Messed!Up
How do I summarize my 30th Roskilde Festival and position it next to my previous Roskilde experiences? Well, it has to be split into themes to end up with some sort of fair conclusion of the 2023 edition of the festival. Here’s an attempt that at no point claim to be the best evaluation of the festival but a few remarks on themes I find important at any festival in general and at the Roskilde Festival in particular.
Let’s start with the first impression of the festival and the first thing you encounter upon arrival – the CAMPSITE. As I was living at the media camp to be close to the media center I will focus on the festival campsite as my friend camps were located all over the place – at Settle ‘n’ Share, Silent & Clean and Clean Out Loud. Yes, Roskilde Festival has different thematic campsites depending on how you want festival life to unfold. If you wanna sleep, stay at Silent & Clean (it has to be completely silent between 10 pm and 10 am); if you want to enjoy massive party nights, stay at Clean Out Louds (‘clean’ means that you have to clean up after yourself) or the special campsite called Settle ‘n’ Share which you have to apply for. There are several more thematic campsites but I didn’t have friends hanging out anywhere else, thus my reflection is based on the aforementioned, and mostly Settle ‘n’ Share as I had my own chair stored at Camp Vienna United, a camp of Germans, a few Americans, some Swedes, a Czech dude, and a stray Dane.
To start with, the campsite is H.U.G.E.! It’s split into two parts – the West and the East – with the railway splitting the campsite in two, and you don’t want to have your friends spread out over both sides of the campsite because you will have to walk a lot. Luckily, all my friends stay at the East campsite save for two that slept at the Caravan Camp (but that’s too far off and they had to come to me). It’s fairly easy to navigate through the campsite, and there are two strategically located food courts – one smaller and one major – to facilitate short distances to get something to eat. You don’t have to walk far to find a snack, and in my experience from around 60 different festivals across the world, Roskilde is quite unique in that sense.
The Silent & Clean camp speaks for itself. I have stayed there a few years but it grew a lot bigger over the years due to – I guess – demand and that people my age and older don’t want to live next to a boombox or stay up for a party until 6 am. I sure don’t want to anymore, at least I want to decide whether or not I do it. With age, you become picky with your sleep or you just want to be able to communicate with people in your camp and not have to raise your voice just to ask for a beer. ‘Silent’ means silent after 10 pm and I find it quite satisfying to walk through the campsite after midnight and it’s quiet. It also means you need to come keep your voice down or just leave the campsite if you want to have that political argument with your friend like some people want to after a 12-pack of Carlsberg.
However, I hung out with friends from Hamburg – well, from all over Germany – plus a few Americans and Swedes in Camp Vienna United (yes, Vienna is the capital of Austria; no, there were no Austrians in the camp – long story). Camp Vienna has subscribed for a spot at the Settle ‘n’ Share campsite since its beginning and staying at Settle ‘n’ Share means that you have to contribute with some sort of festival experience, like adding something fun to the festival. You need to apply for it, and the host of the campsite told us they handed out about 180 camp approvals this year. That is, 180 camps doing something fun to make it a better festival experience for everyone. Camp Vienna United contribute – as usual – with an Amplified Session where everyone can pop by and play a song (yes, they have all the gear – drums, guitar, bass, synthesizer, amplifiers etc., all battery-driven), daily 5k morning runs (actually, the most impressive thing ever at a festival – 5k at 9 am every day even if last night’s party ended at 6 am), and a badminton tournament. You can easily entertain yourself the whole festival by hanging out at Settle ‘n’ Share because something happens all the time, and at the entrance of the campsite there’s a schedule on what’s happening every hour of the day.
The general atmosphere at the overall campsite is amazing. It’s like a smörgåsbord of opportunities and you only pop by the campsite that fits your purpose. Most people will head off to Dream City – a micro-version of Burning Man – in the evening/night where most of the major parties are. It’s just such a great experience to walk through the different campsites in between gigs because it’s the campsites that make Roskilde Festival unique at the festival circuit. No other festival has anything like it. Putting up a Ferris wheel to entertain people or some sort of mini amusement park like the Reading Festival usually has it’s nothing in comparison. If you want to have a great festival experience outside the music, this is where you have to be. I didn’t start to appreciate it until a few years ago because it was too much party to deal with but the older I get, the more entertaining it has become to walk around a bit during the festival. Or at least sit on one of the manmade hills to get an overview of what’s happening and where it happens.
Next after the campsite, FOOD is important. You can’t live off beer, believe me, and you don’t want to eat noodles every day. I have tried to live off canned Ravioli for a full festival when I was younger but gave up after four days – you need variety. But the choices and the price range are amazing! There’s something for everyone. If you’re on a low budget, just get some delicious spaghetti carbonara for 60 DKK, and if you have a bit more in your pocket there are too many options for you. You don’t need to stay hungry and there’s always a food court or a food truck within 5 minutes walking distance at the campsite, and in the festival area you don’t need to walk at all, just extend your arm and pick something. Maybe it’s too many burger places this year, especially as they don’t differ much, but nothing is like a Dixie burger. A bit hot but that’s why you always have a Carlsberg with you (just turn your head in any direction and you’ll find a Carlsberg to buy). In fact, I had too many Dixie burgers this year as well and am on a diet right now.
Next to the Dixie burger I’ve started to like Danish food culture a lot and their love for pork in general and roast pork sandwiches in particular, and I had to stop myself from having it for breakfast every day because every sandwich was another kilo on my belly, but no matter where you bought they were so tasty. If you also add an Indian place called Mumbai that served delicious vegetarian Tandoori bowls and the not so Indian – but still awesome – fried onion rings, you’ll understand that I had my hands/belly full of delicious food. And that’s like 1% of all food places at the festival. If you’re more adventurous than I am you would probably do a better job working yourself through more food places than I usually do but, I just don’t want to spend too much time on finding food as time is valuable at the Roskilde Festival, and has to be divided between work, friends, and music.
One thing though; I don’t remember when it disappeared but the festival used to have sandy areas where you were allowed to cook your own food with your own camping gear which was how I made it through my student years once, but they have disappeared and I really think the festival should consider to get them back. Sure, I can understand from some sort of security point but they were always guarded, and as far as I can remember there has never been any accident. It’s a good opportunity for young people on a low budget. And that leaves us with the most important topic left: the MUSIC.
Keep in mind that I in previous reviews have pointed out that hip hop is not my kind of music but that I understand why the festival is dominated by hip hop acts (at least if you compare it to the 90s and the 2000s) as that’s the music topping the charts across the world. It’s ok – but it’s not for me.
As the music nerd I am I keep stats of all my gigs, at least the last 20 years of gigs, and usually, a Roskilde Festival results in 10-15 ‘gig epiphanies’ – memories that will stay with you for life. This year I count it to two. TWO bands made an impression, nothing else. Ok, three if I yet again count Prisma but I already knew from the beginning it was going to be a great show – and it was. Nova Twins and Wargasm did stellar performances but aside from those it was nothing fun at all for me because the line-up wasn’t really up my alley this year. In fact, it may have been the poorest line-up ever for me at the Roskilde Festival. That doesn’t make it a bad festival; it made it a festival where my focus, for once, was on ‘more than music’, and I had lots of fun at the campsite instead of meeting up with people from other magazines in the international press centre. That was different but added new experiences after 30 years of Roskilde Festivals.
Was Roskilde Festival 2023, aka my 30th Roskilde Festival, a good or a bad experience? I guess I learned that even if the line-up is quite poor, I have as much fun as I usually have at the festival because it’s a festival where music is integrated with many other things (that’s unique!) and coated in what the festival call. The Orange Feeling’. I’m back next year!
Slider photo: Flemming Bo Jensen
