Roskilde Festival Builds New Orange Stage for the Concerts of the Future
For the first time in 25 years, Roskilde Festival is getting a new Orange Stage. The new, fourth-generation version of the festival’s iconic main stage will offer significantly more space for stage design, lighting, and visual productions.
The roof above the stage has been raised by 50 percent, while the orange tent has grown 25 percent taller and wider compared to the previous Orange Stage, which Roskilde Festival is now retiring after 25 years of loyal service.
The new structure provides improved capacity for stage sets, lighting, and visual productions, enabling the festival to create larger and more complex concert experiences for up to 60,000 festival participants gathered in front of the stage.
See pictures of the main stage through time here.Roskilde Festival’s Head of Music, Thomas Sønderby Jepsen, says:
“We have built a new Orange Stage that is made for the future. The stage still looks like itself, but we have designed a significantly larger and more contemporary performance space inside the tent, allowing us to elevate the concert experience for the entire audience area and provide even better opportunities for artistic expression.
The new stage can accommodate complex productions while also being more flexible, enabling artists to use it in many different ways. It gives us a platform where both major names and new formats can thrive and bring audiences together around truly memorable moments.
We have particularly increased the height of the performance space, creating room for the extensive stage designs, lighting rigs, and visual elements that artists tour with today.
Orange Stage is our central gathering point, and it has been important for us to preserve the familiar design with the orange canvas and characteristic arches, while also meeting the size and creative demands that concerts require today and in the future.”
A Symbol Since 1978
Roskilde Festival purchased the original Orange Stage tent in 1978. The original stage was partially replaced in 1984, and an entirely new stage was introduced in 2001.
The new stage in 2026 therefore represents the fourth generation of Orange Stage.
The new Orange Stage is designed by the German engineering company IF-Group and is being constructed in collaboration with Danish contractors experienced in large-scale stage structures and temporary buildings.
Throughout the process, the stage’s volunteer tent crew has contributed its unique expertise and knowledge gained from building Orange Stage over many years.
Gorillaz, The Cure, Zara Larsson, Lily Allen, Addison Rae, Clipse, Jennie, and Little Simz are among the artists scheduled to perform on Orange Stage in 2026.
Facts and Figures
- The height of the performance space—the distance between the stage floor and the equipment suspended from the roof—is 9.5 metres, approximately 50 percent higher than on the previous Orange Stage.
- The new stage tent is 73 metres long and 25 metres high, representing an increase of 25 percent compared to the previous tent.
The new tent canvas covers an area of 2,180 m², an increase of 65 percent compared to the previous tent.
Construction work on the festival site began in January 2026. The new stage is anchored more than 11 metres into the ground with 16 ground anchors and built on a foundation consisting of 30 tonnes of reinforcing steel and more than 500 m³ of concrete. The area has also been upgraded with a new rainwater drainage system, including wells and drainage infrastructure.
The new stage is designed by the German engineering firm IF-Group and built by GAP Entreprise and Windhorst. It was developed in close collaboration with the volunteer tent crew, whose members actively contributed knowledge and practical experience gained from constructing Orange Stage over many years.
Orange Stage is Roskilde Festival’s main stage, world-renowned for its distinctive shape and orange canvas. It is the setting for the festival’s largest communal experiences on a stadium scale. Capacity is approximately 60,000 spectators.
Gorillaz, The Cure, Zara Larsson, Lily Allen, Addison Rae, Clipse, Jennie, and Little Simz are among the artists performing on Orange Stage in 2026.
The sound system consists of more than 250 loudspeakers and subwoofers distributed between the stage and five sound towers across the audience area. The complete system can cover an area measuring 180 x 100 metres with full concert-quality sound. The front arch also contains 108 lighting fixtures that enhance the visual concert experience. In addition, the stage is equipped with a giant screen measuring 16 metres wide and 8 metres high.
Roskilde Festival purchased the original Orange Stage tent in 1978. The original stage was partially replaced in 1984, and a completely new stage was introduced in 2001. The new stage in 2026 therefore represents the fourth generation of Orange Stage.
Approximately 140 volunteers spend just over two weeks constructing the Orange Stage area, while dismantling takes four days.
Orange Stage: Six Defining Years in the Stage’s History
1976: THE ORANGE ONE
In 1976, the original Orange Stage tent was built for The Rolling Stones’ European tour. Its design was inspired by the lightweight self-supporting structures of the era known as tensile structures. The iconic appearance emerged through a combination of engineering innovation and coincidence—among other things, the canvas was made orange simply because it was the cheapest option.The owners called the tent The Orange One. It made its debut in rain and mud at a concert in The Hague on 29 May 1976. However, The Rolling Stones performed only a limited number of outdoor shows that summer. As a result, the revenue intended to cover the costs of building and transporting the ambitious structure never materialized, and the tent’s owner, Revelation Staging, went bankrupt.
1978: A MYSTERIOUS DRAGON TENT
In 1978, Roskilde Festival’s then director, Leif Skov, discovered the tent abandoned in a warehouse in England, and the festival purchased it for DKK 150,000. Five tonnes of stage components were transported to Denmark, where volunteers assembled the tent on the festival grounds. The Danish press described it as a “mysterious dragon tent” and an “advanced orange-red stage tent that the organizers hope will rival the city’s cathedral as a landmark.”Replacing the simple scaffold stage with a prominent main stage marked a significant turning point. In its very first year, artists such as Bob Marley and Elvis Costello performed there. The stage was placed at the northern end of the festival site, where it still stands in 2026.
1984: NEW CANVAS, NEW SOUND
By 1984, the original stage tent had become so worn that the canvas and front arch had to be replaced, leaving only the masts in use. At the same time, space was created for twice as many lighting fixtures, and the festival introduced a sound system with delay technology for the first time, ensuring that sound reached audiences across the entire area in front of the stage simultaneously.
1986: THE NAME IS ORANGE STAGE
During its early years, the stage was simply known as the Main Stage—the same name already used for the festival’s largest outdoor stage. From 1980 to 1985, it was officially called the Canopy Stage. In 1986, it received its final name: Orange Stage.The name change marked not only its role as the festival’s main stage but also its position as an iconic gathering place.
2001: AFTER THE ACCIDENT
Following the tragedy of 2000, Roskilde Festival entered a new era with an increased focus on concert safety and audience behaviour in front of stages. Consequently, the festival purchased a new Orange Stage in 2001 from the German company Strohmeyer Ingenieurbau.The new structure resembled its predecessor in colour and shape but was approximately one-third larger. The opening facing the audience was around eight metres wider and four metres taller, making it more attractive to watch concerts from farther back and reducing crowd pressure near the stage.
At the same time, the higher stage floor reduced the space available above the stage for lighting and technical equipment. An even taller structure was considered but ultimately rejected because it would have made the stage excessively wide.
2026: READY FOR THE FUTURE
After 25 years, the Orange Stage introduced in 2001 has reached the end of its lifespan. Its 3.5-tonne canvas has become worn, and the structure has undergone multiple repairs and replacements over the years. At the same time, modern concert productions place far greater demands on space, height, and technical capabilities than the stage can provide.For this reason, the festival is building a new Orange Stage in 2026—larger, stronger, and better equipped for the concerts of the future, while still retaining the iconic appearance that has defined the stage for decades.
Historical Sources: Newspapers: Aktuelt (29 June 1978), Politiken (29 June 1978), Politiken (16 April 2008). Literature: Vi mødes i Roskilde – Roskilde Festival i 25 år by Grete Rung (1995), Roskilde Festival by Johannes Feil (1981). Roskilde Festival: Negotiation records of the Roskilde Foundation, RoskildeNyt No. 96 (2008), as well as current and former Roskilde Festival volunteers and staff.