20th September 2023
Amfi Vestsjælland and Vestsjællands Wake and Surf Club receive the Condensate Prize 2023
Amfi Vestsjælland and Vestsjællands Wake & Surf Club – both based at the Surfsøen lake, receive the 2023 Condensate Award. The award was presented by the Managing Director of Kalundborg Refinery, Wouter de Jong, at an award ceremony held at the refinery on 19 September. The Condensate Award comes with a prize of DKK 40,000 for each of the two associations.
The Danish flag was raised on Tuesday 19 September, when the Condensate Award 2023 was presented at the award ceremony. This is the 28th time that the refinery has awarded this prize to local enthusiasts.
This year, the Condensate Award went to Amfi Vestsjælland and Vestsjællands Wake & Surf Club. In choosing the prize winners, the prize committee emphasised both associations’ ability to develop culture and sport, even in a small village, thanks to their great efforts and enthusiasm.
“Could an excavated area serve a different use? That question was put on the agenda at the end of the 00s by a group of landowners and committed citizens from Bregninge. Today, the former gravel pit has been converted into an amphitheatre and a cultural mecca with many activities that are continuously being built and expanded. Two associations reside in the area, and it is these two associations that we will present this year’s Condensate Award to,” said Martin Damm, Mayor of Kalundborg and chairman of the award committee, when he revealed the two winning associations.
The Condensate Award comes with DKK 40,000 for the award recipient. This year, the full award was extraordinarily presented to both the cultural association Amfi Vestsjælland and Vestsjællands Wake and Surf Club:
“The prize committee’s original idea in nominating two associations for the Condensate Prize was that the prize should be divided between the two. But the refinery was so happy with our recommendation that they have chosen to give the full price to both associations,” afslutter Martin Damm.
Two associations, one locality
Both award winners are native to Bregninge, and both practice their activities in Surfsøen, a former gravel pit. Over the past 10 years, Amfi Vestsjælland has held outdoor concerts and events in these beautiful surroundings. More recently, the lake has been used by Vestsjællands Wake & Surf Club for water sports that attract young people from far and wide.
The Condensate Award was received by Morten Kyst, chairman Amfi Vestsjælland, and Morten Clausen Co-founder of the Vestsjællands Wake & Surf Club.
Kondensatprisen blev modtaget af Morten Kyst, formand for Kulturforeningen Amfi Vestsjælland, og Morten Clausen medstifter af Vestsjællands Wake og Surf Klub.
”It is a great honour and pleasure that we receive this year’s Condensate Award – and the joy is certainly not diminished by the fact that we can share it with our good friends and playmates in Vestsjællands Wake and Surf Club, which has become an integrated and important part of the area by the Amfi stage in Bregninge,” says Morten Kyst and continues:
”The activities of the Cultural Association Amfi Vestsjælland are based on volunteer work, and this distinguished award is a recognition and appreciation of our efforts, which provide great motivation to continue the work.”
At Vestsjællands Wake and Surf Club, the Condensate Award was also received with great joy. The money will be used, among other things, to create the best framework for people, animals and plants to unfold in the best possible way.
“It is a huge recognition of the club and what we have worked for since the start in 2021. It is also a great tribute to the project ‘The Surf Lake’, which is a project started by UngKalundborg in collaboration with Amfi Vestsjælland. It is this trinity that has managed to create this insanely cool place in the lake of the old gravel pit,” says David Arnbjerg Leunbach, chairman of Vestsjællands Wake and Surf Club.
28 years of tribute to local enthusiasts
The Condensate Award was awarded for the first time in 1996 in connection with the start-up of the condensate refinery, thus it name. The prize is awarded to a person or club who, through its work, has particularly promoted cultural pastimes, including sports and youth activities in the local area, or a person or club that has achieved special results through art or sport.
Previous recipients include the Lions Cup, the Kalundborg art society and local skeet shooter, Jesper Hansen.
The prize winners are selected by a prize committee consisting of Mayor, Martin Damm, the Principal of Kalundborg Gymnasium, Trine Fogh Lauridsen, and Jakob Erhardt Pedersen, Editor of Nordvestnyt.
