News

Plenty of musical experiences

The rays of sunshine were in tough competition with the dazzling musical experiences.

The Danish media were once again full of both five and six-starred reviews. Gorillaz lived up to the high expectations with a show that once again showed Damon Albarn as a fantastic musical leader.

The more traditional concerts on Orange Stage also delivered the goods. On the day of the opening, Patti Smith commemorated the accident back in 2000 with a moving speech. She returned on Saturday with a powerful concert that should convince all sceptics about the edge and political nerve of the undisputed majesty of punk. And “vultures dressed in black showed their gigantic wing span” as Danish magazine Soundvenue puts it in their review of the rock performance of ‘Them Crooked Vultures’.

The Danish DJ team Den Sorte Skole played a packed concert on the Arena stage. A concert that ended up being ”a demonstration of the historical superiority of Roskilde Festival,” as Danish newspaper Politiken puts it.

The teeming diversity was omnipresent at the festival where the wheelchair-equipped Staff Benda Bilili started a party on the Cosmopol stage while concerts starring Beach House, Valient Thorr and Meshuggah also convinced and delighted the audience.

Prince delivered ”le grand finale” with a concert that closed Roskilde Festival beautifully.

Besides the musical experiences, Roskilde Festival also presented the most ambitious “More Than Music” programme ever. The guests have both witnessed some of the Danish Royal Theater’s theatrical performances in the camping area, they have swung in both sound fittings and lighting installations, they have gone swimming in a swimming pool in the festival area, they have listened to Swedish ballads, and they have wandered through pillars of northern lights in the dark in the new Nordic area.

The guests and the tickets

2010 was the year where only the lucky ones got a ticket in time. Around 70,000 of these lucky people settled down in the camping area. Many of them gathered in special theme camps that all cultivate and contribute to the quite exceptional feeling of fellowship and community that is so characteristic for Roskilde Festival. No less than 110 camps signed up for the competition “Camp of the year 2010” which was won by Camp Crazy Legs for their ability to promote joy, kindness and interaction with the other festival guests – and for their persistent effort to establish a metro line from Roskilde Station to the Orange Stage… 71,000 all-week tickets and 4,000 one-day tickets for each of the four festival days were sold in total.

Cut the Crap – clean up after yourself

The guests usually leave behind a pile of garbage, but this year it will be at least 70 tons less than what could have been. 70 tons was the amount of garbage that the guests and the festival had collected by Sunday evening from the campsite alone.

Using the slogan Cut the Crap, Roskilde Festival has encouraged the guests to clean up after themselves and take care of the environment. The collection of garbage at the campsite is a part of the climate and environmental focus of Roskilde Festival 2010.

A part of the initiative is also this year’s refund system on pavilions. The guests have deposited over EUR 67,000 in refund on pavilions, and already by Sunday morning the first pavilions were turned in and the refund paid out.

Even so, if anyone leaves their pavilion behind, Roskilde Festival will donate all materials that are left behind and covered by the refund agreement to the Danish humanitarian organization DanChurchAid.

Thank you for this year’s festival. See you in 2011.