Roskilde Festival features a series of artworks, workshops and events that explore diversity and accessibility – and spark reflection on body, gender and cultural background. Let us show you here.
A festival consists of thousands of bodies interacting with one another – but some bodies move more easily and are heard more clearly than others. This year’s programme offers events and installations that examine how we can create more diversity and accessibility for minorities – at festivals and in society as a whole.
You can try an oversized wheelchair ramp, experience a lavish body performance, get seduced by queer club vibes and learn how to party with a disability.
Scroll down and explore what the lineup offers.
Winding around the hill at Dancefloor is a large-scale installation that leads all the way to the top. It looks like a wheelchair ramp and is designed to make the ascent easier for people with mobility challenges. For others, it’s “the long way around” – an alternative, slow and sensory route to the top. There you’ll find a small shelter with seating and a fireplace – the perfect spot for a break.
The artwork is called The Long Way Around and was created by British artist Jesse Darling, who won the prestigious Turner Prize in 2023.
The Long Way Around is supported by Ny Carlsberg Foundation and the Obel Family Foundation.
Danish artist Karoline Ebbesen (1852–1936) was plagued by mental illness and spent much of her life at Sct. Hans Hospital. She left behind a large body of work – including drawings, textile pieces and paper collages – that went largely unnoticed until recent recognition.
Her voice is now revived in Lille Solstråle Sad og Så På Månen, premiering at Roskilde Festival. The piece is based on her notebooks and performed by the 40-person choir BARK, with costumes and staging by Lise Haller Baggesen and new music by Anders Lauge Meldgaard.
Thursday 3 July at 11:30 and Saturday 5 July at 12:00, Platform
Expect a visually explosive performance as Turkish artist Göksu Kunak presents HUNGRY 2.0 – a hybrid of TV parade, Instagram feed and freak show that puts the body centre stage through video, pole dance, bodybuilding and a scissor lift!
Thursday 3 July at 20:45 and Friday 4 July at 20:45, Platform
700 million people – including over 400,000 in Denmark – live with dyslexia. One of them is artist Julie Nymann, who brings two works about neurodiversity to the festival.
In Gloria’s foyer, you can explore the interactive installation our voises carry futur dreams, where sculptures, colours and words prompt reflection on how we see ourselves and one another. On Friday, head to Platform for the sound installation Advantages of Being Dyslexic, where voices, stories and a live choir open up a conversation about vulnerability, pride in difference and the strength of community.
Friday 4 July at 11:45, Platform
In TRAGEDY, artist and choreographer Louis Schou-Hansen offers a humorous yet critical take on the West and the cultural codes that shape how we behave.
On stage, six characters are trapped in a nightmarish loop, endlessly replaying everything from Hollywood sex and impossible romance to fake crying, lap dances, dying swans, still lifes and melancholy cowboys. They become living stereotypes – exaggerated versions of humanity – inviting you to reflect on your own learned and imposed habits and norms.
Saturday 5 July at 19:15, Platform
How do you party or flirt at a festival when you’re in a wheelchair or have limited vision? And how can we create more accessible festivals for people with disabilities?
Get answers at this panel hosted by the The Danish Association of Youth with Disabilities, where young people with disabilities share experiences, hacks and hopes for a festival where everyone can party on their own terms.
Talk: Festival, Flirting and Disability. Sunday 29 June at 14:00, Re:Act
Your body and appearance can affect how you’re treated by a doctor or hospital. Parts of the Danish healthcare system are influenced by bias, outdated norms and discrimination that prevent patients from being met as who they really are.
During Roskilde Festival, Norm-Critical Doctors host talks and workshops where we share experiences and imagine a healthcare system where everyone is taken seriously – regardless of body, identity or background.
Sunday 29 June at 11:00, Flokkr and Flokkr Container 1–3
Join a high-energy panel talk hosted by the Danish podcast Perkologi. Host Fatimah Gabriella invites Havshen Nabaz and Kamal Hassan – the popular radio and podcast duo Hav & Kamal – along with Salma Badeh, a model who has challenged the fashion industry’s view of and responsibility for diversity.
The talk wraps up with an open Q&A, giving you the chance to connect with the panel and their reflections on friendship.
Perkologi Podcast: Salma Badeh & Hav and Kamal. Sunday 29 June at 17:45, Flokkr
