Friday, July 08, 2011

Roskilde review

A week has passed since the most of the Indie Laundry crew was having a great evening with Portishead on The Orange Stage at Roskilde Festival 2011. The scene is criticized for being a big problem for Roskilde, because few bands can play such big a venue - especially today, where the genres and and bands has grown in numbers. And many has criticized that the festival did not book legends like Paul Simon, Bowie,Neil Young, Prince etc.. Few gives the festival credit for being brave to give some of the biggest bands on the rockscene of today the chance. And I think Portishead, Arctic Monkeys and especially The Strokes showed they could manage it. That said, it is a problem most of the time, and many bad concerts at Orange Stage every year is a fact. The solution could be to upgrade some of the small scenes where magic happens with names like Charles Bradley, The Walkmen, John Grant, Kurt Vile, Destroyer etc - and only use Orange Stage to evening-headlines a few times during the festival. All in all 2011 showed that Roskilde still have the touch, can make great bookings and create a great party. And this year the Indie Laundry favorites played all days and not for the most part on sunday, which has been a problem earlier. But if the festival wont end up in being pure party with clubbing go-large and extreme activities like the gigantic ropeway this year - it has to have more focus on the upcoming names on the small stages - and believe in these at bigger and better stages. The Indielaundry-crew had four fantastic days at Roskilde and are already counting days until Roskilde 2012 - hopefully with more indie with an edge.

In short:

Best concerts:
Strokes, PJ Harvey, Arctic Monkeys, The Walkmen, Portishead

Best scenes:
Arena, Odeon, Gloria

Best Food:
Meyers, Cofoco, Köttbullar(!)

Surprise:
No hangovers(?)

Disappointment:
To few drinks at The Gringo Bar... and the rain