The Roskilde Festival - 30 years of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll
The Roskilde Festival is nothing short of a phenomenon - pretty much like evey
other rock festival in the world, but still.
The History
It all started in 1971 - Inspired by a load of other festivals, like the
Woodstock, a series of festivals were held in Denmark. In 1971, they decided
to arrange a festival in Roskilde, a fairly peaceful little town with about
50,000 inhabitants, roughly 35 km (20 miles) from Copenhagen. The 1971
festival pulled a total of about 20,000 people, had one stage and a grand
total of 20 bands.
In the beginning, the festival didn't have a proper profile, and had some
Jazz, some pop, some Rock etc. Without a proper musical profile, you
wouldn't attract a nice amount of guests, and a festival without guest.. well..
you know.. it's just not the same.
In 1972 the festival was repeated, and again the following years. The festival
started developing, reaching its "destination" towards the end
of the 70's
In 1978, the huge Orange tent/stage (that is still in use, and is still
an icon and symbol for the festival) was bought from a Rolling Stones
company. By 1978, the festival had 3 different stages and started to get
a proper profile as a rock festival.
In 1981, though, the Roskilde Festival did no longer define themselves as
a generic music festival, but rather as a full-fledged rock music festival.
Around the same time, the festival started developing as a cultural event,
incorporating performance arts, etc.
In the middle of the 1990's, the festival had to start limiting the number
of sold tickets, because there were just too many people who wanted to come
to the concerts. At the same time, food and sanitary facilities were improved
In 2000, the whole world got to hear about the Roskilde Festival.. Sadly..
During a Pearl Jam concert, eight people were crushed to death by the crowds,
and three more were rushed to the hospital in critical condition. Of the three,
one more died, bringing the total death count up to nine. The festival was,
of course, shocked by the news, and several bands (among others The Cure)
decided to cancel their concerts. After this, all festival arrangers in Europe
reviewed their security measures, and (fortunately) there have been no major
accidents since.
The Visitors
Festival fans are more or less a separate breed (just
like E2, really). Old hippies, youth, old punkers, new punkers.. All united
around the fact that they love music, and want to see their favorite bands
live. The visitors are one of the true reasons why people keep going back
to Roskilde again and again - no wonder that you hardly meet anyone who's
only been to Roskilde once (they either go back, or say "I'm definitely
going next year" :)
In any case - there is something special about being at a giant camping with
thousands and thousands of people, usually in a small camp with lots of people
you know pretty well. The mood can't really be described - it has to be tasted!
The genius thing about a concert like this, of course, is that you pay a
certain sum of money, and you get to go to as many concerts as you want. I
like to think of Roskilde as the most expensive camping in the world, and
loads of free concerts :)
Year Number Visitors Bottles
of of beer
Days sold
1971 2 10,000
1972 4 15,000
1973 3 18,000
1974 3 21,500
1975 3 26,000
1976 3 32,500
1973 3 31,000
1978 3 36,500
1979 3 40,000
1980 3 50,000
1981 3 51,500
1982 3 57,500
1983 3 60,600
1984 3 64,800
1985 3 56,900
1986 3 56,900
1987 3 58,700
1988 3 62,100
1989 3 56,300 512,000
1990 4 70,600 675,000
1991 4 60,500 499,000
1992 4 64,500 757,000
1993 4 76,500 779,000
1994 4 90,000 1,236,000
1995 4 90,000 1,340,500
1996 4 90,000 1,200,000
1997 4 90,000 1,460,000
1998 4 76,000 1,158,000
1999 4 71,000
2000 4 76,000
Now you are of course wondering why I list how many bottles of beer are sold..
Well..
1) because I can
2) A rock festival without beer is like Ice Hockey without a puck. And without
ice. And without players.
The Music
The Roskilde festival has pulled some fairly big names over the years. Here
I will list some of the most important ones (alphabetically.. Whee!)
The festival has attracted lots of mainstream rock musicians, but it also
prides itself on allowing smaller acts to get on stage, mainly in the Rock,
Metal, New Metal and Punk genres, but there are also Techno / Trance
acts in a separate tent/stage
More Info
If you are considering going to Roskilde, Have a look at http://www.roskilde-festival.dk.
Incidentally, this (and www.vg.no) was also the source for this writeup.
Oh, and if you plan to go to Roskilde 2002, why not join Alchemy and myself
for a few beers one of the days?
-30-