Lister

By Esben Bjerre Hansen
Translated by Lea Enslev    

With 25 degrees Celsius in the shade, the swimming lake is one of the obvious places to spend time on the first day of the festival. This is the place to find gold and silver bikini tops, lads’ bellies in all kinds of shapes and colours and probably the only beach on Danish soil, where the number of beers tops the amount of ice-cream.  

In for the beach, in for life guards. But at Roskilde Festival you can forget all about prejudices concerning the grumpy bath attendant from the swimming lessons during comprehensive school.  

Each in their yellow T-shirt, Signe and Signe try their best to exude energy and maintain control when working on the beach.  There are no reproachful looks or tone of voice here.    

Cold beers in the hammocks  

At a proper distance from the water splashes, lie the festival-goers Rune and Kasper. Both of them are enjoying their third Roskilde Festival, and they already have an overview of what to manage do this year. But according to Rune:   “There are a thousand things to do, and we don’t really feel up to it.”  

By now the guys have landed a tactically well located hammock. Only 2 feet from the beers, a nice view over the bikinis on the beach and at a safe distance from the water. “This is almost just as good as Baywatch… Almost,” Rune says. Kasper nods and says; “We do look at the water from time to time, but mostly at the women.”    

Safe water depth

By the waterline, the life guards send a bather with a bloody nose off to the medics. But despite a few drops of blood in the water, the life guards ensure that this year the water is brilliant for a plunge. Furthermore they can not avoid being a bit envious of the bathers.  

“Once in a while, we’ll go in the water to ‘check the depth of it’ – just to be on the safe side,” Signe says laughing. If the temperature at the camp site rises above what is bearable, the life guards guarantee clean bathing water and safe water depth.