Roskilde Festival is Denmark's first real music oriented festival originally for hippies but today covering more of the mainstream youth from Scandinavia and the rest of Europe. The festival was created in 1971 by two high school students, Mogens Sandfær og Jesper Switzer Møller, and promoter Carl Fischer. In 1973, the festival was taken over by the Roskilde Foundation, who has since run the festival as a non-profit organisation for development and support of music, culture, and humanism.

In 2000, the festival was struck by tragedy, when 9 people were trampled to death in front of the main stage, known as the Orange Stage. As a result, massive security measures were installed for the festival in 2001.

Roskilde Festival 2003 gathered more than 65,000 paying people for the concerts, along with 20,000 workers, most of them volunteers.

The music covers such styles as Heavy metal, HipHop, Electronic and Rock, but the festival wants to promote new artists and has setup a special stage for alternative music. It has also become a tradition to let an up and coming Danish band open the Orange Stage on the first day of the festival.

The festival is held annually at a muddy field outside of Roskilde, Denmark.

External Links

Official Website of the Roskilde Festival

Other Danish Festivals

• Midtfyns Festival
• Langelands Festival
• Vig Festival
• Skanderborg Festival