Varde Municipality paid 54,225 kroner to rent nine holiday cabins on Bornholm during Folkemødet 2026, but sent only four participants. Five cabins stood empty.
The spending appears in access-to-information documents obtained by JydskeVestkysten. The municipality’s total bill for the political festival in Allinge came to 90,090 kroner, covering food, transport and accommodation for its delegation.
Accommodation was by far the largest item. The nine cabins were rented from Hasle Hytteby for four days. With five left unused, Varde was left with a bill of 30,125 kroner for empty accommodation that could not be refunded.
In an email released under access-to-information rules, the municipality explains that it books cabins very early to secure any at all. As a rule, one cabin is reserved per participant, and ten were booked during Folkemødet 2025 before the size of the delegation was known, partly because a new city council took office on January 1, 2026. Three participants cancelled during spring 2026, and the rental agency was unable to re-let the cabins.
Mayor Sarah Andersen of Venstre says it is very unfortunate to lose the money. She has asked the administration to examine whether cabin bookings can be handled differently in future.
Varde was the only municipality in the region to host its own event at the festival. It was a 40-minute debate titled “Hvorfor gider ingen bo med os?”, on why people do not move to the area, an issue also tied to housing in Varde. The municipality paid 12,000 kroner to rent a debate tent from KL, Local Government Denmark.
Free nights in the mayor’s cabin
The documents also show that two friends of Andersen travelled with the Varde delegation and stayed in her cabin. They paid for their own transport and food, but received four nights of accommodation free of charge.
Andersen says she attended Folkemødet with the same friends two years earlier and had promised to go again. Per her account, the cabin price is the same whether she stays alone or with guests, so their presence cost the municipality nothing. She describes her own programme as a full work trip with numerous meetings.
Per Nikolaj Bukh, professor of public financial management at Aalborg University, confirms to JydskeVestkysten that the free overnight stays are legal, because they did not create additional costs for the municipality.
In a separate overview, JydskeVestkysten reports that the ten municipalities in its coverage area spent 293,854.85 kroner in total on Folkemødet 2026. Esbjerg and Billund spent nothing, while Kolding topped the list at 103,677.10 kroner. All amounts include VAT.
The figures are emerging now because the newspaper requested access to each municipality’s festival expenses and is publishing the breakdowns. According to Realdania, this year’s Folkemødet was held in Allinge from June 11 to 13, 2026.
