Roskilde University Year Party 2014

September 23, 2014September 23, 2014 / Alan Kortbaek / Leave a comment

Roskilde picks: Day 2

July 5, 2013January 18, 2020 / Alan Kortbaek / Leave a comment

Roskilde picks: Day 2. original article at:

http://cphpost.dk/culture/roskilde-2013/roskilde-picks-day-2

July 5, 2013 – 10:04

With a schedule full of acts, it can be difficult to make choices. Our music writers give you their picks for today’s must-see concerts.

Plenty of choices for music fans on day two of the 2013 Roskilde Festival (Photo: Scanpix / Torben Christensen)

Although it is known as much for the camping, the partying and the “orange feeling”, believe it or not, for some people the Roskilde Festival is still all about the music.

With a full schedule across the festival’s seven stages, it can sometimes be hard to know when to go where. The Copenhagen Post offers our picks for each day’s best concerts, but any Roskilde veteran would caution against planning your schedule too carefully. Part of the beauty of the festival is stumbling across new acts and stepping outside of your musical comfort zones.

But if you are unfamiliar with some of the names on the schedule and want to know a little more, here are our picks for Friday:

It’s early in the day, so don’t be high as a kite when you watch Highasakite

Highasakite

14:00, Pavilion

Flying on top of the skies is Norwegian indie pop band Highasakite. Vocalist Ingrid Helene Håvik, who writes most of the group’s music, is known for her mesmerising voice. The band just released their debut album All That Floats Will Rain last year which the music critics received with open arms and flattering reviews. The band prefers to dress in Indian clothing upon entering the stage and are said to put on very memorable shows. They are known for their catchy tracks and the EP In and Out of Weeks, which was released this spring, is no exception. Sigrid Neergaard

Of Monsters And Men

18:30, Arena

Chamber pop, a sound popularized by the enigmatic Edwarde Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, looks set to become a genre in its own right thanks to Icelandic sensation Of Monsters And Men. The six-piece will be making only their second visit to Denmark, having played at Vega late last year. Expect plenty of epic sing-along moments and a concert that will linger in your mind for a very long time to come. Allan Mututku-Kortbæk

Catch living legend Bobby Womack on the Orange Stage

Bobby Womack

19:00, Orange

An active recording artist since the late ‘60s, the veteran soul singer Womack has had an enduring influence on the world of funk, deep soul and R & B throughout the decades. Sharing similarities with some of soul’s most prestigious figures – including Sam Cooke, Wilson Pickett and Otis Reading – Womack has been a part of a modern reemergence of nostalgic funk during the last few years along with such acts as The Temptations, Charles Bradley and Cody Chestnut. Daniel van der Noon

Rokia Traore

19:00, Odeon

One of very few African acts at this year’s festival, Rokia Traore is part of the modern wave of Malian musicians that includes Amadou & Mariam, Ali Farka Toure and Salif Keita. The widely travelled Traore has recently released her fifth album, Beautiful Africa, a work that represents a coming of age of sorts for her. This marks her third visit to the Roskilde Festival. Allan Mututku-Kortbæk

Maskinen

19:30, Apollo

This Swedish act got its Scandinavian breakthrough with the release of the upbeat hit ‘Alla som inte dansar’ (Everyone who doesn’t dance) in 2007. The song was impossible to miss in Denmark, but the Swedes have not been very visible since. They have toured in the US and Brazil but are now trying to get back on the Danes’ playlists. Their mixture of pop, rap, bass and electronic sounds are sure to start a huge party and you don’t need to understand Swedish to appreciate their beats and energy. Sigrid Neergaard

Easily the most controversial name on the bill this year, the pressure will be on Rihanna (and festival organisers) to deliver a strong show

Rihanna

22:30, Orange

One of the main names at Roskilde Festival this year is R&B mega-star Rihanna. She will be set to rock the crowd at the festival’s largest stage despite many Roskilde Festival enthusiasts being displeased with the booking, as the pick is more pop-orientated than the festival’s traditional picks. The young woman from Barbados broke through with her hit ‘Pon de Replay’ in 2005 and has since then delivered hit after hit. Over the years she has transformed from a sweet innocent girl into a sultry sex icon. Sigrid Neergaard

Tego Calderon

24:00, Cosmopol

Reggaeton is a genre that can easily become tediously repetitive, generic and flat-out boring, but not if you look towards one of the pioneers of the genre who sought to bring the Latin vibes from the poor neighbourhoods of Puerto Rico to a widespread global audience. Tego Calderón performs his steaming reggaeton with dignity, always pushing to open the boundaries of the hedonistic party music. Put on your dancing shoes for this year’s Latin party. Michalis Nielsen

Crystal Castles

01:30, Arena

Canadian punks Ethan Kath and Alice Glass form one of the most unique bands around, with their radical concoction of ethereal boundary-pushing electronic music. Their sold-out show at Vega earlier this year was one of the best the venue has played host to, replete with epic moments of crowd-surfing, as it cruised the fine line between untamed chaos and sheer genius. Crystal Castles have been touring non-stop for the last two years, so to say that they are an act in top form is a gross understatement. Allan Mututku-Kortbæk

Simian Mobile Disco

02:00, Apollo

Simian Mobile Disco may be a bit past their prime but are nonetheless still a force to be reckoned with in the intricate, erratic world of electronic music. Their live show is a maelstrom of chaotic musical arrangements strung flimsily together with aplomb. The duo have released a consistent string of albums over the years and collaborated with the likes of Florence and The Machine and the Arctic Monkeys and are an active component in the UK’s effervescent music scene. Brace yourself for a wild and hedonistic late-night show. Allan Mutuku-Kortbæk

Roskilde Festival Camping Feature 2013

July 5, 2013January 18, 2020 / Alan Kortbaek / Leave a comment

Orange you glad it’s festival time again?

Allan Mutuku-Kortbæk

July 3, 2013 – 20:03

Although the main music doesn’t kick off until tomorrow, the party has already been raging for days

From the opening of the gates last Saturday until the last musical notes are played Sunday night, the Roskilde Festival campgrounds are a frenetic – but beloved – mix of people, booze, noise, and mess (Photo: Scanpix)

It’s that time of the year again. The usually quaint, sedate town of Roskilde has turned into a temporary carnival, bursting with hordes of festival-goers from all over the world who’ve turned up to Northern Europe’s largest music festival. Roskilde is now in its 42nd year and has grown into one of the most respected events on the global festival circuit – and a blueprint for what can be done through good organisation, a fair bit of volunteering and excellent planning.

A complex festival of the size and scale of Roskilde is very much a multi-faceted affair, with numerous dimensions to it. One of the most discussed aspects of Roskilde is life in the camps, which for some is far from an ideal accommodation option. For many though, camp life is a fundamental and fun part of the Roskilde experience.

Chaotic from the word go

The start of the festival is always a hectic affair, as throngs of festival-goers flock en masse to the entrances to queue in long lines to be amongst the first to be allowed into the festival grounds when they open at 6pm on Saturday a full five days before the main musical aspect kicks off.

The early days at Roskilde are always hectic, as festival-goers race to be the first into the festival grounds when the gates open (Photo: Scanpix)

Competition for a good camping spot is formidably fierce. For many years, organisers faced the problem of the fence being toppled over many hours before the gates were officially opened, though this challenge has been mitigated somewhat by fence patrols and stiff penalties for anyone caught trying to force entry into the grounds. Once the gates are open, the masses are free to set up their camps as they please. This too is a chaotic affair in which camps are assembled at breakneck speed and the pastoral fields around the village of Kamstrup are transformed into a colourful patchwork of pavilions and tents that will house the festival’s guests in conditions ranging from summer heat to torrential downpours. Many camps appoint the fittest amongst their ranks to run with as many tents as they can carry and pitch whilst others wait at the gates with large amounts of camping gear, loudspeakers, stocks of alcohol and other festival essentials.

With the camps set up, the party has officially begun and for the five days before the large concerts start, festival-goers are largely left to their own ingenuity and imagination when it comes to keeping themselves entertained. There are, however, numerous activities to keep one occupied around the festival grounds during the warm-up days. This year’s features include:

Fixed Apollo Stage

Last year, Roskilde experimented with a mobile Apollo stage, which wandered from one camping area to another, night after night. This year, the stage has a fixed location (between camping area G and the music area) and will be hosting several acts a day in the lead-up to the main music period.

Maker Space workshop

As an antidote to the ‘if it’s broke, trash it’ culture that tends to underscore the philosophy of numerous Roskilde-goers, Dream City houses a temporary workshop that focuses on reuse and sustainability. Cheap solar cell mobile phone chargers and concrete ‘life-hacking’ advice are but two of the possibilities at the Maker Space workshop.

The Velvet State

A collaboration between performance design geniuses Fiction Pimps and Collective Unconscious, the Velvet State is an interactive art installation that is designed to take one through a vivid journey of different states of mind, in a boundary-pushing experiment that straddles the territory of the dreamy and the unconscious. The Velvet State is one of many art installations at Roskilde – all of which focus on co-creation and enticing the artistic spirits hidden within each and every festival-goer.

The Skate Park / Roskilde West

Roskilde West is the de facto cool location to hang out during the camping period. Home to both the skate park and Game City, this area is a vibrant mix of cultural activities and sports tournaments. Die hard punk rockers Hashbug rested their case for the ‘punk is not dead’ maxim on Sunday at the Skate Park, and with a host of different DJs behind the turntables every night, this is one location that consistently provides entertainment in the days before the big acts take over the festival.

With something for everyone at Roskilde, The Copenhagen Post caught up with some festival attendees for a quick chat about what camp life is all about:

(Photo: Allan Mutuku-Kortbæk)

Barbara Nino Careras
Hometown: Bogota, Colombia
Number of Roskilde Festivals attended: First time
Best thing about the festival?
“Definitely the people: they are open. They share, they love. Everyone is free, and there’s a lot of happiness around.”
What is camp life like?
“It’s difficult, but everyone is doing it and is part of the same shared experience, so it sort of balances it all out in the end.”

(Photo: Allan Mutuku-Kortbæk)

Niv Dayan
Hometown: Copenhagen
Number of Roskilde Festivals attended: Three
Best thing about the festival?
“People are really friendly. The feeling of happiness is just infectious.”
What is camp life like?
“I don’t really like the camp life that much. It’s loud, dirty and pretty grim, so I spend most of my nights at home, but I do have a tent pitched here just in case.”

(Photo: Allan Mutuku-Kortbæk)

Edoardo Botallico
Hometown: Milan, Italy
Number of Roskilde Festivals attended: Four
Best thing about the festival?
“You become a different person. You lose the facade you have in everyday life which means you connect to other people as one ought to.”
What is camp life like ?
“It’s very basic and sometimes difficult, but you share the experience with your friends which is very beautiful.”