A Return to Roskilde

'The rest of the world was black and white, but we were in screaming color.'

Taylor Swift

It's not surprising to learn that the Roskilde Festival was started by high school students.  We all know that during those high school years, our hormones keep us on our toes, so it's great that the two high school students, channeled this energy, to join with a promoter to create the first Roskilde music festival back in 1971.  Their goal, to create their own Woodstock festival in Denmark. 

The Danish event went on to become one of the largest music festivals in Europe and the largest in the Nordic countries.   After it's successful first year, the festival was then taken over by the Roskilde Foundation, which has since run the festival as a non-profit organization for development and support of music, culture and humanism.  Although originally created for students and alternative audiences, today, the festival attracted mainstream youth from Scandinavia, the rest of Europe and beyond. 

The festival has attracted some of the biggest names in music, with acts including Metallica, The Kinks, Bob Marley, U2, Leonard Cohen, R.E.M, Neil Young, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Eminem and Taylor Swift.  Some, like folk legend Bob Dylan, have returned multiple times over the years to perform.  

There wasn't a naked race at the first festival in 1971, the Roskilde run didn't officially begin until 1999.  Since then, each Saturday of the festival, part of the festival camp ground is fenced off for the race.  The event crowns two winners, for the first male, and first female to cross the finish line. 

 Part of the fun for the runners is having their race numbers painted onto their bodies.  When the race began, most painters used just black or white to paint the runners numbers on their bodies.  Over the years, the colors and creativity has increased, with some runners bringing in artists to use their fleshy canvas to create unique and colorful body art.