Stages
The bands presented at Roskilde Festival are traditionally a balanced mix of large, well-known artists, cutting-edge artists from all contemporary genres, popular crowd-pleasing acts plus local Scandinavian headliners and up-and-coming names. The special Roskilde feeling is in particular ensured by stages located inside large tents, catering to an enthusiastic music-loving audience. As opposed to most other European festivals all bands play "real" concerts lasting for at least an hour.
The stages were until 2003 named after their colour, but as the names had not matched the actual colour of the tents for a period, it was decided to rename all stages except the Orange Stage, the central and main stage. The Orange Stage is open in front of a huge field, whereas the other tents cover the whole audience, the largest of which is the Arena stage (formerly known as Green Stage), the largest tent in Europe with an official capacity of 17,000 people. The 2007 edition saw two new tents, replacing Ballroom (1997–2006) which presented mainly World music, and Metropol (2003–2006) which presented mainly Electronica. In 2010 two stages, Astoria (from 2007) and Lounge, did not return, due to a slight shift in focus towards fewer, but bigger bands.
The music covers such styles as rock, Hip Hop, Metal, urban, electronica and 3rd world contemporary music. It has become a tradition to let an up-and-coming Scandinavian band open the Orange Stage on the first day of the festival. There are often surprising performances by classical acts, film-music, opera etc.
Apart from music there is always some theatre and 'lone acts' wandering around the festival site. Terrain and tents are always decorated in various ways. The current tents are:
| Stage name | Year introduced | Capacity | Main genres | Replaced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orange | 1978 | 60,000+ | All | Big Stage |
| Arena | 2003 | 17,000 | All | Green Stage |
| Cosmopol | 2007 | 6,000 | Hip Hop, Electronica, Urban world music | Metropol |
| Odeon | 2003 | 5,000 | Mixed, mostly rock-ish | Yellow Stage |
| Apollo | 2012 | 5,000 | Electronica | |
| Pavilion | 2003 | 2,000 | Mixed, mostly rock-ish | Blue Stage |
| Gloria | 2011 | 1,000 | Mixed | |
| Other | ||||
| Apollo Countdown | 2012 | 3,000 - 5,000 | Electronica | |
| Pavilion Junior | 2005 | 2,000 | Mixed – only up and coming Nordic acts | Camp Stage |
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