relieved. But the fight left scars. For nearly a year, our community lived under the threat of demolition. We couldn't invest in improvements. We couldn't plan ahead. The uncertainty drained energy that should have gone into building trails and running programmes for kids.

And a question still lingers: will the municipality work with us to develop the facility, or will they continue to make life difficult? We serve hundreds of young cyclists. We are exactly the kind of grassroots community that cities should be nurturing, not fighting.

Why it matters

This story is bigger than one dirt jump track. Across cities everywhere, green spaces and informal community places are under pressure from development, regulation, and bureaucratic indifference. Places like Holmen Dirt don't fit neatly into municipal categories. They're not commercial. They're not tidy. They're built by people who show up with shovels and passion.

But they matter. They give kids confidence. They bring people together across ages, backgrounds, and abilities. They keep something real and human alive in cities that are increasingly polished and expensive.

We fought for Holmen Dirt and we won. But the fight isn't over. It never is when you're building something worth keeping.

If you're ever in Copenhagen, come ride with us. The course is free, the community is open, and the dirt is always being shaped into something new.

holmendirt.dk