Welcome readers. I am Andres Moreno, and I am the new live reporter at Uljas, live from Roskilde Festival. When I grow up I would like to be as Alexis Petridis, the music journalist from The Guardian. Check his review of this year’s Glastonbury.
It is been eight years since I got to Joensuu for the first time, now
I am finishing my PhD in Computer Science Education at UEF. Living in
Joensuu I have had the chance to attend Ilosaarirock several times and
to enjoy the Nordic happiness that spreads in local festivals.
Roskilde Festival claims to be the biggest one in Nordic countries,
part of that pointless trend on being the biggest, the greatest and
whatnot (fyi, Ilosaarirock is one of the oldest festivals in
Europe!!!). As Ilosaarirock, Roskilde Festival is also non-profit,
meaning that all profits from the ticket sale is donated to charity,
usually of the artsy kind.
Artists’ loss of income through music sales has been balanced by
higher and higher artists’ fees at concerts and festivals. This has
reflected in Roskilde ticket prices, which have almost double in the
last 7 years, though this year the price has marginally been lowered.
For a non-profit festival, this increased budget has led to greater
risks; Roskilde cannot use past ticket profits to overcome a bad year,
they already donated the profits as the law required them to do.
Roskilde’s solution to this problem has been to find alternative ways
of generating income to secure coming festivals, depression or not.
Now, attendees can enjoy the luxury of an H&M camping, a green camping
with WiFi, and more perks, just for an extra fee. I will be
comfortably in the press camping with my colleagues from all around
the world, for only 50 €. But if it need be, I may go and join the
masses at the main camping area of 1 million square meters and report
from there.
Artists-wise, Roskilde Festival has got some nice acts, that the
sold-out crowd will surely enjoy. Names from yesterday: Prince, Patti
Smith, names from today: Gorillaz, Muse, and names that combined
yesterday and today: Them Crooked Vultures. Check the whole list in the festival webpages.
I am quite excited about other acts as well like Alice in Chains, The
National, NoFX, Vampire Weekend, Moderat, Titus Andronicus and many
others. Check out the mix somebody made at Soundcloud.