When this year's festival guests arrive at Roskilde Festival, there is one thing that is not quite as it usually is, and that is the place where most people's festival starts and ends.
By Line Vestergaard Cramer.
24.03.2025.
Roskilde Festival has chosen to transform their train station at the festival site. The new station will no longer function solely as a place to get to and from the festival, but will now also be a place for festival guests to meet and socialize. The main focus for the new station has been thoughts about sustainability and safety, and it is being carried out in collaboration with DSB and students from the Royal Danish Academy.
Collaboration between different institutions
Collaboration with educational institutions is not a new initiative from Roskilde Festival. They have a long tradition of collaborating with students from various educations.
The recent collaboration with the Royal Academy began a year and a half ago and has not been solely about transforming the train station. Signe Brink Wehl, artistic director of the Roskilde Festival Group, describes the motivation behind the collaboration:
“We see ourselves as an urban laboratory for future solutions. And we know that the young talents of the future within, for example, architecture play an important role in testing those solutions. That is one of the reasons why we have entered into the collaboration. We see it as a great obligation to make our platform available and try out some things that can hopefully also serve as inspiration for others.”
A total of 30 second-year students from the 'Architecture, City and Landscape' program have worked with the Roskilde Festival station as part of their semester assignment. Oline Toft Stegemann, one of the 30 architecture students, has described the opportunity to work with the station:
"It has been exciting to know that it is architecture that someone will have opinions about. Fortunately, I don't think there has been any pressure because of that, but we have all felt an extra motivation to do it really well. It will be interesting that others will have opinions, and that we will get some comments that we normally don't get from within the school."
The new train station. Visualization: The students from the Royal Academy.
A young and architectural analysis basis
A major advantage that has come from letting the architecture students design the new station is their thorough analysis of the site. Architecture students often work with long analysis phases, where they try to understand the places they are working with through architectural working methods.
This is also the case in their work with the station. The students have been investigating how the old station functioned for a long time. They have worked particularly with the landscape, the arrival at the festival, and the user group found at the festival. The students have had a desire to change the experience of the station significantly, as they experienced it as unsafe – especially in the dark hours. The analysis has created a good basis for the new station and Signe Brink Wehl says:
“The fact that we have been able to create such a good analytical basis has meant a lot to us in how we create a safe and pleasant space to be in and a meeting place.”
It is not only the academic background of the young students that has contributed to the project. Their age has also had positive effects on the design:
"There have been 30 students with their perspectives and with new, architecturally burgeoning ideas, but there have also been young people who have a good and festival-oriented perspective. This has meant that we are very close to the people who use the station," says Signe Brink Wehl.
Design of the station
The visualizations of the station show that it will be built from modules, created from beams and rafters. The modules function as enclosures and divisions of the area at the station. In some places they stand free, and in other places they are load-bearing structures for a roof structure.
The students say that the station is divided into different zones where you can stay, be quiet or stand in line. Lighting also plays a big role for the students, and although it has not been decided how the light will be placed, the dream is to create security through light.
The station has a clear movement that culminates in a circular shape, where the modules surround a seating area. It is not yet fully decided what will take place inside the large circular seating area, but Oline Toft Stegemann describes the thinking behind it:
“It's a way of trying to make the station a more active space in this big square that you can use during the festival itself. So you have a meeting point where you can maybe say: 'We'll meet in the circle in front of the station' – a bit like under the clock at the main station.”
The entire process of designing the station has been carried out in close collaboration with DSB and Roskilde Festival. The students, selected employees from DSB and Roskilde Festival respectively, met once a month during the process for construction meetings. Here they looked at where they were in the process and discussed everything from material selection to design.
The new train station. Visualization: The students from the Royal Academy.
A sustainable station
The idea is that the station will be built sustainably based on circular principles. Virgin materials will be used for the construction itself, but these will be materials that will be used to rebuild the station over and over again, because it is super important for the festival that the station is viable for many, many years. The station will be built from modules that are easy to disassemble and rebuild, which is a crucial element when working with temporary architecture.
Roskilde Festival has also entered into a collaboration with the educational institution NEXT, and it is students from the building carpentry program at this educational institution, who will be responsible for the actual construction of the station in collaboration with students from the Royal Danish Academy.
We look forward to experiencing the completed station at this year's Roskilde Festival, which will hopefully become an inspiring gathering point for both festival guests and the parties involved.
Roskilde Festival is one of Europe's largest festivals. It has existed since 1971, and this year can be experienced from June 28, 2025 to July 5, 2025. For more information: https://www.roskilde-festival.dk/ .
Image above: Roskilde Festival. Photo: Stiig Hougesen.