14:54, 19 July 2024
Words by Abi Scaife, Staff Writer, London
The Roskilde Festival, based out of Roskilde, Denmark, is one of the biggest music festivals in Europe but, unlike others, doesn’t take a single penny. Instead, they donate any profits to charity.
Obviously, at Smiley News, we love that, so we caught up with Christina Bilde, Deputy Director, Communications, Partnerships, and Philanthropy at Roskilde Festival, to hear why giving back is so important to the festival.
“We have a purpose of supporting young people and young people's possibilities,” says Christina. “We support the dreams of young people. And it has been so since the very beginning in 1972.”
“We donate our money, but we also donate our time, and we can donate ourselves as a platform, because some of these organisations that we're supporting are not that well known.”
The festival has been around since the ‘70s and is one of the largest music festivals in Europe. Almost since its inception, it has been run as a not-for-profit organisation for the development and support of music, culture and humanism.
All profits made by Roskilde Festival are funnelled to charities in and around Denmark, primarily benefitting young people, the arts, and activism. This is something that is intrinsic to Roskilde Festival - there is no festival without charity, and their mission to uplift young people.
“Charity is the backbone, of the Roskilde festival,” says Christina. “It's important because a society that takes care of everyone is natural for us. You cannot do that without supporting young people being open to curious about young people's new ideas and perspectives.”
“We are focusing especially on young people and the possibilities and we have a special focus on young people's mental health, and how arts and culture can also help them get better or maybe how mental health and aren't actually connected in some way.”
Roskilde Festival holds charity at its heart in everything that they do. Each year, they select one of their artists to choose a cause or charity to benefit from the festival - this year that artist was Aurora.
Aurora has selected The Danish Family Planning Association to receive 500,000 DKK (£56443.58). She requested it be specifically earmarked for The Danish Family Planning Association's "Skærmkrop" (Screen body) project, which aims to tackle how ideas about body images on social media affect children and young people's thoughts about their own bodies.
“For me, it makes sense [for a festival] to engage in society and being a nonprofit,” says Christina. “I wouldn't say that [others] should do it in the same way as we do, but what we have learned is that if you engage yourself in society, if you're working with charity, it gives you back something, it gives you another perspective.”
The festival’s theme for 2023 and 2024 has been Utopia - the idea that we can come together to create a better future, through hope and new initiatives and ideas. To Roskilde Festival, Utopia isn’t something abstract or pure - it is a hard-working, hard-won thing, that is born out of what we do today.
“We learned you can have the vision of Utopia, but you also need to have the small things that you can do in your everyday life,” adds Christina. “We do that as an organization, but we also try to inspire our audience to do the same here at the festival and then to bring it back home.”
“The most important thing is that we're doing this together, [as] a community.”
At Smiley Movement, we like to elevate the work of charities across the world. Here are three charities whose causes align with the themes in this article.
Their World. This charity aims to help every child have a fulfilling education. Learn more here.
Right to Succeed. This charity supports communities in areas of high deprivation to give children and young people the best start in life. Support them here.
The World Literacy Foundation. This is a global non-profit organization striving to ensure that every child, regardless of geographic location, has the opportunity to acquire literacy skills. Find out more.
This article aligns with the UN SDG Partnerships for the Goals.
