Denmark and Roskilde Festival 1/7-6/7

We arrived in Denmark after a very early morning start on Wednesday 1 July. The train system was relatively easy to work out and we made our way from the airport through to Copenhagen central station where we changed trains to get out to the town of Roskilde. On route we saw many fellow festival goers, from all over the place. We had a bit of a chat to an English couple and shared a taxi with them to the festival site, but it turned out we couldn’t catch up with them once the festival started as I didn’t have any mobile coverage out in the Danish fields. We made it to the campsite by early afternoon where had a tent already set up as part of our ticket - nice. Due to our super early start we had a very early night. On Thursday the bands didn’t kick off until 5pm so we headed along to check out what else the festival had to offer. As well as the usual food and market stalls there was also a series of large skate ramps and bmx bowls. On Thursday afternoon we checked out some locals going through their paces and performing some pretty decent tricks. Apparently on the Wednesday there was more of a competition and some DJ’s playing so we missed out there but we were still happy with what we saw. Once the bands kicked off we went into the main complex, a lot easier to walk between the stages than at Glastonbury, only a mere ten to fifteen minutes rather than half an hour upwards. Thursday night we watched a couple of bands but ended up having a reasonably early night as we were still tired. Unfortunately we shared proximity with a group of louts who were keen to stay up and make a racket for the duration of our stay so that meant we didn’t have the best night’s sleep. They were also making friends with a group of Sydney boys in the tent next to us who could only be described as BOGANS. Friday turned out to be the biggest day in regards to the band schedule, we saw Satyricon, an old school ‘Black Metal’ band who turned out to be excellent, Isis, Mono (for one track) as well as a reformed Faith No More who were sensational. Mike Patton and the new guitarist (formerly of Guns’n’Roses apparently) were resplendent in coloured suits. The band were in great form, cranking through songs from their whole career in great style. A bit of band tension was aired on the stage as well, with the new guitarist accusing the drummer of throwing drum sticks in his direction. Mike and Roddy were keen to explain that ‘this is what we do’ and that the audience would have guiltily been expecting on stage fireworks anyway. Thankfully it didn’t end up detracting from the performance or their decent encore. We also saw Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, in even better form than their Glasto appearance, so that was fantastic. Oasis were on after that, we’d not seen them before and they sounded pretty good. They also seemed to be focusing on the greatest hits to a good response from the crowd. We stayed to 1am to check out Nine Inch Nails as they are meant to be retiring for an unspecified period following this tour. They were in top form, cranking it out for an almost two hours so were back in the tent by about half past three. Tracks from the last twenty years got an airing, including 'Head Like a Hole', 'Burn', 'Wish', 'Gave Up', 'Hurt' - awesome stuff. I was able to get relatively close to the front of the stage so we’ve ended up with some good photos from that. Just prior to the end of the set, Kirsten and I were standing well back to the side of the stage when I was knocked into by some Danish revellers running past. I ended up with a sore lower back and crashed into Kirsten, knocking both of us to the ground. Thankfully neither of us was seriously hurt and the guys responsible just ran off into the darkness. It was getting light at about 4.30am so we didn’t get the best night’s sleep (when combined with our neighbour’s revelry) so we ended up having a slow start and a quieter day on Saturday. Thankfully the band schedule allowed us to take it easy. We went along to see Trail of Dead, Elbow and a couple of tracks from Amadou et Miriam without missing too much else and then had an earlier night. The last day, Sunday, was a good one. We had breakfast at a food stall near the field where our ‘Get-a-Tent’, (set up tent) was located. We ate there each morning as it was easy to get to and pretty tasty. Not cheap though, we found the prices of food and drink in general to be pretty expensive even by festival standards. Pete Doherty was on at 2pm, we saw most of his set and he was in pretty good form, probably better than Glasto as well. The Eagles of Death Metal proved to be a fantastic highlight as they were clearly enjoying themselves and ended up being quite humble in front of an enthusiastic crowd. We got to see a bit more of Madness than we did at Glasto which we were glad of. They were having a good time getting the crowd fired up. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs played after that, the band in better form than at Glasto, with better sound and we were also a lot closer to the action which was great. Our last band of the night was Coldplay, who we’ve not seen since T in the Park, a Scottish festival, in 2001. It’s easy to forget how many hits this band have had. They played a solid set of hits as well as a cover of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean in tribute to the late, great Wacko. The music continued late into the night but there wasn’t anything we really wanted to see so we headed back at the end of Coldplay’s set. Monday morning we had our final shower (yes! showers at a festival! - they were included in our ticket as well as flushing toilets) before catching a bus back to Roskilde town and then the train to Copenhagen. Thankfully we could leave our luggage at the railway station and we had a few hours to have a look around the town and one of the main shopping streets. We didn’t end up buying very much but it was nice to have a look around and have a drink. The flight back to London was delayed due to poxy weather in England but we ended up getting back to the UK after 9pm to pick up the van. We had tickets to pick up from Aunty Anne’s again so I drove for about half the distance up the motorway before we had a well earned rest at a service stop.