HOW WE DONATED ALL OUR PROFITS FROM ROSKILDE FESTIVAL 2018

Roskilde Festival 2018 was a huge success in many ways. Volunteers, festival-goers, partners, artists and many more contributed to a festival that generated a very healthy profit of €2,572,989. We have, as always, donated it all to charity.

Since the 1970s, the Roskilde Festival Charity Society has donated more than €52 million. Curious how we have donated the profits from Roskilde Festival 2018? Want to look back at some highlights from last year? Read on below.

(If you're keen on learning some Danish, you can also read our Yearbook 2018 PDF, which is basically a beautiful report from the past year)

Roskilde Festival 2018: The brief version

184 concerts. A progressive, curious and challenging programme with more than 200 artists, musicians, writers, performers, speakers, graffiti artists and architects. The largest ever audience in front of our iconic Orange Stage for the Eminem show. A moving talk and debate about activism with Chelsea Manning. And so much more.

The sun was very generous, resulting in more dust than we're used to in Scandinavia. Our new Meyer Sound speaker systems improved the concert experiences. We introduced flushing toilets in the festival city, which didn't exactly go unnoticed either.

We wrapped up three years of Equality focus with an abundance of activities. From the 2018 edition of Roskilde Festival most people will remember the Equality Walls, 10 metres tall, 1:1 copies of the prototypes for the wall Donald Trump has planned along the border to Mexico, symbolising the closed communities that are the opposite of what we stand for.

Our Orange Together campaign about respect and transgressive behaviour reached a wide audience and resulted in plenty of debate. We even won an award for it.

The camping area also developed quite a bit: 25,890 festival-goers chose to camp in one of our five clean areas, which is a new record. Everyone in those areas is committed to keeping it clean and neat. We still have a long way to in terms of waste, and our key message to the happy campers with their camping gear remains: bring it home!

Roskilde Festival 2018 was completely sold out, sunny and successful.

So how did we donate the huge profits?

How we donated our profits

The Roskilde Festival Charity Society supports social and cultural charities and organisations, particularly benefiting children and young people.

In 2018 we used the money to:

• Support future generations
• Create new communities
• Engage in the fight against corruption, tax evasion and poverty
• Create a greener world
• Inspire more mutual respect
• and on particularly relevant initiatives right here, right now

Read more about these donation themes below where you will also find full lists of all the donation recipients who have benefited from the 2018 profits.

The new generations

The purpose of this theme is to give the young and new voices in public debates - and culture in general - a better chance of expressing themselves.

See the full list

• Aktivister og AURA-fællesskaber
  Queer activists from LGBT+ Ungdom (= LGBT+ Youth) represent a new generation fighting for more than love: juridical, cultural and social rights. The donation supported the creation of safe spaces - known as AURA communities - all over the country for young LGBT+'s.
• Don't Give a Fox
  The skater girls from Don't Give a Fox are based in the Roskilde skate hall in the Musicon area. The timing of the donation was perfect: the van transporting them to skate with other girls nationally had just broken down.

The strong community

The purpose of this theme is to support initiatives that bring together people in new communities, particularly for lonely and marginalised young people.

See the full list

• Community for young homeless
  More and more young Danes are homeless. The SAND Unge Crew offer young homeless and former homeless a community and fight to put youth homelessness on the political agenda. The donation ensured good experiences with and for the SAND Unge Crew and supported their political activities.
• Minorities debating
  Mino Danmark used their donation for Camp MINO at Roskilde Festival 2018, a digital culture magazine and Minority Talks - a debate concept that engages young ethnic minorities in topical debates.

Equality

Financial equality was debated in the festival city through games, activities and activism — as well as donations.

See the full list

• Pretty unreasonable pitch
  We were obsessed with football in 2018. Our Equality Stadium offered unequal conditions as DanChurchAid (Folkekirkens Nødhjælp) planted a highly unfair festival football pitch that gave the one team an obvious advantage. The integration project Asylum United played the local Roskilde Pigefodbold (for girls and women) in a friendly, and the pitch (or rather the minefield) also attracted big audiences for matches with legless celebrities, mine sweeping with VR goggles... and morning gymnastics. 

Earth calling

This theme supports initiatives focusing on sustainability, the environment and the climate.

See the full list

• The climate fight is international
  The Environmental Justice Foundation is fighting a global fight against environmental and human rights violations, from cotton plantations in Uzbekistan to the coastal waters of Sierra Leone. The organisation educates and supports the climate activists of tomorrow in areas most affected by the consequences of climate change.
• Energetic youth
  The youth department of VedvarendeEnergi (= SustainableEnergy) is called UngEnergi (= YoungEnergy). They received a donation for their work, dedicated to a sustainable future. Instead of pointing the finger at anyone, they advise fellow young people and pass on advice on small changes that can make a big difference in your everyday life.

Young and artistic

This theme supports young artists, independent of geographical boundaries.

See the full list

• Experimental underground
  Few places in Scandinavia have been as significant for underground culture as community-based concert venue Plan B. The donation is a support for counterculture, niche music and not least a community for the youth of Malmö.
• Young literature bursting
  Ordskælv is a Danish pun that translates poorly into Wordquake. The awesome Ordskælv is a platform for different and liberating literature, and the donation marks the beginning of a collaboration with Roskilde Festival that helps young people in the Nordic countries publishing their own work with support and encouragement from Ordskælv.

Respect and behaviour

This theme focuses on transgressive behaviour and how to act respectfully towards one and another and the community.

See the full list

• No to transgressive behaviour
  The donation supported Sex & Samfund's (The Danish Family Planning Association) prevention of transgressive behaviour and offences among young people. The organisation was part of our Orange Together campaign and contributed with activities focusing on dialogue.
• Yes to more knowledge about consent
  The donation for Amnesty International was part of the organisation's research regarding sexual consent and work to change the Danish law in regards to rape. Part of the research was conducted at the festival in relation to Orange Together.

Topicality

The theme collects initiatives worthy of support that are particularly relevant here and now.

See the full list