Roskilde Festival 2019
Welcome to Roskilde Festival 2019!!!
The historic festival kick started its 49th instalment on June 29th for a week’s long celebration of music and art. Dating back to 1971, Roskilde Festival has welcomed thousands of artists from across the globe. Its memorable experiences have stretched across 4 decades and continues to grow through its dedicated hard-working team and loyal supporters. This year was no exception, selling out all ticket’s months before the event.
Prior to the festival gates opening, fans prepare themselves over 4 warm up days. The insane antics sees campers bringing their own sound systems and creating their own parties over 2/3 of the festival grounds. Attendees spend months in preparation building structures and portable stages all in the hope to host the best party. There is not a moment of silence during these days. Its unique and colossal size creates an energy that is unexplainable, you just have to experience it.
Day 1 saw Bob Dylan and Cardi B headlining the Orange stage. Highlights of the day included;
Tears For Fears: Opening with the 80’s smash hit ‘Everybody wants to Rule the world’, Roland (lead singer) walked in smiling and waving to the large crowd at Arena stage.
JPEGMAFIA: The ex-military alternative rap artist can multi task like a boss. Peggy performs each song with 120% energy while screaming, jumping and rolling around on the floor. With no security he spends 50% of his show in the audience, crowd surfing and creating mosh pits. He also mixes each track in between songs making him the busiest artist on stage.
Skepta: Following the release of his latest project ‘Ignorance is Bliss’ the Tottenham rapper stepped out to an overflowing Arena tent. Performing a mixture of old and new tracks, Skepta shifted gears with his high energy performance.
Sheck Wes: Wearing a Mud Boy ski mask, Sheck Wes stared into the Apollo stage before unleashing his inner beast. His music vibrated through the shipping container stage resulting in a headbanging concert.
Cardi B: With her sudden rise to fame in 2017, Cardi B headlined day 1 of Roskilde. Opening with an orchestrated dance performance, Cardi appeared on a podium before making her way closer to the audience. Her outfit consisting of tights and fish netted stockings gave fans a closer look to her gigantic arse. During her performance she interacted with the crowd asking fans why it was so cold, ‘Ain’t it supposed to be Summer Denmark?’. Her set lasted over an hour and featured a range of tracks including Press, Money, Bodak Yellow and I Like It.
Day 2
Despite the rain, Day 2 featured many highlights including Travis Scott headlining the Orange stage.
Joey Purp: Chicago based artists Joey Purp opened the Apollo stage while the rain poured down. Divining between his 2017 project ‘iiiDrops’ and 2018 project ‘Quaterthing’ Joey performed a range of tracks including Elastic, Hallelujah and Girls @.
Empire Of The Sun: Australia’s own Empire of the Sun did not disappoint fans with their thrilling visual show. Opening the Orange stage with glossy black head masks and face paint, the Aussie band had everyone dancing in the rain. Their stage presence felt futurist with a huge simulation visual displayed on the LCD screens. Fans screamed when the group performed ‘Walking On A Dream’.
Denzel Curry: The thick dreaded Denzel Curry left his mark at the Apollo stage with a high energy concert that resulted in fans being pulled over the barriers. Denzel set the mood by opening with Ultimate, a head thumbing bass song. From that moment no one was safe as fans crammed themselves between the containers to catch a closer glimpse of the American rapper.
BROCKHAMPTON: The ever-growing boy group Brockhampton entered the Arena 1 member at a time, dressed in personalised spacesuits. The dynamic group had everyone on their feet while their music echoed through the tent. Stand out tracks included Sweet, 1999 Wildfire, Gold and Face.
Travis Scott: Travis Scott closed the Orange stage in true Rockstar form by raging to 80 thousand fans on Thursday night. The unbelievable show began with an Astroworld theme of vintage visuals and screaming teens. Travis opened with Stargazer, setting the pace for the rest of the night. Performing a majority of his latest album Astroworld, the earth shock with the amount of jumping mosh pits. With an increase in ambulances and stretcher beds, Medics prepared themselves for a busy night.
In the mixed of all the live music, Roskilde Festival also promotes and displays spectacular artists from all around the world. With Denmark renowned for its amazing street art, Roskilde Festival offers participants graffiti workshops where they can learn about the history of street art and improve their skills. This year’s festival featured the following artists ;
Ethicks (Australia) @ethicks_sdm
Skil (Sweden) @skil_td
Then (Denmark) @mp.auer
Cekios (United Kingdom) @cekioss
Sigs (Australia) @salt_machine5165
Crema (Denmark) @furious_crem
Tonek (Denmark) @tonek_art
Mester 88 (Denmark) @mester88
Reks (Denmark) @furiosuly_reks
Ruskig Angest (Sweden) @ruskigstm
Dias (Denmark) @dias_dk
Haser (New Zeland) @hazernz
+ many more.
Each year Roskilde Festival focuses on improving their sustainability by reducing waste. The ban of plastic straws was introduced this year and has estimated the reduction of 475,000 plastic straws. While the festival takes place, volunteers roam the festival grounds collecting drinks and cups to take to the recycle centre. At the recycle centre workers sort through the trash categorising plastic and aluminium. Throughout the campsites 11 recycle stations were built to help assist workers with the recycling of cardboard, metal, glass, batteries, air mattresses and general waste. This year the festival introduced reusable drinking cups. This has reduced an estimated 2million plastics cups to 900’000 reusable cups. Another sustainable feature includes the clean-up camp zones. This ensures that campers clean up after themselves before leaving the festival.
Day 3
Swedish legend Robyn closed the Orange stage in style with a high capacity crowd.
Bring Me The Horizon: British hardcore band, Bring Me The Horizon opened the Orange stage dressed in biohazard suits and war paint. Oliver Sykes spoke on his toxic relationship and reassured fans that nothing in this world matters but positive energies.
Vampire Weekend: Gracefully entering with their goofy smiles, British pop band Vampire Weekend blessed the Orange stage with their new album, Father of the Bride. Their simple yet cool stage design included a huge inflatable globe (Album cover) that floated behind the drummer.
Wu Tang Clan: 90’s legends, Wu Tang Clan shut down the Orange stage this year with all members from the OG group. From the release of their Debut album 36 Chambers, the rap group thanked fans for their loyalty over 30 years. Rza spoke about the making of their songs and discussed how the meaning of their lyrics haven’t changed over 3 decades, Protect your name!! (at all costs).
Robyn: Swedish legend Robyn performed her set with an aesthetic feel. From the silky white backdrop to her powerful outfits she showed confidences throughout her set. A major highlight of the night was her interaction with the audience during ‘Dancing on my own’. Robyn’s set estimated the largest crowd at this year’s festival with over 80’000 fans.
Day 4
After a week of parties, The Cure closed the Orange stage for 2019.
Bikstok: Danish Hip-hop/Reggae group Bikstok opened the Orange stage for the last day of Roskilde 2019. Their performance saw them perform to 60+ thousand Danish fans as they jammed into the amphitheatre to support their national talent. As the sun cleared, fans waved their arms in the air and prepared themselves for a big day.
Noel Gallagher High Flying Birds: Former Oasis player Noel Gallagher blessed the Arena stage with his Rockstar attitude. Wearing his renowned aviator sunglasses, Noel echoed Yeaaaaa yeaaaa yeaaa through the colossal tent.
Jorja Smith: Jorja’s beautiful presence was hard to miss on day 4 when she walked in wearing a Danish brand, Saks Potts and smiling to her audience. Her ear melting set lasted over an hour and featured cover songs including You Got Me by The Roots. Before leaving the stage, she thanked fans and anticipated the release of her new album in 2020.
The Cure: 70’s-90’s rock legends, The Cure closed the Orange stage for 2019 wearing face paint and rocking long hair. Their set lasted over 2hrs and dived between a huge catalogue of music including songs off Pornography, The Head On The Door, Kiss me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me and Wish. Fans waited hours to secure themselves good viewing points and even wore face paint to show their dedication to the British band.
Cypress Hill: Closing the Arena stage was 90’s OG’s Cypress Hill. The group comprised by B-Real, Sen Dog, DJ Muggs, Eric Bobo and Mellow Man Ace entered the stage rocking a huge joint. Stand out tracks included Dr Greenthumb, Insane in the Brain and Lowrider.
Overall Roskilde Festival welcomes and shows diversity through all its artists and attendees from around the world. The amount of love and positive energy is felt by all and makes this event feel special and unique. From its sustainability team, campers (Dream city), musicians and artists, everyone contributes to making this event an unforgettable experience. SaveTonight would highly recommend this festival to any travellers who love music and art.
2020 will see fifty years of Roskilde Festival! We hope you can make it.
For more information on the festival view here; https://www.roskilde-festival.dk/en/