Roskilde Festival constantly focuses on creating safe and secure conditions for the participants. Read here about organization, security planning, and the emergency preparedness on the festival site.
We focus on safety, emergency preparedness, and responsibility, and we collaborate with authorities, researchers, and educational institutions to make the festival fun and safe for everyone.
Here is an overview of the most important efforts and functions.
Overall organization
Roskilde Festival’s Director of Safety has the overall responsibility for safety.
The effort is divided into several areas of responsibility with different people in charge, who work year-round to plan how the festival welcomes guests and ensures that the festival is ready for execution with the least possible risk of participants getting hurt.
About 6,000 volunteer safety hosts and service hosts are involved in the tasks of taking care of access control, monitoring of guests, conducting fire inspections, or creating safe conditions for the guests.
Planning in relation to threat assessment
Roskilde Festival is in ongoing dialogue with the police, who assert that there is currently no change in the threat directed at Roskilde Festival.
Read the Danish Security and Intelligence Service's (PET) threat assessment
When planning Roskilde Festival, we take the threat landscape into account. Our staff are instructed and trained for their work, and we always work with attention to any terrorist threats in Denmark.
Security must be adjusted according to the threat landscape. Some screenings are carried out at our entrances to the music area, and we do not implement unnecessary inconveniences or create unnecessary fears for our guests.
Security plan
In order to obtain permission to conduct the festival, Roskilde Festival must submit a security plan to the authorities, describing how we work to create safe conditions, and especially how the festival ensures that the legislation is followed.
There are rules and laws about many things, and within safety, there is a particular focus on fire regulations and legislation about the festival’s responsibility.
Every year in April, Roskilde Festival submits this security plan to the authorities. Roskilde Festival is subsequently obliged to adhere to the plan in terms of how we operate and organize the festival.
This means that there are very clear instructions for volunteers and active and visible leaders who are responsible for the festival following the guidelines agreed upon with the police, fire department, and the region.
Emergency Preparedness
When many people are gathered, it is inevitable that some will get hurt or disturbances will occur. Therefore, the festival has a larger emergency preparedness consisting of doctors, nurses, paramedics, social workers, and guards.
Here you can read about the different units:
Medical Emergency Preparedness
The medical emergency preparedness consists of doctors, nurses, and samaritans distributed over both the camping area and the festival site. They mostly help with blisters and water shortage, but can handle all kinds of situations.
Social Workers
Social workers are a team consisting of psychologists, addiction consultants, educators from special areas, and other professional groups, who move around the festival city around the clock to help those in need. The team works preventively and outreach and can provide psychological first aid and especially focuses on the very young festival guests.
Crowd Safety
Crowd safety is present very close to the concert participants during all concerts. With water, hand stretches, and a cool overview, they ensure that the concerts are carried out both fun and safe.
Safety Hosts
The safety hosts have special training in safety, conflict resolution, and task efforts. They work dialogue-oriented and generally take care of minor conflicts.
Security
Security performs tasks in major conflicts or handles expulsions. They are called if other units need extra support in special situations.
Service Hosts
Service hosts cover a wide range of servicing functions in the camping areas, at entrances and exits, and at other central locations. If they experience situations that they find difficult to handle, safety hosts are called.