Roskilde Festival 2005 !

Ok i'm afraid Roskilde is mostly a drunken haze so i can't seem to remember what we got up to. The festival was worthy of about 10 posts on its own, but it looks like its all gone now :( Here's to sum things up:

The festival area itself is as big as a city and takes well over 30mins to cross from one stage to another, speaking of which, there are 6 massive arenas with ear-piercing speaker systems! There are acres upon acres of camping area, mostly full of drunken scandinavians, although Simon and I were to return home every night since we planned to tour the city in the mornings, something which never materialized since we'd arrive home at 6am and play Foosball over a few more drinks until 8am!

pic: Roskilde by Night
pic: Roskilde at Sunset


The festival is not just about the music, its basically just a huge fun event with hundreds of little side shows, performances, games and various entertainment. Within the tightly guarded fences of the festival area, you could find everything from roskilde memorabila shops to shisha chillout areas, games arenas, open-air showers, and even a silent disco! This was a big tent where you were given a pair of headphones to listen and dance to the music.. so its real weird watching the others dance and scream when you can't hear what they're hearing! Thankfully there were plenty of foodstalls, selling everything from chinese to super burgers. As the event sponsor, Tuborg was everywhere of course, and always with huge queues, which didnt really put us off anyways. In the blistering heat, all you really want to do is drink beer after beer. And we did. And with all that beer, you need somewhere to unload. Luckily, Roskilde has evolved into a massive cesspit, so the nearest toilet is a few paces away, much to our amusement.

The band lineup was, of course, nothing short of awesome. We rocked and moshed and jumped and screamed and nodded to the best tunes of so many famous artists as well as some unknown and upcoming stars, since Roskilde music is mostly about promoting the smaller bands. I'm still abit pissed off that my Roskilde T-Shirt doesnt have a band list, but for posterity's sake, here's who we saw in just 3 days:

- Black Sabbath (Ozzy was never so alive!)
- Foo Fighters (Grohl climbed and played atop the sound rig!)
- Green Day (awesome, and again they didnt pick me to go on stage)
- Mastodon (rippin' !!)
- Audioslave (went mad when they played Rage/Soundgarden trax)
- Autechre (wow, crazy beats enough to make your heart fail)
- Duran Duran (nice, but they didnt play Rio for me, the fags...)
- DAD (Denmark's finest)
- Velvet Revolver (didnt think them that good)
- Armand Van Helden (really impressed witht his guy's tunes)
- Snoop Dogg (dogg pimpy himself)
- Craig Richards (craig who?)
- BeatSteaks (all i remember is i ate 3 burgers during this)
- Jimmy Eat World (wasnt impressed)
- Tom Vek (can't even remember the guy)
- Eskobar (xi qabda rappers jhekk niftakar seww)
- Outlandish (abit gay to say the least)
- Alter Ego (hmmm)
- Carl Cox (hamallata but great fun!)

There were plenty more bands we saw, but i just can't remember them. 10 litres of Tuborg a day can mess with your head!

Roskilde is all about the people. Over 110,00 punters made their way to the festival, most of which seem to be regulars and have been going for years, and all completely high on weed and Tuborg Classic. We even met some swedish girls who have been to Roskilde for the past 7 years and still have all 7 access bands on their arms! In 7 years they never removed them.. apparently they are now also quite collectible. We also met up with Chris from Northern Ireland for the second day of the festival, and met some other friends along the way too.

Oh well, it was an amazing adventure which i feel better prepared for when i go next year. Its not your average festival, and not for the faint hearted. If you go, make sure you're camping, and make sure you go in costume, or in nothing at all. Roskilde Rocks and i doubt i'll go to another festival with more punch!