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Preview: Roskilde Festival
Lottie Brazier , June 24th, 2016 08:36

Ahead of this year's instalment of the Danish festival — impressive both in capacity and in the size of its line-up — Lottie Brazier roots around the bill for a selection of newly and firmly established must-sees

This year, Roskilde Festival takes place between 25th June and 2th July. Based in green space just outside the small city of Roskilde in Denmark, it is the largest festival in Europe, with 130,000 capacity.

Spanning over the course of a month, its final week between the 27th and 2nd July will showcase a range of prominent pop bands and artists such as LCD Soundsystem; PJ Harvey; New Order; Wiz Khalifa and Neil Young. The full lineup contains 179 acts and prides itself on its international focus, with artists arriving from over 30 countries. This includes Grimes; Savages; Föllakzoid; Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra; Anna Von Hausswolff; Stormzy and Floating Points.

As a non-profit festival, Roskilde donates all of its profits to charity, supporting humanitarian and cultural projects worldwide. The focus of Roskilde this year will be to provide funding to projects that fight political inequality and fight for democracy.

Four Essential Acts at this Year's Roskilde

New Order

"Music Complete is mostly a return to stumbling in a state of one's own genius. This is a band who, as Joy Division and New Order, have twice defied the odds. This almost wonderful album glimpses a third miracle. Don't bet against them and please, enjoy the positives from both warring factions." (Mick Middles)

Anna Von Hausswolff

"Hausswolff has pushed out into unmapped territory where post-rock, prog, doom metal, modern classical and high church music all co-exist in uneasy alliance. It's the type of album you have to commit to completely, but for those seeking a glimpse of the numinous, it's worth the effort." (Joe Banks)

Gaye Su Akyol

"Istanbul-based painter-turned-singer Gaye Su Akyol is at the forefront of a burgeoning Turkish alternative music scene across the Black Sea Coast. Fusing homegrown orthodoxy and Western avant-garde ingenuity, her music balances modern rock composition with traditional Arabic-influenced Turkish songs. The delivery is an alluring, mind-expanding experience with just the right psychedelic twists!"

Blood Sport

"Not so much an industrial dance group as an industrious dance group. Live it's very much a case of heads down over instruments, blinkers on, everything and everyone else blocked out to achieve 100% concentration on the process; quite like former Blast First Petite stars Factory Floor in their 2010 incarnation." (John Doran)