Roskilde-director: Demonstrations were expressions of the artists' own positions

Roskilde Festival 2025 has just concluded.

The event was marked by extreme heat that broke the record for the hottest day ever at the festival, followed by heavy rain and thunderstorms. Despite this, tickets were sold out along the way.

The festival was characterized by several things. One of the most notable was the political expressions by artists on stage.

This was particularly evident during the concert of singer Mø, where the climate and propalestinian activist Greta Thunberg suddenly appeared and staged a demonstration on the spot.

Activism also marked other concerts, such as that of the Irish band Fontaines D.C.

According to Roskilde Festival's managing director, Signe Lopdrup, this is "not a reflection of the festival's stance."

- It is a reflection of the individual artist's voice, she says.

- We as a festival have always been engaged and given space to artists' freedom of expression, even when disagreements are large. At Roskilde Festival, artists have the right to express themselves about political and social issues.

She tells that it was generally a peaceful festival and is happy to report that they were able to announce sold out, even though it happened a little later than usual.

- The fact that we sold out this year shows that we succeeded in putting together a program that speaks to the times and can gather the large community on Dyrskuepladsen.

There are several characteristics of this year's festival, but one in particular stands out and has filled - namely the weather, which changed from sunshine and heat to rain, thunderstorms and cold.

- We had to postpone some concerts due to lightning, but aside from that, festival operations went as planned.

Signe Lopdrup tells that there has been a special focus on universal design and creating a festival where more can participate this year.

- We have for the first time signed language interpreted a concert on the Orange Scene, which gave deaf people the opportunity to experience Artigeardits concert in a completely new way. In general, the program reflects that today's artists are engaged in their contemporary social issues, she says.

And now the music on the program has been replaced with large-scale cleanup.

- Now we and all our festival participants must pack up and put the festival away just as well as it opened. We build the city in fourteen days, we tear it down even faster, says Signe Lopdrup and adds that there will then come a "long and thorough" cleanup period, which can take several months.

According to the managing director, the festival has also been marked by festival-goers becoming better and better at sorting waste in the camps, which helps with cleanup.

Even though cleanup has not even begun yet, thoughts are already turning to next year's festival.

- For next year, we will also focus on sustainability and accessibility, so we can give even better opportunities to be at the festival in many ways, says Signe Lopdrup and adds:

- We are already in full swing with planning next year's festival, and we of course have many things that we look forward to revealing.

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