The exhibition fairgrounds was named The white City (Danish: Den Hvide By) based on the architectural expression chosen by the leading architect Anton Rosen.

Particularly the newspaper Politiken was a vocal opponent and preferred a national exhibition be held in the capital over the smaller cities in Jutland.

He selected an area of 70 acres by the coast south of the city and north of the Marselisborg Forests where present day Strandparken and Tangkrogen is situated.

The location was ideal from an artistic standpoint but it was also more expensive; roads had to be redirected and the expansion of the nearby Port of Aarhus was put on standby.

To accommodate the many guests the newly built Skansepalæet was turned into a hotel with 210 rooms, 430 beds and a café on the ground floor with a view over the fairgrounds.

In the Marselisborg Forests the restaurant Varna Palæet was constructed and on Dalgas Avenue and Marselisvej 9 villas were built to demonstrate the best architecture and crafts of the time.

Accessible from the two large halls was the centerpiece of the exhibition, the iconic Electricity Tower (Danish: Elektricitetstårnet), depicted on many posters and other promotional art.

For a fee there was admittance to a separate amusement park with carousels, swings, a dance hall, a cinema and an artificial Abyssinian village.

The steam frigate Jylland had been decommissioned in 1888 and was scheduled to be broken up in 1908 but was instead saved, restored and placed in the Bay of Aarhus in front of the fairgrounds as a scenic display.

The exhibition of 1909 featured a curiosity in the form of an imitation African village complete with a group of 80 Abyssinian people from present day Ethiopia.

The village was situated by the coast in the amusement park, neighboring the exhibits about the Danish overseas colonies in Greenland and the West Indies.

In the late 1800s more than 50 such displays took place in Denmark, most in Copenhagen in Tivoli, the Zoo and the Circus Building, but a small number did come to the smaller Danish cities.

In 1905 the Danish-American editor Ivar Kierkegard had suggested that American Independence Day should be celebrated every year with a festival in Denmark for Danish immigrants and their ancestors in the United States.

Max Henius, the leader of the Danish-American Society established in 1906, realized the plans and the first meeting was held in 1909 in Aarhus during the exhibition.

The immediate aftermath was economic depression in Aarhus as many local leading businesses and businessmen had incurred significant losses and couldn't invest in the city for some years.

The period after the exhibition was a time of growth in the other major provincial cities of Aalborg, Odense and Esbjerg but Aarhus struggled for almost 6 years.

Initially the Mayors House was left standing on the former fairgrounds for almost 5 years but in 1914 Peter Holm managed to collect the funds to have it moved and to establish the museum.

Varna Palæet is home to a restaurant in the Marselisborg Forests and Skansepalæet marks the boundary of the dense city center and the larger and more expansive planned developments of later years.

The Rebild Festival was started by the many Danish-American visitors and remains an annual recurring event on the 4th of July celebrating the American Independence Day and the homecoming of Danish emigrants.

Johan Bender stresses the agreements and work done across political divides and the identity and historical consciousness in Aarhus resulting from the event.

The white city was a prestige project which employers could find common ground in to create a temporary united front against the new political ideas of the 20th century.