Messed!Up
First ‘real’ festival day arrived (meaning the pre-festival days are over), and finally a full schedule of music. But first, it was the traditional Beer Badminton tournament at Camp Vienna United. The summer sun was still gazing hot, and I’m quite sure this year’s Roskilde Festival goes down in the history books as one of the best, weather-wise.
The Beer Badminton tournament is always a spectacle with an American commentator who knows no badminton whatsoever but knows a lot about the shuttlecock, arbitrary rules and referees, and lots of beer. Even for an experienced spectator like myself, it was too much, and I fell asleep on the ground somewhere between the first and second round and returned to my tent for a power nap when the finals started. And then someone was shouting my name and ‘Hurry up, it’s time for Iceage’. That was the call for the festival to start.
On the lineup today, I had two ‘must see’ bands – The Cure and Monolord – but there were lots of other exciting bands, like Danish post punk band Iceage, that I’ve probably watched heaps of times before but never seem to remember. However, we spent too much time in line to get it and didn’t catch more than a few songs from a distance, but it was enough to kickstart the festival vibe and some excitement for all the shows to come. Sometimes you need to be on the festival ground for that to happen. I normally spend the first day getting acquainted with the festival area. For some reason, Roskilde Festival always changes names on a few of the stages – for reasons unknown – and it takes time to re-learn names and locations. Glimpses of bands like Wolf Alice (great as usual, but I’ve seen them four times in the last two years), The Sophs, and soulful Annie & The Caldwells were mixed with checking out the exhibitions. I ended up in a long discussion with some Danes and Brits at the festival poster exhibition on which previous festival was the best, and after some beers and going through the lineups, agreed on my Roskilde debut year, 1992, with bands like Pearl Jam and Nirvana. Then the clock hit The Cure time.
There are very few bands I’ve had the chance to watch live in five different decades. It’s only two bands: Depeche Mode (first time in 1983 as a young boy) and The Cure (first time in 1987). I saw the band at Primavera Sound a couple of weeks ago, and they put on a stellar performance. Let’s say they set the bar high for the Roskilde show. And they nailed it! What’s even more fun is to go to a The Cure show with a huge fan who repeatedly pointed out (beer tends to make people repeat themselves – a lot) that it has been her favorite band since childhood. Which band in their late seventies plays a 2.5-hour set like it was rehearsal day. I don’t know any of the bands I listen to doing that, but I also don’t know many bands with such singalong-friendly songs. You should have been here during ‘Just Like Heaven’, ‘Friday I’m In Love’, and ‘Fascination Street’ – epic.
Two and a half hours later, we ran off to the Lagune stage for some bedtime stoner/sludge by Gothenburg four-piece Monolord. If we thought it would be great for calming down before slipping into the sleeping bag, we had to rethink that after a few minutes. Monolord pulled off a loud performance with some classic rock postures by bassist Mika Häkki. Where so many of those bands are lethargic, Monolord are absolutely a destructive force. Like Electric Wizard before them, Monolord avoid listlessness and jump straight into the apocalyptic. Instead of a mere head nod, the music demanded a full-body sway from its audience, and beer-induced men in their fifties followed the instructions and did their best (although security sent some of them back to their tents as they had a bit too much fun). With fuzz guitars still ringing in my ears, we called it a day and summarized the first day at Roskilde Festival as one of the best opening days ever.
*****
Thursday arrived with aches and pains from five nights in a tent; it finally began to take its toll. Sure, camping gear has come a long way over the years, but a fifty-year-old body demands a little more care than that. As if the accumulated wear and tear wasn’t enough, the weather took a sharp turn for the worse. Around lunchtime, the rain set in. It never became a full-blown downpour, but combined with an increasingly fierce wind, the temperature dropped fast, and the chill seeped into every corner of the festival site. As it turned out, this would become the windiest day in Roskilde Festival history.
With a cold looming on the horizon, the morning was spent in recovery mode: two hot showers – one of the many perks of having accreditation – along with a couple of well-timed power naps before we headed into the festival grounds early to catch Royel Otis. The Australian duo has built an impressive catalogue over the past few years, and after delivering one of the standout performances at Primavera Sound 2025, expectations were sky-high. Somehow, they managed to surpass them. The band tore through a set packed with fan favourites from across their discography while throwing in two epic cover versions: Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s “Murder on the Dancefloor” and The Cranberries’ “Linger.” It was easily one of the best performances of this year’s festival.
A brisk dash across the festival site later, beer in hand, naturally, we arrived at the Lagune stage to catch another fast-rising Australian act, Ecca Vandal. She has made a huge impression in recent years, not least thanks to a string of visually stunning music videos, so hopes were high that the same intensity would translate to the live stage. Unfortunately, it never quite happened. Perhaps the early afternoon slot worked against her, but the performance left the impression that far more effort had gone into crafting eye-catching videos than developing a compelling live show.
Then came one of those classic festival moments. We got swept into a haze of beers, with whisky making more than a few guest appearances, or, if we’re being honest, rather a lot of whisky. The result was that the rest of the evening became something of a blur. The photos, however, tell a different story: plenty of laughs, and a memorable ending to what had otherwise been the weakest lineup day of the festival. The following morning, on the other hand, was considerably less enjoyable.
