Grunge & Gourmet: Food of Roskilde Festival 2017

Last year, 75% of the food at Roskilde Festival was organic. This year, that has risen to 90%, and though the organisation is never really satisfied, they are giving themselves a bit of a pat on the back. “Reasonably, there isn’t more we can require from our food stalls,” Sustainability Manager Mikkel Sander explains.

In addition, food stalls around the festival have been given the opportunity to become “Roskilde certified,” meaning they can affix a sticker to their booth noting that they reach the 90% organic mark. Each time they get a new delivery, it’s inspected by the festival to ensure that they continue to serve only organic products.

But organic dairy, produce and meat isn’t the only way that Roskilde is ensuring a sustainable festival.

Working with Det Runde Bord, the festival collects and donates over 250 tons of leftover food to homeless shelters, domestic abuse shelters and refugee asylums around the country. “About 1200 tons of food passes through Roskilde Festival,” Det Runde Bord Director Peter Haugelund says, “and of course a certain amount of that becomes food waste. Although it won’t ever be possible to have zero food waste, we’re trying to make it as rare as we can.”

Det Runde Bord takes care of the pick-up, cooking, packaging and delivery of leftover food, making it an internationally renown model for reducing food waste. In addition to their strong supply-chain, they’re constantly experimenting with food production, including baking bread from old bread, and lasagne plates from old pasta.

But this kind of innovation only one example in a chorus of incredible projects that have started right here at Roskilde. Take InsektKBH, the Danish company producing insect-based foods like FEMTEN, a cricket, apple and ginger juice (each bottle contains approximately 15 crickets!) that is high in protein and vitamin B12. For the festival, they’ve also created a cricket sandwich that is surprisingly meaty and definitely tasty.

There’s also Food Jam, an organization dedicated to teaching children about nutrition and cooking. For only 65 DKK, a child can cook his or her own meal.

For the adults, there’s beer. Always beer. Beer mega-brand Carlsberg have gotten in on the micro-brewery action, producing two IPAs for the festival – the New England-style version is called Orange 17 and it is crisp as hell – and a host of other beers that can be tried at The Beer Barn, not to be confused with The Dress Barn, an outlet where I bought all of my “fancy” clothing from the ages of 6 – 14.

All of the favorites are here too; Meyers Mad is serving some 20,000+ flæskesteg sandwiches, Hansens Mejeri is keeping everyone cool with ice lollies and milkshakes galore, and Michelin-star restaurants like Kiin Kiin are dishing up Thai street food for the masses. Whatever you’re into, Roskilde has it on the menu.