When Thursday feels like MondayThursday at Roskilde is a bit of a hangout. First Days is over and Orange has opened -- but the program feels like it's still waiting to wake up. You have sun on your neck, a little too little sleep and need something to bring you back into your body. This isn't the day with the most must-sees — but here are six names that can surprise, seduce, or at least keep you away from camp for a few hours.
One star
Two stars
Three stars
Fours stars
Five stars
Disclaimer: Apropos Magazine received access or a review copy. As always, we share our own impressions — unfiltered.
Six stars
Stormzy
British halter with global reach
Stormzy is the kind of name that looks better on the poster than it necessarily sounds live. But it's still a name you don't skip. When he hits the stage, he does so with heavy bass, political indignation and grime-flows that still sound fresh. The Album Heavy Is the Head put him on the global map, and his live shows are often packed with fire, attitude and unpredictability. Is it revolution? No. But it's solid, sweaty Thursday night.
Arca
Deconstructed sound art disguised as rave
Arca is not here to make you feel safe. Her music is fragmented, fierce, alluring -- and utterly irresistible if you dare to surrender. She works at the intersection of art and chaos, and her shows feel more like performance than concert. Arca is not necessarily for everyone. But she's for those of you who'd like to be yanked out of your festival slumber and feel something you can't quite explain afterwards.
FKA Twigs
Baroque futurism with silky brutality
FKA twigs is a creature. Not a pop star, not a performance artist, but something in between. Her live shows blend dance, visuals and vocals in a kind of dreamy art-pop meditation that can make even the most dusty festival-goer stand still. She's uncompromising, and it may seem elitist -- but if you surrender, there's reward in every beat. Not for campfest, but for the soul.
HorseGiirl
Hyperfeminine techno with rubber boot glamor
HorseGiirl is what happens when rave culture meets My Little Pony and the club at 3am. She's TikTok kitsch and Berlin bass in the same breath. It's cheesy, offbeat and oddly catchy. You don't quite get it -- but you dance anyway. It's not profound, but it's profoundly strange. And that's exactly what it sometimes takes on a Thursday when the head is empty and the feet still want to suffer.
Anton Westerlin
Melancholic pop with Scandinavian sensibility
Anton Westerlin makes pop that sounds like he's trying to write the soundtrack to your very best summer nights -- and your worst morning feelings. It's nice, a little bitter, and it often hits clean. He's still in the process of finding his live identity, but the songs are there. And sometimes that's actually enough. Especially on a day when you can't stand any more noise and distortion.
D1MA
New school hip-hop with energy and potential
D1MA has some of the energy that Thursday otherwise lacks. His sound is somewhere between trap and pop, and he delivers it with enough attitude to catch you — even if you didn't know the name before. There's something youthful and restless about his style, which is perfectly suited to a Roskilde beginning to grope for a direction amid the dust. Give him a chance -- he could be bigger than you think.
