We provide sign language interpretation for two concerts at Roskilde Festival
Every year, many deaf and hard-of-hearing people attend Roskilde Festival. Like everyone else, they enjoy being part of the community and the celebration together with partners and friends. This also applies to the concerts. Although deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences may not experience music in the same way as hearing audiences, they can feel the rhythm and enjoy the stage performance and the atmosphere in front of the stage.
This year, we are introducing a new initiative by testing deaf performance interpreting, where two interpreters - one hearing and one deaf - work together.
Performance interpreting is a specialized form of sign language interpretation that conveys not only the words, but also the rhythm, mood, and artistic expression of the music. In deaf performance interpreting, the hearing interpreter provides input to the deaf performance interpreter, who is present on stage and conveys the performance to festival participants in sign language.
This year, sign language interpretation will be available at the concerts by Guldimund (Thursday at 14:30 PM on Arena Stage) and TV-2 (Saturday at 15:30 PM on Orange Stage).
For both artists and festival participants, it is important that the sign language interpretation does not become a distracting element during the concerts but instead forms an integrated part of the performance. Therefore, the interpreters and artists prepare together in advance of the concerts.
Roskilde Festival first tested sign language interpretation for concerts in 2024.
The initiative is supported by The Deaf Foundation (Døvefonden), with backing from The Danish Deaf Association (Danske Døves Landsforbund).