Sound Takes Center Stage At Roskilde Festival

Denmark’s landmark event, Roskilde Festival, has intensified its partnership with Meyer Sound to enhance the audio experience for visitors but also the festival’s own staff. 

– Meyer Sound
at Roskilde. Pictured: John Meyer; Dennis Tholema, Meyer Sound EU Technical Support; Helen Meyer.

In 2018, when Roskilde takes place from June 30 to July 7, Meyer Sound will supply all of the festival’s nine stages with its reinforcement systems. At this year’s edition, Meyer deployed its systems at five stages. Additionally, the California-based audio experts will assist in training the festival’s own technical staff in audio system design, configuration and optimization.

The company will also work with Roskilde Festival on educating audiences in sound technology, “and to involve audiences in participatory sonic experiences using proprietary Meyer Sound technologies such as Constellation active acoustics and Space Map three-dimensional panning,” according to the announcement.

Roskilde Festival Group CEO Signe Lopdrup said, “Roskilde Festival emerged from the counterculture of the late sixties and early seventies, a time of astonishing creativity and innovation. As a non-profit foundation, we have maintained that same spirit, as we are driven by a passion for music and not the bottom line. In Meyer Sound, we found a partner with the same cultural heritage and with strong leadership willing to work with us to push festival sound to higher levels of quality and innovation.”

Meyer Sound’s executive vice president, Helen Meyer, said she felt “honored that the Roskilde Festival reached out to us for a collaboration that is absolutely unique in our industry,” adding that “the festival will give us a full-scale field laboratory for new product development and evaluation of audience response.”

The last stage of the collaboration will be the establishment of a mentoring and education program for up-and-coming sound engineers.

“We realize that hiring and training our own technical staff for sound and lighting is an ambitious step forward, one essentially unheard of in the festival world,” said Roskilde’s head of production, Bertel Baagøe. “But we feel this is essential to make sure we can consistently provide the very best results. We want their Roskilde performance to be the highlight for every artist for their entire summer tour.”