Roskilde Festival revamps booking team

Roskilde Festival has announced a revamp of its booking team and an increased focus on volunteering in the wake of its recent 50th anniversary edition.

Anders Wahrén, who has been a booker of Denmark’s biggest festival since 2003 and programme director since 2014, will retain overall responsibility for music, art and activism, but will no longer book the event going forward and is succeeded by new head of booking Thomas Jepsen

“It is absolutely essential that we continue to push the limits and develop Roskilde Festival in new directions,” says Wahren. “That is why we are now changing how we put together our music programme. Partly in the distribution of roles in the booking team, but we are also in the process of rethinking how we can involve volunteers even more in programming in the future.”

Jepsen has been associated with the booking team since 2009 – the first years as a volunteer and from 2014 as a booker.

“I would like to build on the work we are already doing, where our focus is especially on young people’s communities,” says Jepsen. “We want to continue to pique people’s curiosity and give them something more than what they necessarily have on their wish list.

“At the same time, we must ensure diversity in the music programme. In recent years, there has been a necessary, increased focus on the gender distribution on the festival line-ups, we will also in the future pay even more attention to the representation of minorities in our programming.”

“We have a goal of reaching all corners of the musical trends, and the risk of hitting blind spots is minimised if we expand the group”

With Roskilde’s foundations based on voluntary engagement, the new organisation is focusing on involving even more volunteers in the booking team and on developing new ways in which they can engage.

“We have a goal of reaching all corners of the musical trends, and the risk of hitting blind spots is minimised if we expand the group,” adds Wahren. “Therefore, we are now investigating other ways to volunteer. It could, for example, be as a scout, where you go to concerts and report back to us. It could also be on a more organisational level. We are developing that.”

Wahren will be joined by deputy director – communications, partnerships & philanthropy Christina Bilde and head of sustainability Sanne Stephansen at this year’s International Festival Forum in London for the keynote conversation Roskilde Festival: 50 Years Young from noon on Wednesday 28 September.

The festival will then host a special 50th birthday celebration in the Glasshouse of IFF’s host hotel, the Holiday Inn in Camden from 9-11pm later that day.

Click here to read IQ‘s feature commemorating Roskilde’s half-century.

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