Since spring 2025, Rising has brought Roskilde Festival’s year-round work with new artists, ideas and communities together under one name. Here, you can get an overview of the key initiatives.
Roskilde Festival has always been about discovery.
About encountering artists, perspectives and expressions you may not have known beforehand, and about making big stages, curious audiences and strong professional communities available to new artists and ideas.
In spring 2025, we launched Rising as the shared name for our year-round efforts to strengthen artists, ideas and communities that point towards new trends and open up new paths in art and music.
Rising is supported by the Tuborg Foundation and brings together a range of initiatives that give new voices space and visibility both at Roskilde Festival and throughout the rest of the year.
Scroll down to learn more about the initiatives that are part of Rising.
The opening days of Roskilde Festival are where a new generation of musicians gets the chance to meet the festival’s participants.
Through First Days, we present a broad selection of new music acts who open the festival’s stages before the full music programme gets underway.
For some, it is their biggest show to date. For others, it is the next step in an artistic journey already taking shape.
What they share is the chance to meet a large and curious audience at a point where plenty can still happen.
Playing a show is one thing. Finding your way in an artistic career is another.
Emerging Artist Area is a meeting place at the festival where new musicians can connect, exchange experiences and build relationships with people from the music industry.
There is room for conversations, professional encounters and new connections across genres, levels of experience and roles.
What happens if the biggest artist goes on first?
Headline Flip turns the traditional concert format on its head. An established artist takes on the support slot before handing the stage over to acts who would normally appear earlier on the bill.
The format gives new musical voices the headline role while allowing an established artist to use their reach to direct attention towards others.
Headline Flip was launched in 2025, with the first edition taking place at Lille Vega, where Pil opened for Augusta Schackinger and Carlina de Place.
Since then, the format has continued to evolve as part of Rising’s year-round work to create new encounters between artists and audiences.
Rising is also about giving new artists and architects the opportunity to create works that become part of the landscape around Roskilde Festival.
Milens Vækstlag is an open call for emerging artists and architects, giving them the chance to develop works for Milen, the landscape south of the festival site.
In summer, the area is filled with festival participants. During the rest of the year, local residents use it for walks, recreation and everyday activities. The works are therefore designed to be experienced both during Roskilde Festival and throughout the rest of the year.
The first two projects were selected in 2026.
Table of Interests by the collective en:33 takes the form of a table carrying traces of the many ways Milen is used, from festival life to local everyday activities.
Rundkredsen by Aarhus-based studio Rumgehør is a large circular structure made up of furniture, creating an open space where people can meet, spend time and form new communities.
What the works have in common is that they are not only made to be looked at. They can be used, touched and become part of life in the landscape.
Milens Vækstlag was developed in collaboration with Roskilde Municipality and local partners.
Roskilde Festival works with a range of educational institutions to give students the chance to work on real projects and engage with audiences, professionals and concrete challenges.
Through Rising, students take part in projects across music, art, architecture, design, technology and other creative disciplines.
This can involve developing solutions for the festival, working on artistic or architectural projects, or engaging with professionals, audiences and real-world challenges outside the classroom.
One example is our collaboration with The Royal Danish Academy, where students work with new and experimental approaches to architecture and art. In 2025 and 2026, architecture students were among those involved in developing the temporary station at Roskilde Festival Stationsplads.
Together with Roskilde Festival Folk High School, we create RoFH x RF Tour, a concert tour featuring three artists from that year’s Roskilde Festival.
Over the course of a week, students from the school plan, build, produce and run three concerts, working across music, art, sound, lighting, communication, production and event management.
The artists perform in new settings and meet new audiences, while the students gain practical experience of creating a complete concert experience and of the many disciplines needed to make a tour work from start to finish.
