Sound Festival 71, Roskilde, Denmark 1971

Held on Sat Aug 28, 1971 - Sun Aug 29, 1971 this was an important European festival, not so much because it pulled a lot of big name bands to play to the 10,000 people who attended each day, the biggest name was probably The Grease Band who had backed Joe Cocker at Woodstock and The Strawbs who had an album on the UK charts at the time, but more because it was to establish Roskilde as an important festival venue. Ever since, the Roskilde Festival has put on a festival in late June/early July and pulled some huge headlining bands along the way from Bob Dylan to Aerosmith, Jeff Beck, Status Quo and hundreds more.  

It was very much a focus for Danish alternative groovers to get their not inconsiderable freak on.  In 1972, the festival was taken over by the Roskilde Foundation, which has since run the festival as a non-profit organization for development and support of music, culture and humanism. Groovy baby.

Due to Covid-19 2020 was the only year since 1971 that a festival hasn’t been held. To keep an event going for 50 years is no small achievement and to do so without a profit motive is even more fantastic. 

The Full line-up was:

Grease Band, Surprise, Delta Blues Band, Vannis Aften, Day of Phoenix, Engine, Klosterband, Louisiana Hot Seven, Papa Blues Jazzband, Per Kofoed, Phillias Fogg, Sunny Side Stompers, Tom Bailey, Per Dich, Alex Campbell, Mick Softley, Stefan Grossman, Burnin Red Ivanhoe, Skin Alley, Gasolin, Strawbs, Midnight Sun, Fujara, Alrune, Rod, Dr. Dopojam, Fessors, Big City Band, Andrew John, Povl, Dissing,Spider, John Koerner,Cæsar, No Name, Sebastian