Roskilde Festival is safer than discos! According to the official festival newspaper, Orange Press, statistics show that hanging out at the festival it is safer than partying in Roskilde city on a Friday Night. From 2002 untill today there has been an average of 4-5 reports of festival violence each year – with about 750.000 guests in total. In comparison the police notes one case per day on weekends in Roskilde with a maximum of a couple of thousands a night partying. Now that’s something to take pride in.

Danish indie-rock outfit The Fashion can be proud too. Their self-titled second album has been highlighted by Rolling Stone Magazine and Q Magazine has hailed the Danes as “The Next Big Thing”. This summer they’re on an extensive tour in the US with the gig at Roskilde Arena stage the only scheduled show at home. The band was really fired up, they played well and then you just have to surrender to songs like ‘Letters From The Ambulance’, ‘Solo Impala’ and ‘Let’s Go Dancing’ from debut album ‘Rock Rock Kiss Kiss Combo’ (2003). But The Fashion got one major problem live, because while being an excellent frontman in terms of getting an audience going, singer Jakob Printzlau has at times severe problems with keeping in tune which was a very annoying aspect of an otherwise fine concert.

Keeping in tune is not a problem for Swedish indie-pop sensation, Lykke Li. In a packed Odeon she treated her dedicated audience to most of the songs from her critically acclaimed debut, ‘Youth Novels’ (2008), that more than passed the live-test. Not least with songs like ‘Dance Dance Dance’, ‘Let It Fall’ and smash hit ‘Little Bit’ that stood out as a natural climax. Backed by three band members Lykke Li (Photo by kind permission of Nanna Kreutzmann/RockPhoto) managed to take the subtle expression from the debut and transfer it to a live setting without loosing an ounce of the intimacy that makes her album such a compelling listening experience.

Post Scriptum: See more pictures and buy your favorites at RockPhoto, the official Roskilde Festival photographers.