First created in 1971 by two high school students, in the 42 years since the Danish Festival has become one of the six biggest annual music festivals in Europe.
While the two students undoubtedly did something incredible by kicking off the festival, it’s thanks to the Roskilde Foundation who took over in 1972 that the festival has become one of the world’s most respected music events.
With the organisers now calling themselves the Roskilde Festival Charity Society, they have ensured that the festival is a non-profit operation, which benefits children and young people around the world through humanitarian and cultural work.
Roskilde Festival has since become the largest North European culture and music festival. Through fifty full time employees and thousands of volunteers this event features a huge amount of diverse music acts.
The duration of the festival has changed throughout the course of its history, the 2013 event has settled for nine days. While five of those days are actually warm-up days, the final four include the lineups biggest names.
During this period an estimated 110,000 punters will witness around 200 acts over eight different stages.
Each stage is themed, with either a particular genre or atmosphere from the next. The Apollo stage is for electronic acts, while the Cosmopol tent attempts to capture the nightlife of New York or Buenos Aires with hip-hop and R&B acts.
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However the Orange stage is Roskilde’s biggest and most recognizable area. The orange canopy was originally designed for the Rolling Stones’ summer tour in 1976. The room in front of the stage is big enough for 60,000 people and has in the past featured the likes of Bob Marley, U2, Bob Dylan, Metallica, Nirvana, Radiohead and Rage Against The Machine.
With names like that it is no wonder that Roskilde continues to be one of the worlds best music events.
Lineup
While another 160 acts of Roskilde will be announced closer to the festival date there are still enough headliners here to wet our appetites. Off the back of last year’s wildly successful AM Sheffield four-piece Arctic Monkeys will headline the 2014 Roskilde event. Diplo’s Major Lazer will provide electronic fans with their headline highlight, while sets from Deerhunter, Julia Holter, Earl Sweatshirt, Future Of The Left and Merchandise are also expected to provide highlights.
Click here to see the rest of the acts already announced for the festival.
Watch this space for more lineup details!
Where and When
Roskilde Festival is located a short distance outside of Roskilde city in the Scandinavian country of Denmark. The 2014 event will take place from the 29th of June to the 6th of July.
How To Get There
Return flights to Copenhagen with one stopover from all major Australian cities are from $2300, while flights with two stopovers are cheaper.
The festival has its very own train station so once attendees arrive in Copenhagen they must make their way to the central station from the airport. There is a train that leaves from the airport every 20 minutes and takes you to central station. You can buy tickets for this train once you’re out of customs. A one way ticket will set you back almost $6.
The train from central station to the festival station or Roskilde (depending on where you decide to stay) takes about 25 minutes. A Copenhagen transport card can be used for this trip. The card gets you free public transport and entry into 75 museums and attractions for a particular amount of time. Check out the options and pricing here.
From there attendees must take a shuttle bus from the train station to the festival site. This is valued at around $3.
Where To Stay
While camping is provided punters have the option of staying in either Roskilde city or Copenhagen. If you’re up for the task of finding your own accommodation there are plenty of hostels and hotels in both cities. However camping is highly recommended. Camping at Roskilde isn’t like regular camping.
The camping area is split up into several different parts. Some parts have special services, which you can gain access to if you decide to purchase add-ons. There are several add-on options from wifi and free breakfast, to phone charging services and caravan camping. Click here to read over all the options and pricing details.
The camping area also provides food stalls, hot baths, and other amenities, which you can read about here.
Two other handy links to read up on before you fly out include Roskilde’s own list of things to bring (and not to bring), as well the Camp Codex guide for creative campers, an initiative which aims to make camping even better. Wowzers!
Camping is included in full festival tickets.
How To Get Tickets
You’re no doubt by this time frothing at the mouth at the possibility of jumping around to Rihanna one day and then entering the Sigur Ros dreamscape the next.
There are several ticket options to choose from:
The ‘Make An Even Bigger Difference’ ticket: Along with purchasing a full festival ticket for each day of Roskilde this option includes an extra $20 that goes straight to charities which help out young people from third world countries. It’ll set you back around $410 (or 2010 DKK).
The Full Festival ticket: At around $390 (or 1910 DKK) this ticket gives you access to every day of the festival and also includes camping.
Single day tickets: This option allows you access to the festival site from 5.00am in the morning until 5.00am the next morning. Camping is not included in this option. The Friday, Saturday and Sunday single day tickets were valued at around $165, while the Thursday ticket was valued at $115 last year. The single day tickets are likely to come on sale closer to the event.
Insider Tips/ Things You Shouldn’t Miss
In the east and west camping zones you will find ‘City Centres’ that have ATMs, first aid, food stalls and internet cafes. The centres are open from the first Saturday to the final Sunday.
The medical centre is located in the east ‘City Centre’ and its location is near the pharmacy, where punters can pick up prescriptions. The pharmacy also makes a point of selling condoms
A frame of 24 beers, which can be purchased inside the camping area, will set you back around $32.
Roskilde Festival has developed the APPetizer application to assist attendees in searching for food and drinks around the festival site. You can sort the results through budget, location, food type, and review options.
Roskilde also host food shows, communal eating sessions and various talks about food.
Since 1998 Roskilde Festival Radio has organised a naked run around the campsite on the Saturday of the festival. One male and female winner of the race both receive a ticket for next year’s festival. The event is so popular that the festival radio have to arrange qualifier events in the men’s category.
For more details head to Roskilde’s official website.
2013 Lineup
Click image to enlarge
The Josh Homme fronted Queens Of The Stone Age head an eclectic bill, which puts Sigur Ros side by side with Rihanna and Kraftwerk. While Brooklyn brooders The National, heavy metal rockers Slipknot and the psychedelic stylings of Animal Collective will also feature in 2013.
Our very own producer success story Harley Streten aka Flume is Australia’s only representative on the first lineup announcement.
The full lineup of nearly 200 acts will be announced a month out from the festival.
