Foo Fighters on the Orange Stage in 2017

@dtofficial #rf18 @orangefeeling #rf #rf20

Although the Roskilde Festival is not a “metal festival”, and is slowly moving away from being a rock festival, there is always just enough to keep people like me interested. The 2020 rendition will feature bands such as Faith No More, Deftones, Amenra, High On Fire, Nyredolk, Old Man Gloom, Elder, Youth Code, Gabestok, Eyes, Employed to Serve, Helms Alee, The Night Flight Orchestra, Oozing Wound, Bersærk, Heathe, Conjurer, Svalbard, and ORM (who has a new EP coming out tomorrow).

Behemoth on the Arena Stage in 2019

Bring along your daughter (as I did in 2018), and she can enjoy the likes of Taylor Swift, Anderson Paak, and Mura Masa. Just don’t ask me to name a single song from any of those artists as I can’t do it.

The stage lighting at Roskilde Festival is second to none. Unlike most metal festivals, that typically have two nearly identical stages right next to each other with similar lighting and vibe, the five main stages at Roskilde are very different, each with their own unique atmosphere.

Anthrax on the Arena Stage in 2017

Because it’s not a metal festival, there are opportunities to get more up close and personal with bands you love since there are probably about 100,000 people at the festival who will not be going to see the band you want to see.

Dark Tranquillity on Pavilion Stage in 2018

Full festival tickets are still available here for about US$320, or single day tickets are about US$160. The tickets usually sell out. Last year Roskilde Festival sold out in early May.

Posted on February 27th, 2020 under Denmark. Tags: AF-S DX NIKKOR 16-80mm f/2.8-4E ED VR DX lens, AF-S NIKKOR 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5G ED VR, AF-S NIKKOR 85mm f/1.8G lens, anthrax, behemoth, concert photography, dark tranquillity, foo fighters, metal, nikon 50mm f/1.8, Nikon D500, Nikon D750, roskilde festival. Comments Off on 2020 Roskilde Festival Preview

@VOLBEAT @UMG @Anthrax @magtens

I was going to get a photo pass for Volbeat and Anthrax tonight in Aarhus, Denmark, but things didn’t work out again (a similar thing happened when Anthrax came to Ashland). I will see Anthrax, with a photo pass, at Brutal Assault Festival in August. But no Volbeat in Denmark which I thought would be cool.

Instead I’ll be heading to Rudersdal, Denmark to catch a professional American football game there featuring Isiah Carter. Go Oaks!

Posted on June 29th, 2019 under Denmark. Tags: aarhus, anthrax, volbeat. Comments Off on Tonight’s agenda has been changed

@orangefeeling ‏#rf17 @Anthrax @Scott_Ian

Posted on December 31st, 2017 under Denmark. Tags: AF-S NIKKOR 85mm f/1.8G lens, anthrax, concert photography, Nikon D750, roskilde festival. Comments Off on Happy Birthday, Scott Ian!

@orangefeeling ‏#rf17 @Anthrax

The big hard rock/metal festival in Denmark has clearly become Copenhell. If you are a metalhead, that is the festival to go to. I spoke with numerous people at Copenhell who were not going to the Roskilde Festival simply because there are so few rock and metal bands there these days, even with the Foo Fighters being perhaps the biggest headliner of the 2017 Roskilde Festival.

At the first Roskilde Festival I went to, in 2011, both Iron Maiden and Mastodon were on the main (Orange) stage. Many metal/rock bands bands (Ghost, Swans, 1349, Eyehategod, Autopsy, Graveyard, Electric Wizard, etc. etc.) played other stages. As the years have gone by, Copenhell has grown and Roskilde has decreased the number of metal acts, moved them to smaller stages, and given them start times when few are around (early in the morning or early in the afternoon). The focus these days has moved to hip hop, electronica, and pop.

All of this is creating a downward spiral where fewer metal acts are booked, leading to fewer people interested in metal going to Roskilde, leading to smaller crowds at the metal acts, leading to fewer metal acts being booked, etc. I hope this isn’t my last Roskilde, but a few of the people I talked to said they were likely done if the trend continues.

That said, there were some very healthy crowds on big stages at prime times like for Red Fang and Anthrax (where I took the above photo). If any of the powers that be are reading this, similar acts need to be strung together. For instance, Pig Destroyer went on so many hours before any other metal act that I doubt there were many people there (I wasn’t). And overlapping Neurosis and Anthrax meant that half of the Neurosis crowd split for Anthrax before Neurosis had really got going. Red Fang, High on Fire, Cult of Luna, and Neurosis should have all been on the same day, with only a short time gap between each. Putting each on a different day made no sense.

Anyway, that’s my two cents.

Posted on July 5th, 2017 under Denmark. Tags: AF-S NIKKOR 85mm f/1.8G lens, anthrax, concert photography, metal, Nikon D750, roskilde festival. Comments Off on Metal @ Roskilde Festival

Scott Ian of Anthrax

I have seen Anthrax live in three different decades. I missed the 1990s.

Posted on December 31st, 2013 under Other. Tags: anthrax, concert photography, metal, nikon d7000, sigma 85mm f/1.4 lens. Comments Off on Happy Birthday, Scott Ian!