Roskilde Festival - 2000 Accident

2000 Accident

During Pearl Jam's concert at the Orange Stage in 2000, a violent incident occurred. Nine victims—three Danes, three Swedes, a German, an Australian and a Dutch man—died when they were crushed as the crowd rushed toward the stage. The reasons for their deaths were examined by police, public prosecutors, and subsequent civil trials, all of which determined that the causes were accidental. Many people fell down at one place; when they did not immediately get up, crowdsurfers fell into this "hole," and people at the bottom died of suffocation. By the time security guards in front of the stage got to the area of the accident after the music had been stopped, it was too late. As crowd surfing seems to have been among the precipitating factors, it was subsequently forbidden across most festivals in Europe.

In the following year, the accident led to significant changes in safety procedures in order to avoid similar situations – not just at Roskilde Festival, but also at other festivals in Europe. Before the accident in 2000, Roskilde Festival was considered one of the safest festivals. Many other festivals have smaller safety systems than Roskilde Festival and revised their procedures even further. Glastonbury Festival in England chose to cancel its festival in 2001, in part to consider lessons from Roskilde, although mainly due to an influx of 150,000 non-ticketed visitors at its own 2000 event. Each year Roskilde Festival makes an extensive health and safety assessment on the basis of which the festival is executed. The accident at the Orange Stage led to the construction of a memorial grove containing a stone with the inscription "How fragile we are" (a quote from the Sting song "Fragile") surrounded by nine trees.

Pearl Jam's song "Love Boat Captain" references the tragedy with the line "Lost nine friends we'll never know... two years ago today." When performed in concert, lead singer Eddie Vedder modifies the lyric to reflect the passage of time since the tragedy.

The 2010 festival (40th edition) officially opened with a memorial to the nine young men who were crushed to death at the event in 2000. American punk legend Patti Smith was given the honour of holding the short pre-concert ceremony, and she chose to open the tribute with accompanying music from Mozart. Her lead guitarist, Lenny Kaye, then read out the nine men’s names while Smith threw nine roses into the crowd. YouTube video 6-30-2010