Sunday 06/07/08 Jay-Z, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Cat Power @ Roskilde Festival, Denmark

By Sunday, most festival-goers have been at Roskilde a week.  Unlike its British festival siblings, which pack festivities (musical and otherwise) into three days of hectic hedonism, the Danish treat Roskilde like an extended holiday, arriving with several days to warm up and settle into campsite life before the billed entertainment begins.  But by Sunday, the filth and the fatigue have set in for most, and we are surprised to see the campsite thin out as many punters pack up their belongings and depart before the day’s line-up has even begun, ready to return to school and work on Monday.

Nonetheless, the Sunday line-up is just as formidable as on previous days.  DSL are up first to shake us all back to consciousness.  1pm seems a ridiculous time for Roskilde to have billed this French house trio, but there are plenty that have emerged to catch the set, most still wiping sleep from their eyes while groggily sipping coffee from polystyrene cups.  Any loitering lethargy is quickly dispelled as DSL prove themselves a force to be reckoned with.  The Parisian brothers are shooting up the electro-cool list, having just signed to Ed Banger Records, where they jostle shoulders with some of the most successful French House outfits of late, including Justice, DJ Mehdi and Uffie.  By the end of a set that veers away from MC induced purgatory in favour of some heavy remixes of Rage Against The Machine and Simian Mobile Disco, we consider ourselves thoroughly dusted down and blown away.

It appears it’s not just the punters who are feeling a little battered around the borders later on at Cat Power’s early evening set.  Chan Marshall is mysteriously ill-at-ease onstage.  She manages to purr her way through a convincing ‘New York, New York’ early on, but keeps disappearing offstage, each time returning a diminished version of herself.  “I feel like I’m about to throw up or fall over or something,” she meekly explains, clutching at her shirt and swaying slightly.  It’s clear she’s not enjoying herself very much, relying heavily on the effortless musicianship of The Dirty Delta Blues Band to get her through the set, which nosedives in quality from purr to whimper.  At one point her guitarist actually has to convince her to get up from the floor, where she lies on her back with her legs waving in the air.  The Danish crowd is forgiving and Cat Power is as gracious as she is grateful, but it doesn’t make up for a disappointing performance.

Thankfully Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy has more than enough easy professionalism to go round.  Will Oldham slouches casually onstage, hands thrust in his pockets when not wildly gesticulating as he spins his musical yarns.  Between songs he chats amiably with his audience, delighting at the quality of the weather and giving bizarre shout outs to other acts on the line-up, including Jay-Z and Slayer.  A particular highpoint is with his transformation of R Kelly’s ‘World’s Greatest’ into an almost unrecognizable country-tinged gem.  The punters love it so much that when the Danish compere takes to the stage to mark the end of the set, the poor girl is booed back into the wings by the deafening calls for an encore, which the crowd eventually get.

Oldham’s tempted fate with his talk of good weather though, as the heavens open.  This could explain why Jay-Z fails to pull a crowd to rival most of the other main stage acts, but the fact that the hip-hop star is performing at what is traditionally quite a heavy rock and metal festival perhaps also plays a part.  For those that battle the weather in cling film ponchos, his performance is utterly polished, perhaps due to his appearance on almost every major festival bill this summer. The megastar never fails to entertain as his races through his hits, including ‘Girls Girls Girls’ and ‘Encore’ in a set that clocks up barely fifty minutes. 

The main festival area closes around midnight, as those punters that have lasted the distance gather in the east end of the arena to indulge in one more night of reckless festivities, aided by Digitalism.  Thousands make it to the finish line, transforming the tent into an undulating mass of bodies under the spell of the German duo’s vocal-laden electro-house. 

Definitely more than a marathon than a sprint, Roskilde is for those that like their festivals laid-back and leisurely.  During a week of festivities fashioned into a holiday camp, not only has Gigwise seen some of the greatest living artists alive in performance, we’ve also swum in a lake, sunbathed on a beach, and been to the cinema.  But most remarkably of all, as we scuffle our way out of the campsite for the last time, a quick toilet stop reveals that even as the last of the campers make their way home, the toilets still have clean seats and loo roll.  Which, for anyone that’s ever been to a UK festival, puts paid to the idea that the Brits do festivals best.