Roskilde 2008 - Days 1 & 2

Denmark | | 10 July 2008

Both are of a similar capacity, both were set up in the 70's by hippies left over from the sixties, and both routinely attract some of the biggest and best bands doing the rounds each year. However, they are most obviously united by their recent brushes with rain, mud and floods – in 2007 both festivals looked like the Battle of the Somme might have done had it been headlined by The Who.

So, when the Rain Gods decided to look (relatively) kindly on Pilton in 2008, it's safe to say there are high hopes its Nordic relative would find similar fortune with whatever deity is in charge of the weather. Thankfully, barring a few showers on the last night, the site is blessed with a week of relentless sunshine that you'd expect more from attending a fest on the popular Spanish circuit as opposed to one in a small Danish town on a similar latitude to Glasgow.

All this means that tens of thousands of happy campers are out and about in the sunshine and all the more eager to take in the plethora of 'More than Music' activities available. BMX displays, ice skating and fishing are all on offer, and this year the site’s swimming lake proves popular with hundreds of people opting to escape the uncharacteristic heat by listening to the underwater soundsystem ingeniously plonked on the lake's bed.

Roskilde is also one of the friendliest places on earth. It wouldn't be a surprise if the majority of attendees have to pass a Niceness Test before being able to get a ticket.  Its all particularly touching considering the international air the festival has. With everyone from Belgians to Brazilians mingling freely, the 'Love for your fellow man' ethos espoused by the festival's hippy founders certainly seems to have caught on.

The global edge is also mirrored in the festivals programme, with two great world music fusion bands occupying prime spots on Thursday’s schedule. Dengue Fever offer up a superior Cambodian/US sixties rock hybrid, with singer Chhom Nimol's beautiful voice (and looks) standing out in front of her band's taut psych-pop. Shortly afterwards Orishas take to the Cosmopol stage, sounding like a cross between Buena Vista Social Club and Jurassic 5.

The real highlight of Thursday's line-up however (and probably the entire festival) are Oxford clever dicks Radiohead, who triumphantly close the day's proceedings on the monolithic Orange main stage. Yorke and Co. blast through most of the excellent 'In Rainbows' (the brooding and ethereal 'Nude' sounds ten times more magical in a live setting) whilst balancing enough experimental material to satisfy the purists with enough 'hits' to please casual fans. The likes of 'The Gloaming' and 'Idioteque' see Thom Yorke doing his twitchy rave-freak seizure dance brilliantly, while the final encore of 'Karma Police' has the crowd in full stadium sing-a-long mode, albeit it sounding a little odd to a native English ear thanks to majority of the crowd singing, "for a minute there, losing themselves," in thick Danish accents.

Friday starts in much the same manner as Thursday, with 100,000 people waking up uncomfortably having being baked by the sun in their tents. Later, Kenge Kenge put on one heck of a show in the Cosmopol, a talented group of nationalistically-clad Kenyan musicians playing traditional instruments with more passion than anyone else at the festival, as two tribal dancers shake what they've got at the stage's fore. Over in Roskilde Arena, Band Of Horses seem as perplexed as anyone by the amount of people who've turned up to see them. Clearly they've garnered quite the following in Denmark, but it's so difficult to get anywhere close to the tent that many decide it's time to seek entertainment elsewhere.  Despite Kings Of Leon playing considerably further down the bill than Glastonbury the week  before, their gutbucket blues makes a lot more sense under the sun kissed warmth of a dusty summer eve the than in the dark of a dank Somerset night. The crowd are great, and the brothers Followill even cautiously suggest that this may be an even better audience than their Pilton counterparts.

As Mogwai take to a surprisingly sparse Arena, the undulating peaks and troughs of their dreamy post-rock leave those in attendance satisfied: a sprawling 'Like Herod' leads to some of the most enthusiastic head-nodding you're likely to see. Later, profanity-loving Canadians Holy Fuck prove a massive highlight. Two guys at desks filled with miscellaneous analogue equipment indulge in some epic button pressing and, together with a marvellously tight rhythm section; blare out Krautrock-infused electro which has a sweaty Pavilion tent jumping from the offset. Battles evoke a similar reaction in the Odeon a bit later, with the indecipherable chipmunk vocals of 'Atlas' providing a strange attempt at a mass sing-a-long, and Yeasayer's African-infused indie proves a massive hit as the small hours of Saturday start to roll in…

By Francis Writtaker.