Black rock in an orange tent

Line Rasmussen, Contributing Editor | 24 June 2011 | Art

Roskilde Festival is the largest North European culture and music festival and has existed since 1971. This year 80.000 paying guests get 8 fantastic days with 163 bands, which act at 7 stages. This year Iron Maiden will be at the top of the rock pyramid.

Music

The largest appearances include Kings of Leon, Mastodon, M.I.A., Portishead and The Strokes. Some of the more exciting gigs including Arctic Monkeys, PJ Harvey and Magnetic Man are playing their only Scandinavian festival job at Roskilde. This year Roskilde ups the exclusivity ante with special setups and musical interfaces in the program that are composed specifically for the Roskilde Festival including for the first time ever: the two-Kuti's sons, Femi and SEUN, on stage together for an afternoon session curated by the legendary punks The Ex from Holland and a spectacular show for all the senses with the English filmmaker / video artist Chris Cunningham. Add in lots of rock, hip hop, music for dance floor by electronic and hand game character and a strong program with metal legends Iron Maiden at the top of the rock pyramid. There is plenty of blackness to delve into whatever you are looking for.

More than music

Roskilde is much more than music. There is the largest cinema tent in the north, showing films like Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan from early morning to late night and there is sensational street Soccer for women only, seating installations with visualization and entertainment, street dance, skating and much more. During the festival a huge balloon from recycled plastic will be sent to the sky over the festival lake at sunrise.

Each year Roskilde Festival has a special viewpoint. This year the viewpoint is poverty and inequality especially focused on homelessness and Roma and deployed both as an attitude campaign and activities at the festival, especially in the new area Poor City. This year Poor City at the center of east offers audiences welcome to a reality where a meal and a warm bed is a rarity. Here the visitors have the opportunity to look inside the world of the poor through a series of experiences.

Solongasitisblack.com will be at Roskilde Festival and we will be photographing and enjoying the black feeling at Roskilde Festival 2011. Until then take a look at these black/white photos of some of the bands, which will be playing this year.