By Julie Hindkjær, volunteer journalist at Roskilde Festival’s Media House (Photos: Jacob Stage)
Between Orange Scene and Gloria, you will find Platform: the festival’s most unpredictable free space, built to break open the usual rules of concerts and stages.
Here, the line between artist and audience starts to blur. You are not looking up at a classic stage. Instead, you step into a dynamic, level space where anything can unfold around you. That is exactly what makes Platform special, says Ida Selvejer Faaborg, one of the people who has helped select and shape this year’s Platform programme.
“It is something completely different to watch it all unfold and see the audience respond to the work. It is totally unpredictable, which is really exciting. Platform has an incredibly open audience, ready to immerse themselves, be surprised and get swept up in it.”
Understand Platform in 20 seconds
Location: Between Orange Scene and Gloria. Built with movable walls and a 360-degree view, so you get right up close to the artists.
Behind the scenes: The extensive programme has been put together by the Art & Activism curatorial group, who scout talent all year round and develop the programme through shared workshops.
The mission: To create a safe free space where global politics and mental strain are transformed into sensory art and new ways of partying and being together.
An uplifting counterforce
For the team behind Platform, it is about more than throwing a good party. Platform is imagined as a caring counterforce to the heavy headlines and pressures of everyday life.
“It is not an easy world we live in, with the climate crisis and mental ill-health. In the curatorial group, we therefore focus on art and activism that can uplift and inspire us to coexist in alternative and more caring ways,” says Ida Selvejer Faaborg.
Three acts to experience at Platform
Come and feel what happens when performance art, activism and celebration collide under the sun or in the middle of the night. Here, Ida Selvejer Faaborg recommends three Platform experiences.
A figure in documents: Noah Umur Kanber – I feel like a piece of paper
Experience a deeply personal performance as Noah Umur Kanber appears dressed in documents from their own journey through the public system – a raw glimpse into a childhood shaped by bureaucracy.
You are invited into a healing ceremony that explores how we, as strangers, can offer care to one another.
“I find it incredibly moving to let the audience into such a personal and painful experience, and to let them become part of her journey closer to her own story.”
Noah Umur Kanber: Thursday at 13:30
Train your team spirit: Joana Öhlschläger – Heart to ride
What does community feel like in the body?
That is the question Joana Öhlschläger explores in a new choreographic work created especially for Platform. A large group of performers moves through the space, insisting on shaking off the hopelessness and standstill that can settle in these times.
“Here, you can experience a really large group of performers insisting on moving away from the hopelessness and standstill many of us can feel right now. I think this performance will awaken your team spirit.”
Joana Öhlschläger: Thursday at 15:00 and Friday at 17:30
Step into rave history and the night-time party: Elle Fierce – Spiralling
Elle Fierce dissolves the boundary between stage and dancefloor in a performance that dives into the roots of rave and techno culture.
Here, club culture is not just about bass, lights and late-night release. It is also about the Black and queer communities that helped create the club as a space of freedom.
On Friday night, the performance slides into a DJ set, with Elle Fierce playing b2b with Suzie the Cockroach and Reenie.
“It is going to be a really powerful experience,” says Ida Selvejer Faaborg.
Elle Fierce: Thursday at 23:45 and Friday at 23:15
