Was started by two students and friends at the local Roskilde Gymnasium (like high school, but for 15-20 year olds) back in 1971. The festival was inspired by Woodstock in the United States and America. The first festival had 12,000 visitors to the one stage where around 20 bands played.
Today that number has grown to over 115,000 people attending the festival over a week and have never once, over the past few years not failed to impress most of us festival-goers (at least not me – there are always pessimistic people, but you get good parties with the right attitude!).
When the last band played, and this years week of partying was officially over, we immediately started – eagerly – waiting for next years festival.
The feeling of that everyone’s welcome – the sun, the smiles of people passing by, and the immense amount of alcohol all mixes together into a sweet cocktail called ‘Orange Feeling’. Remember to drink water too, though!
The last few years have offered a wide diversity in music genres, ranging all from heavy metal, to hiphop, psychedelic and regular pop (and these are just among some of the genres) – and you can be sure to find a band that suits your excact need. Bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Volbeat, Arctic Monkeys, deadmau5, Prince, are all just a small drop og water in the big bowl of artists that have guested the stages of Roskilde. Roskilde have grown from a few bands on one stage in the beginning, to around 180 – 200 bands playing every year, over a total of 4 days of music.
The festival
Is often ‘divided’ into three parts (it’s still one festival though) – first the waiting and standing in queue before you can get into the warm-up area. Some people stand here for more than 24 hours, just because they want to of the best locations for their camp. This line is often a party itself, where people drink, sing, and cheer when the sun comes up.
Secondly, theres the camping – and warm-up days, that stretches from Sunday to mid-Thursday when the concerts begin. During the warm-up you sleep in tents (special offers such as deluxe accomodation in specially designed tubes, pipes and tents have been seen before, so be sure to check out the different types of tickets) – have a pavillion as your main hub and hang-out spot.
Around the camping area you can find everything from love and parties, to free booze, a skate ramp, and all sorts of games and activities to do while waiting for the music to begin.
As per tradition, Thursday is where the festival officially opens, and the music begins at 17:00 from the main Orange Stage.
Roskilde have around 200 artists playing on a total of 8 stages, with capacities ranging from very intimidate concerts of 1,000 people, to the main stage with an amazing 60,000 people. I get chills just by thinking of the year where a very popular Danish artist asked: “Roskilde, are you out there?!” and 60,000 people all replied: “YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!”.
Getting there:
We recommend taking the train from Copenhagen Central Station. During Roskilde Festival additional trains are taking festival-goers to the festival site in Roskilde. There are guides and festival-staff who can point you in the right direction, just be sure that the train you are taking does not go north or towards Sweden, and you’ll be good.
Activities
Are you sure to find an abundance of. You will never be bored on this festival! With everything from shops, eateries and varoius activities – try the famous human car wash, where you are the car getting washed. Also fun to do is ‘Camp Crashing’ (do not literally trash or crash their tents and camps) – where you go from camp to camp and socialize and meet new people!
We can also recommend the pasta that you can purchase as the shop with the big black and white ‘Spaghetti’-sign – remember to order with parmesan cheese. Also the ‘Skiburger’ right next to it, is a nice alternative – and everything you purchase supports the local sport clubs. Not to forget is the Garlic Breads you can buy during the warm-up days, at the Service Centers that contain all the shops, ATMs and eateries for the first four days.
Roskilde has become big-league, and is one that we can recommend for sure. If you want to visit and be part of this big party with more than 100,000 people visiting and all ready for partying, be sure to check out this gem. Also for this years dates for the 2012-version of Roskilde on their website at our Calendar Section. At their website you can buy both single-day-tickets, partout-tickets and a deluxe festival pack with tent, chairs and a reserved spot. In 2012 the tickets costed DKK 1,790 – which is around 240€ + fee.