Other activities

: Photo: Rasmus Weng Karlsen

Roskilde Festival’s know-how from many years of festival work is used to organise, support and participate in a variety of musical and cultural activities throughout the year.

Roskilde Festival is more than just a summer festival. All year, Roskilde Festival invests both human and financial resources in a variety of musical and cultural activities. The aim is to bridge the gap between the festival and other parts of the music world, both nationally and internationally.

Here you can read about some of the many activities that Roskilde Festival takes part in.

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CONTENTS

MUSIC VENUES
- Gimle
- Global
AWARDS AND COMPETITIONS
- Karrierekanonen
- Steppeulven
EVENT COMPANIES
- Roskilde Event & Consult
- Event 4000
COOPERATIONS AND INDUSTRY FESTIVALS

Gimle

Roskilde Festival supports the local culture, including Gimle, which is Roskildes regional music venue, student and youth cultural center. The venue has existed since 1988 and offers a wide range of cultural events with focus on quality and diversity.

Gimle is an independent institution run by two organizational units: The Association Gimle and The Foundation Gimle. Roskilde Festival participated in the formation of The Foundation Gimle and has one representative in the board.

The venue is run by a small staff of employees and over 100 volunteers who manage concerts and events. Many volunteers are also engaged in voluntary work for Roskilde Festival.

Global

: Photo: Sigrid Koch Andersen

Roskilde Festival plays an active role at the world music venue Global in Copenhagen, that presents a selection of the best international and national bands.

The door is open to exotic artists and music genres, but although the calendar is not packed with the biggest hit makers, you are guaranteed concerts that can deliver and get your feet moving. The atmosphere is comparable with the one you find at the stage Cosmopol at Roskilde Festival - and with good reason as Peter Hvalkof from Roskilde Festival is booking bands for both stages.

Global is a non-commercial venue that largely exists because of volunteers with a burning passion for world music.

Karrierekanonen

: Rubberhead Banditz won the competition KarriereKanonen and played at Roskilde Festival in 2009. Photo: Christian Hjorth

KarriereKanonen is an ambitious effort concerning new Danish music with a broad grounding in the music industry.

Every year a number of bands get help to kick-start their music careers with coaching, live jobs and airplay on the radio.

The concept took shape in 2003 when the organisation Rytmisk Musik Danmark took initiative to revive the idea of a championship in rock. A collaboration between the Danish newspaper Politiken, Roskilde Festival and the Danish broadcasting corporation DR was established and the competition got a new name: Live Contest DK. In 2009, Live Contest DK merged with the Danish radio channel P3's talent competition and was named KarriereKanonen.

Roskilde Festival participates in KarriereKanonen because the competition is different from other talent competitions. For instance, only professionals send bands on to semi finals and finals, participants can only play their own compositions, and playback is prohibited.

In 2009 more than 800 artists and bands sent in their music in hopes of being selected, and eventually four was hailed as winners.

Steppeulven

: Choir of Young Believers played at Roskilde Festival in 2008. Photo: Thomas Kjær

With the engagement in the Danish critics’ award Steppeulven, Roskilde Festival has helped new and ambitious Danish music.

The award was created in 2002 when a group of music critics in the fight against a sales-oriented and mainstream-focused music industry founded Steppeulven to celebrate talent and quality over marketability and popularity.

Mikael Simpson was awarded as the hope of the year in 2003, Tiger Tunes in 2004, Bikstok Røgsystem in 2005, Volbeat in 2006, Band Ane in 2007 and Choir of Young Believers in 2008. They also won the right to play at Roskilde Festival.

Unfortunately, Steppeulven is not distributed in 2010 because of lack of financial support, but hopes to be back again in 2011.

Roskilde Events & Consult

Roskilde Festival has for many years been asked for help from organisers of big events, and Roskilde Events & Consult was therefore established in 2002. REC is an independent event company, based on experience accumulated through Roskilde Festival and other events.

REC solves tasks concerning event development, consulting, production and marketing. The work is paid, but any profit is distributed to humanitarian, charitable and cultural purposes through Roskilde Festival Charity Foundation.

REC has organised a major live event during the climate summit in Copenhagen, a science-based festival in Roskilde, opera marketing and production, Homeless World Cup in football in 2009 and much more.

Event 4000

Event 4000 is an independent event company, based on experience accumulated through Roskilde Festival and other events. The company plans, organises and executes concerts, shows and similar events with no relation to Roskilde Festival – at their own expense and risk.

The profit is distributed to humanitarian, charitable and cultural purposes through Roskilde Festival Charity Foundation.

Yourope

Roskilde Festival is one of 64 festivals that are part of The European Festival Association Yourope.

The Association promotes cooperation and knowledge-exchange among European festivals and focuses for instance on improving working conditions, health and safety and environmental issues at European festivals.

FestivalDanmark

: Photo: Flux

Roskilde Festival is a member of the Danish Festival Association FestivalDanmark that consists of 17 festivals. FestivalDanmark aims to create understanding and cooperation between the festivals in order to achieve the best conditions at the festivals for the benefit of the festival guests.

The association has two annual seminars. The seminar in April focuses on the General Assembly and various panel discussions and debates, while the seminar in October is more network-oriented and gives the representatives from the festivals possibility to meet in small groups about various topics such as camping, booking, security, etc.

Henrik Bondo Nielsen from Roskilde Festival is chairman of the association and represents the Danish festivals in different contexts.

Music Export Denmark

Music Export Denmark was established in 2004 as a collaboration between ROSA (The Danish Rock Council), the Danish broadcasting corporation DR and Roskilde Festival. The idea was to use the three parties’ different experiences, networks, etc. to expose Danish music abroad more effectively.

In the summer of 2004, the Danish branch of the association of international record companies, IFPI Denmark, and the Danish independent record companies, DUP, joined the collaboration. Music Export Denmark is supported by the Ministry of Culture with approx. € 470,000 a year.

Music Export Denmark has, for instance, supported Ida Corr & Camille Jones's tour in Australia, Lily Electric's tour and promotion in Germany, Eurosonic Festival in Holland and much more.

Industry festivals and conferences

Roskilde Festival participates in several industry festivals and conferences throughout the year, for instance SXSW (Austin), ILMC (London), CMJ (New York), Noorderslag (Groningen), MIDEM (Cannes), POPKOMM (Berlin), by:Larm (Oslo), SPOT (Århus), WOMEX (Copenhagen) and many more.

Roskilde Festival shares know-how and gets inspiration at the conferences and festivals, and sometimes bands are booked because of their showcase concerts.