04.07.2006
Also known as the Roskilde Festival, one of the world's biggest music festivals. It is held mid-summer just outside Roskilde city, Denmark. This year was no exception.
So what happens at a one week long festival? What happens at a one week long festival in a country where the food is good and everything is cheap? What happens at a festival when you combine 6 stages, 100 000 people and 180 bands?
Two words: pure enjoyment. That's why I've been going year after year.
Oh. And no world cup. I'm just so fed up with that already. It was nice having a week almost clinically free of the world cup.
The camp
At this festival you camp. You bring your friends, your camping gear, get there early to get a good spot, and make a basecamp.
What makes this place and point in time unique is the people there. There's a huge sense of community here. To a very little extent is there possesiveness or selfishness here. Taken to the extreme you can put it this way: What is mine is yours, as long as you return the favour to someone else.
Example: I was out of cigarettes, so I asked a fellow campmate if I couldn't borrow a cigarette and he just gave me a pack. Later I had bought in quite a few packs and handed out one to another one in need. And then me and the guy handing me the cigarettes were sort of even in a way that the world usually doesn't work.
Food
I must have eaten more kinds of food this year than I can possibly remember. Everything from various kinds of thai food, japanese food, mexican food and just the kinds that the danish do superbly. Not to mention just trying out lots of different kinds of chillis. Either bare, in dishes, or even in drinks or drinks served in chillis.
Only in Denmark can you get something like a egg & bacon burger. Now that's what I call breakfast.
Booze
It's a long festival. You need alcohol in order to keep up. Different days usually get different themes. One day was a wine & brie day. Another one was a rom & coke day. Most days had beer, albeit different kinds of beer.
The drink I mentioned that is served in a giant red chilli is called a Mucho macho. It contains tequilla which has been stored with chilli & garlic in it. Shotting one of those earns you a straw hat with the text "Mucho macho" written on it. Ofcourse I had to get myself one of those hats.
I drank a lot of booze like most people do on this festival. I did however manage to keep it to a decent level, so I didn't miss one single gig I wanted to see. I'm quite impressed with myself.
Stuff that happens
This place is filled with freaks, good freaks. Freaks know how to have a good time, but usually in a untraditional way. Me, myself, I did various things. Like buying pink clothes and handing out free hugs. Or walking around with a magic marker and making chinese "tattoos". I even got my hair cut short. And my legs waxed. Didn't really hurt that much.
In short: What ever I had fun doing and people enjoyed.
I even had the guts arguing about chinese writing with a Korean woman. Needless to say I lost. Big time. But I got a free, properly done "tattoo". She claimed it was her name, but I haven't gotten around to checking out if that is actually true yet, but I do intend to do so.
Apart from the major attraction, this part of the festival is probably the one I enjoy the most.
Concerts
This is ofcourse the main attraction. This is why everyone comes. The bandlist, looking like this. You have to be pretty straight not to attend anything. I managed to catch 15 of the shows.
The concerts ranging from cuban music to experimental electronic & accoustic fusion to gypsy punk, I can't say I'm not happy.
The list as it stands includes the following:
Anoushka Shankar
The daughter of the legendary Ravi Shankar. She can evidently also play sitar like few others.
Happy Mondays
What could have been a giant let-down turned into a spectacular concert where no-one was standing still. As the name implies, the music was pure joy for those of us who don't mind music from the early english clubscene.
Front 242
The industrial pioneers who still don't care what people think of their music. Still sounds awesome.
Tied & Tickled Trio
German jazz/electronic trio consisting of six people. Highly refreshing. I picked this one up by mere chance. I heard some sounds I just really liked in the distant, and I got stuck there.
Beatiful, agressive, noisy jazz with nerve and groove.
Ryuichi Sakamoto (Insen)
This legendary japanese musician and multitalent joined forces with Alva Noto and performed a work they call "Insen". Simply stunning fusion of acoustic piano and electronic noise in a perfectly minimalistic harmony.
Guns'n Roses
Despite coming late, despite it technically just was Axel Rose with a coverband, despite Axel Rose being as hopeless as he has always been, it did sound good when they didn't fool around. Nothing legendary, but I enjoyed it.
Roger Waters
Mr. Pink Floyd himself. Need I say more?
The thing
Agressive and innovative jazz.
Gogol Bordello
Gypsy punk band which knows how to do a live-gig. I've heard these guys before and there was no way I was going to miss them when I saw them on the bandlist. No way. And it exceeded my expectations beyond belief. I was jumping up and down until my balls hurt. Then I stopped for a minute, and started jumping again. It was that good.
Sigor Rós
The famous islandic band making just as beatiful music live as they do on albums, just more lively.
Coldcut
Famous english DJ from the Ninjatune label, introducing a new concept of "what you see is what we scratch". Apart from just being a levels above most DJs you will ever see, this turned rather interesting when the band decided to remix/scratch a few George W. Bush speeches live. Believe me, this is what DJing is all about.
Plus a bunch of others
This article would be longer than anyone would bother to read, if I was to fully describe all the shows and just how much I enjoyed them and why. I'm not a music critic, I'm not a journalist. I just like to inform you all that if there's one place you want to be next summer, its the Roskilde Festival.
Pictures?
I have a bunch of photos. Unfortunately my site ain't currently built to publish photo-collections. However I am working on it. The second I have time, I will make it so, and get them out.