Lister

By Karina Kold

Translated by Anders Knudsen

Tanned, sweaty bodies are jumping around in the jets of water from the snow cannon brought to the festival by Roskilde Ski club. The cannon was put up Friday by the hot showers at camping West. Much to the delight of the festival guests.

“Ah, that was great,” an overheated festival guest exclaims.

Lots of glistening breasts in bikini and bare bellies are decorating the festival site. It is hot this year. Very hot.

“Roskilde has been hit by a heat wave,“ says Mogens Bendtsen from the Danish Meteorological Institute, and explains that a heat wave is when the temperature exceed 25 °C for three days or more. This only happens a few times a year in Denmark.

“Even though the festival isn’t over yet everything indicates that the festival will be warmer than last year, thereby making it the warmest for 33 years,” says Ditte Falkenberg from the weather department at the Danish TV channel TV 2.

Send more water

The maximum temperature Friday and Saturday was 28°C. Roskilde Festival has therefore put up more water taps and driven several extra water tankers to the camp site and the inner festival site.

“I cannot recall that the water consumption has ever been as high as this year,” says Søren Mariegård, who is responsible for the areas at Roskilde Festival.

Still, the heat record from 1976 has not been beaten. That year, the average temperature was 21.9°C for both day and night.

“We aren’t getting so high a temperature this year though,” says Ditte Falkenberg.

Over 50 °C in your tent.

Sweating as a pig in a scorching hot tent. That is the way most festival guests wake up in the morning. Soaked in sweat, they stumble out of their tents, desperately looking for a spot in the shade, where they can sleep it off.

“The stationary air in the tents results in temperatures over 50 °C,” Ditte Falkenberg explains.

So guests are pouring water on themselves, Baywatch-style. The cool water runs down the neck and the body.

“Ahhh, that was nice,” is the conclusion among the festival guests.

But Sunday afternoon, a shower is expected and maybe even thunder, according to the meteorologists.

So the rubber boots might be needed on the way home.

The thirst for water

• During the daytime, 500 cubic meters of water pour out from the taps every hour.
• The pressure is strongest in the morning when people are showering.
• The extra water tankers contain 44,000 litres of water each.

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