Safety and emergency
Roskilde Festival is very focused on creating a safe environment on the Inner Festival Area and at concerts. We put a great deal of effort into assessing all artists and activities as well as when people move around the Inner Area.
There is a Safety Manager at each stage and on the Inner Festival Area. Their role is to monitor the audience’s movements and activate the safety procedures with the crowd safety hosts, if necessary.
There are many different traditions among the audience at big concerts. Traditions that may seem violent and intense to people from the outside, but fun and a part of the experience to those familiar with them. Remember that Crowd Safety staff wearing orange vests is there to help if needed.
In the music programme, some concerts are marked with a High Energy-icon. This means you can expect a high level of activity among the audience in front of the stage.
Some good advice on creating safe experiences
You play an important part in actively creating a safe experience. Here is some good advice:
- Look after the people around you.
- Always keep a minimum of an arm’s length between you and the people in front of you when you move around the Inner Festival Area or stand/walk in line. Stop, if you cannot keep a distance.
- Respect if a road or an area has been closed off – we do it to keep you safe.
- Please consider if there might be better space available at the other side of the stage, and then move there.
- Trust your instincts about your surroundings – if you do not feel safe, move to a safe place.
- If you see someone fall in the crowd, help them get up and/or contact the crowd safety hosts.
- Do not push people in front of you – respect your fellow concertgoers if the area in front of the stage is crowded.
- Move out of the crowd if you do not have enough space or don’t feel well – even if the concert is good.
- Only initiate moshing at concerts where it is appropriate – and respect the people around you.
- Take special notice of High Energy-concerts and assess the energy before you move closer.
- If you fall and have a hard time getting up, move your arms under your body and push up. This way, breathing becomes easier until someone can help you up.
Crowd surfing is not allowed at Roskilde Festival.
There are always crowd safety hosts in front of the stages. They are there to help you and ensure a safe environment. Contact them, if you need help, and always follow their directions.
The big screens may be used for special information
On several stages, the big screens are used to give information to the audience during concerts. It is important to follow directions given on the screens. Writing on the screens is controlled by the stage Safety Manager, who has an overview of the situation in front of the stage.
During the building and dismantling of the Festival Area, it is important that you respect the fact that it is a work site. This is particularly important on the Inner Festival Area.
Remember the following:
- In the days leading up to the festival, you are only permitted to be on the Inner Festival Area if you need to carry out a task there.
- Traffic Laws also apply on the Festival Area, and the speed limit is max 20 km/h – pay special attention when moving around the Inner Festival Area.
- Always respect fences, barriers and corresponding measures by work areas.
- Drive on the roads only, and do not drive on the grass.
We are building a festival city together, creating a very special community. A community that must be protected. We have formulated some dogmas for the community:
Respect the space
You are co-creating the unique orange feeling. It looks like a dream come true. Enjoy the freedom; forget the humdrum of everyday life and explore boundaries but remember to respect each other and cherish the community.
Respect each other
You will meet people with values, norms, and prerequisites for participating that are different from your own. No matter who you meet on your way, be respectful of them and their boundaries. Roskilde Festival’s community is openness, curiosity and caring across different points of view.
In case of a disturbance
Some people will always find it difficult to follow these dogmas, and this is why you are an important part of contributing to the community by standing up against disrespectful behaviour towards others or by calling for help.
In case of a disturbance, your safety comes first. After that comes the safety of your co-volunteers and then the participants. You are expected to act, but not to bring yourself in harm's way.
We believe in the good in everyone, which is why we handle disturbances and conflicts by starting a conversation. Our Safety Hosts are trained to create “Safer Spaces” and know how to begin this conversation.
Sometimes, a conversation is not enough, and then Security will step in. Security is a third-party collaborator, and they are qualified to support our Safety Hosts.
In extreme cases, they can also take more severe actions by evicting festivalgoers. Security act on orders from the Emergency Services Office and can e.g. evict festivalgoers and volunteers after agreement with the Festival Operations Manager.
You must always respect the instructions of the Safety Hosts and Security.
Contact
In case of a disturbance or conflict, contact your supervisor or call the Emergency Services Office on +45 70 120 112
Roskilde Festival’s emergency readiness is coordinated from the Emergency Services Office, which is open from Saturday 29 June from 06:00 to Sunday 7 July at 18:00.
Primary contact with the Emergency Services Office must take place over the radio. It is important that communication be made over the radio first, as everyone in the room can listen in case of an emergency. Communication over the radio is recorded; telephone calls are not. The recordings are important in case of a big accident.
Contact
Emergency Services Office telephone: +45 70 120 112
If you need urgent help from Security, First-aiders or the Fire Brigade, call: +45 70 120 112
We recommend that you save the phone number in your phone, so that you always have it on you and can call for help should you need it.
If a volunteer is injured outside of the Emergency Services Office opening hours and needs an ambulance, you must call 112 (Danish emergency services).
At Roskilde Festival, open fire is only permitted in designated areas. This also includes bonfires, torches, candles, primus stoves and grills. There are designated areas for food preparation in several locations at the festival.
Roskilde Festival is collaborating with Roskilde Fire Department, which will be present during the festival. Fire guards will also walk around the Festival Area.
You also play a crucial role in the quick response, so make sure that you know where to find fire-fighting equipment in the area where you’re working and how to call for help.
In case of fire
In case of fire, you must follow the steps below:
- Contact your supervisor or call the Emergency Services Office: +45 70 120 112
- If possible, help people in danger
- If possible, put out the fire
- Meet the fire department
Save the number in your phone now, so you have it in case of an emergency.
The First Aid station is in the Camping Area in East and is open all hours from Saturday 24 June at 08:00 until Sunday 2 July at 14:00.
If you are injured, or you see someone else who is injured, you must contact the First Aiders for help.
If you need urgent help and cannot walk to the First Aid station, please send for help by calling the Emergency Services Office at +45 70 120 112.
In case of an accident on the Festival Area, you must:
- Stop the accident.
- Create an overview and assess the situation.
- Call for help through your supervisor or the Emergency Services Office at +45 70 120 112.
- Call your supervisor.
- Give first aid.
- Cordon off the area.
- Stay with the patient until help arrives.
Summer months are peak season for lightning and thunderstorms in Denmark. We monitor the weather and have taken precautions to minimise risks by earthing stages, the bridge across the train tracks and more.
If possible, use text instead of calling. This way, we put less strain on the telephone network.
In case of thunderstorms with lightning in the Festival Area, you must:
- Seek shelter before the thunderstorm reaches the Festival Area.
- Avoid staying in high towers or metal structures.
- Avoid standing up in open areas, e.g., parking lots.
- Avoid seeking shelter under trees, especially free-standing trees, or tents under a tree.
- Avoid swimming in open water.
- Cease work with large, electrically conductive objects – e.g., barriers, fencing, water faucets, or equipment connected to the electrical and telephone networks.
- Put down any banners and umbrellas, so you don’t hold a lightning rod in your hands.
- Keep a distance to the metal masts in the concert tents.
If the thunderstorm is right above you and you have not reached shelter, crouch down with your head between your knees, if possible, without putting yourself or others in danger. Make yourself as small as possible, ensuring that you touch as little ground surface as possible.
You may also take shelter in the parking lots. If you are in a car and have room for more people, turn on your emergency light to let them know you have space.
Speaking on the phone is relatively safe but remember that you are holding an electrically conductive object in your hand.
Always look for normalcy in your surroundings. This applies to everything from how people move, objects/vehicles left behind or structures in heavy use. Always react, if you see items that seem to have been hidden or if anything is clearly wrong.
What to do if you experience anything out of the ordinary:
- Inform your supervisor or call the Emergency Services Office on +45 70 120 112
- Stay at the scene or by the person
- If possible, write down your observations
Any inquiries to the Emergency Services Office must be made by phone: +45 70 120 112
Roskilde Festival has a Festival Manager and a Director of Safety. They have delegated the operation of the festival to be managed in shifts to ensure that there is always someone present focused on the festival’s operation.
This means that there is an Operations Leader at the Emergency Services Office from Saturday 29 June at 06:00 to Sunday 7 July at 17:00.
If you receive a call about a task from the Operations Leader, you must treat it as being given by the festival’s top management. They are qualified to make decisions deemed appropriate and necessary, and the Operations Leader’s instructions and demands must be met.
If the Operations Leader is needed on the Festival Area, they will send a Director of Safety Assistent. They will be identified with an ID card. Like the Operations Leader they are qualified to make decisions deemed appropriate and necessary, and their instructions and demands must be met.
Contact
You can contact the Operations Leader by calling the Emergency Services Office on +45 70 120 114.
In front of the festival’s two largest stages, Orange Stage and Arena, special audience enclosures are set up – also known as pits. Being in the pit during a concert can be an intense and physical experience. We ask that you only stay in the pit if you feel safe there.
Entrances are located at either side of the pit. When the area has been emptied and cleaned from the previous concert, a gate is opened through which people can pass to wait for the next concert.
Special information for the pit system at Orange Stage
The two areas in the back of the pit are open, so you can move in and out throughout the concert. The area is open all day and has a capacity of 10,000 people. Camping chairs are not allowed.
The front part of the pit is one big area, which has a capacity of up to 4,700 people. To get access to the area, you need to wear a special wristband.
Wristbands are handed out for the following concerts:
Wednesday 3 July: Lamin, Doja Cat, Jungle
Thursday 4 July: Ice Spice, 21 Savage, Skrillex
Friday 5 July: Sexyy Red, Foo Fighters, Gilli
Saturday 6 July: PJ Harvey, SZA
Getting a wristband for the front pit
If you want to watch a concert from the front pit at the Orange Stage, you need to collect a wristband at the distribution point by the pit on the day of the concert.
The distribution point opens daily at 9:45 from Wednesday 3 July to Saturday 6 July. If you want to visit the distribution point when it opens, you can enter the area via gate 8 or gate 19 as they open slightly earlier than the other gates. Notice that the wristbands are handed out at gate 8 and gate 19 on Wednesday 3 July.
A wristband grants access to the front pit for a specific concert from when the gates open until 15 minutes before the concert starts. This allows you to spend the day attending other concerts or fulfilling your duties and simply arrive closer to the concert start time instead of waiting in line.
If you arrive later than 15 minutes before the concert starts, you will be denied entry, so make sure to arrive early.
If the front pit does not fill up before the concert starts, the area will be opened to people without pit wristbands. However, please note that this year it is expected that very few people will gain access this way, as more wristbands are being distributed in the morning.
All volunteers are covered by the mandatory industrial injury insurance provided by Roskilde Festival.
If a work injury occurs, you must first report the incident the same way you would any other accident or incident.
As soon as the work injury is under control you must contact your supervisor, who will then contact the Work Environment Team (Arbejdsmiljøgruppen).
The Work Environment Team must be contacted in all cases of injuries in which the volunteer can no longer perform his or her job as planned. Depending on the nature and extent of the injury, it may be decided that the Work Environment Team will look further into the accident to avoid it happening again.
Report a work injury
Your supervisor is responsible for reporting the work injury to the insurance with Roskilde Festival. The report must be filed no later than 12 July.
Report a work injury (in Danish)
Contact the Work Environment Team
You can contact the Work Environment Team with questions about the planning of your work, prevention of work injuries or about general working environment conditions. The Work Environment Team can be contacted by:
Telephone: +45 30 38 95 55
Email: arbejdsmiljo@roskilde-festival.dk
Note that the Work Environment Team is usually open between 09:00 and 18:00. In all cases of emergency, the Emergency Services Office must be contacted.
For some roles and areas, you need to wear the necessary safety gear (such as helmet and safety shoes). For example, in the stage areas.
Contact your supervisor for more information on what safety and protective equipment you need for your task.
Learn more in our catalogue of protective equipment (in Danish)
Roskilde Festival is Denmark’s fourth largest city with 130,000 citizens. Cities do not search their citizens, so neither do we.
However, we do have a special responsibility, and for that reason, random searches are made at various places around the Festival Area. The search is voluntary, but the hosts and security have the right to refuse you at the festival if you decline.
It can be difficult to determine what can and cannot be brought to the Festival Area, so use your common sense and use the dogmas as a guide:
Respect the space
You are co-creating the unique orange feeling. It looks like a dream come true. Enjoy the freedom; forget the humdrum of everyday life and explore boundaries but remember to respect each other and cherish the community.
Respect each other
You will meet people with values, norms, and prerequisites for participating that are different from your own. No matter who you meet on your way, be respectful of them and their boundaries. Roskilde Festival’s community equals openness, curiosity and caring across different points of view.
Respect the environment
We are united in taking care of the world and our surroundings. We need the festival community to show the green way toward the future. Please leave the festival city as clean as you and your camp found it. Sort your waste and bring camping equipment home; if not, it ends up as environmental waste.
We recommend that you:
- Do not bring items that take up unnecessary space.
- Do not bring items that you cannot take home with you after the festival.
- Do not bring valuables.
However, we have made a list of items you are not allowed to bring:
Through the outer gates (Camping Area)
- Bags and the like with refund.
- Building materials and tools (except for official work for the festival).
- Furniture and the like (except standard foldable light-weight camping furniture).
- Clothing or other things with markings showing gang or biker affiliation.
- Items resembling weapons.
- Generators.
- Pyrotechnics.
- Drones (without previous permission from the festival safety organisation).
- Spray paint and permanent markers.
- Fuel/pressure bottles (except Trangia 1L Fuel Bottles. Remember to only use open fire at the designated areas for food preparation)
Through inner gates (Inner Festival Area)
The above items, and:
- Glas bottles.
- More than 0.5L beverages. The container must be open, but the screw top can stay on plastic bottles.
- Music systems/stereos.
- Bicycles without permission.
- Pushcarts.
Through entrances to pit system at Orange Stage and Arena Stage
The above items – except food and beverages bought on the Inner Festival Area.
- Banners and flags.
- Bags bigger than A3.
- Glass bottles and cans.
- Large items, such as chairs.
Social Workers are a part of the festival’s Emergency Services Office. During the festival, several volunteers walk around the Camping area and Inner Festival Area to talk to festivalgoers.
You can recognise them by their white vests with the text SOCIAL WORKER.
Social Workers have two primary tasks:
1. Outreach work
We walk around the festival doing outreach and preventative work, by being available for participants at the festival; this applies to paying festivalgoers as well as volunteers. Here, we have an open and inquisitive conversation with you about your well-being, your experiences at the festival, what good festival and party culture is, and explain how to get in touch with us, if necessary.
2. Mental Health First Aid
We provide Mental Health First Aid/Crisis Aid when speaking to one or more people, who have had an intense experience or are in crisis. We offer conversation, debriefing and most of all emotional support and care in the form of mental health first aid.
All Social Workers are trained in helping people, who are experiencing crisis, and their next of kin as it is an interdisciplinary team consisting of pedagogues, doctors, and medical students, street-based social workers, substance abuse counsellors, psychologists, social workers, and nurses.
Contact
Social Workers can be contacted in the towers on the Camping Area, through your leader (as a volunteer) or by calling Roskilde Festival’s Emergency Services Office on +45 70 120 112.
Social Workers are a part of the festival’s Emergency Services Office. They do outreach and preventive work, and have a particular focus on your well-being and psychological first aid.
Our Soft Spots aim to further increase safety in the camping area by offering permanent places where you can seek advice and help on difficult topics.
Soft Spots are located in three places: in Area L (Camping East), in Area B (Camping West) and on the inner festival site just east of Orange Stage.
They are open every day between 10:00-16:00 and are staffed by trained staff. You can stop by to talk about consent, sex, feelings, or if you've experienced something unpleasant and/or transgressive that you need to talk about.
We also invite you to activities in the form of workshops and quizzes on the same themes.
In addition to the regular Soft Spots, bikes will circle the camping area during First Days with activities revolving around anti-racism, gender, being a minority, consent and flirting.
The staff at Soft Spots work closely with Social Workers, so they can be called if there is a real need for psychological first aid.
Contact
If you have experienced something that crosses borders and need to contact the festival, you can also do so on +45 7874 4007.
At the First Aid station, we offer storage of vital medicine. You can hand in the medicine to the staff from Red Cross who will register the medicine. When you hand in your medicine, you must give your name, birth date and phone number. When you pick up your medicine, you give the same information.
When the festival ends, all medicine that has not been collected will be destroyed.
The First Aid station is in East in area M. The staff are doctors and nurses, who work in fields such as anesthesia, intensive care, emergency unit or emergency medicine as well as the Danish Red Cross and Emergency Management Agency.
Here are three good tips on how to protect your ears when the music is playing.
1. Use earplugs
The sound levels at festival stages are high. Some places, very high. That is why earplugs are a really good idea.
We recommend that you invest in some good earplugs, so you can protect your hearing without compromising on sound quality.
If the sound level at a concert is too loud and you don’t have earplugs, you can use your headphones if you have them with you. They also reduce the sound, although not as effectively as earplugs. Alternatively, you can use over-ear hearing protection. This is also the best sound protection for children.
2. Keep a distance from speakers, shouting friends, and other loud sound sources
The volume is highest at the sound source, so maintain a suitable distance. Shouts, screams, and whistles from others in the audience can be very loud, so be mindful when standing very close to others – and try to avoid exposing others to it as well.
3. Give your ears a good rest
Your ears need to relax.
It’s not only the loudness that strains your ears, but also how long and how often you listen to loud sounds. Therefore, try to rest your ears between concerts. Seek out quiet places and let your ears rest and recover.
If you experience a ringing, buzzing, or similar sound in your ears after concerts, it’s a sign that your hearing has been overstrained. Often, the sounds will disappear after some time or a few days, and there is no need to be afraid of them. But if the sounds persist, it might be a good idea to consult a doctor and get checked.
If you see someone stealing or acting suspiciously, it is important that you notify the police. If you have been robbed, or you speak with someone who wishes to report a theft, refer them to make a report online at www.politi.dk.
Always remember to lock your tent and in general look after your personal belongings. If you see anyone who has not locked their tent or who e.g. has their wallet or cell phone in a very exterior place, remind them to look after their belongings.
What to do if you witness a theft:
- Call your supervisor or the Emergency Services Office: +45 70 120 112
- Observe the person from a distance
- Wait until help arrives
Several of the festival’s volunteers can be recognised by their coloured vests.
- Orange: Service hosts Camping, gates, parking, and Crowd Safety hosts
- Yellow: Service- and Safety Managers
- Yellow/Green: Technical Crew
- White: Social Workers
- Beige: Security
- Green: Doctors and nurses
- Turquoise: Bar Managers, beverage and trade inspection
- Red: Lifeguards
- Bright green: REACT – Waste management at Camping
- Purple (Media printed on the vest): Media
- Purple: Special assignment