Examining Denmark’s 1996 Roskilde Festival; one of the most incredible lineups in music festival history.
Before today’s North American music festival overload – hell, before any North American music festivals at all – Europe owned when it came to lineups. Most years, you could expect the best ones from Eur0-titans like Glastonbury, Pinkpop or Les Eurockéennes de Belfort, but in 1996 Denmark’s Roskilde festival was god damned bananas. No other festival even came close. Check out the poster.
Let’s start with the headliners:
- David Bowie
- Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
- Björk
- Red Hot Chili Peppers
- Neil Young & Crazy Horse
- Patti Smith
But wait! There’s also the fine print:
- Rage Against the Machine
- Cypress Hill
- Massive Attack
- Foo Fighters
- Alanis Morissette
- Dave Matthews Band
- No Doubt
- Sepultura
- Slayer
- Pulp
- The Cocteau Twins
- Frank Black
- Bad Religion
- Billy Bragg
- Flaming Lips
- Frontline Assembly
- Pop Will Eat Itself
- Presidents of the United States of America
- Type O Negative
- Toots & the Maytals
- Underworld
- Ministry
The story goes that in the 90s, cities in Denmark didn’t pull in too many concert bookings, but Roskilde had become such a powerhouse over the years, they seeked to mitigate that by booking heavy hitter acts for every possible music interest, somehow over a single weekend. While the Foo Fighters, Dave Matthews Band, No Doubt and Morissette were just starting out, they had already amassed gigantic followings. Most festivals will book 3-5 headliners of this stature, and work their way down through more boutique interests to fill the rest out. This was just all A-list. At that time, and (for the most part) now.
The lineup also featured you-had-to-be-there-at-the-time acts like Fun Lovin Criminals, Goldfinger, Placebo, Skunk Anansie and Southern Culture on the Skids, a DJ stage featuring legends like Large Professor, DJ Carl Cox, LTJ Bukem, GZA and Lord Finesse. Going through this poster, even 20 years later, is just astonishing. It’s hard to think of a festival lineup over the years that even comes close.
Did we miss anyone? Let us know in the comments.
I HAD A BLAST. ENOUGH SAID.
I was there and it was bonkers indeed. You basically had to choose between top bands because they often played at the same time. I think Roskilde had 5 stages (smaller stages were in tents) then and some of these big names were playing for maybe 1000 people.
I was there. It WAS an amazing program and the weather was good.
But also a bit stressful since there were almost never a break between awesome concerts and you had to make hard decisions between top acts to watch 🙂
I was there. Had a great time. Don’t remember much, I was probably very stoned.
Sex Pistols were a huge disappointment. Düreforsøg were great.
I remember the beginning of the Patti Smith concert, it was sort of a holy grail moment for me. And I must have seen Neil Young, I just don’t recall. Enjoyed Deftones, but missed Rage for some reason..
Watched most of Bowie Sunday afternoon, but left early, cause I had a long trip home.
Best venue in recorded history. I crowdsurfed to RATM and enjoyed Bush among many, many great acts in 1996. It was back before crowd conteol, so extreme mayhem in front of the Canopy Orange main stage. Morisette was in Green tent with a capacity below half the number of people who wanted to listen to her concert. Biggest regret was to leave Type O Negative to hear Presidents otusa. Dont forget the likes of Massive Attack, Underworld and Kent were purely in the fine writing, not even sub headliners in those days.
Yeah! I was a little girl at 16 – my first Roskilde and i was also up front while RATM played. It was crazy but i has the best time. Jumping around with bikers and hippies .
It was beyond bonkers. 5 stages, with 2 of them on the other side of a railroad track. I had to run between them, barely had time to drink. It was horrible when you had to choose between bands. Great moments. Getting crushed on the first row to RATM and finishing with an epic crowdsurf. Using the barriers to sit on so you were 2 heads higher in the front rows on RHCP, helped up a guy who turned up to be the DJ in underworld. Falling in love with Björk, getting secondary high at Cypress Hill because half the tent was smoking weed, and getting blown into space by David Bowie. And I could go on. Still, that Bowie performance was out of this world. Seeing him sitting on a speaker at the end of a rocked up Spaceboy (from Outside) looking up at the sky… Still gives me chills thinking about it, and sometimes at night I also look up at the sky and say: “Hello Spaceboy”
Mazzy Star, Moby
Yeah! I was a little girl at 16 – my first Roskilde and i was also up front while RATM played. It was crazy but i has the best time. Jumping around with bikers and hippies .