Four years ago I wrote Dreaming Out Loud about my way into music photography. On Friday the 6th of July 2018 I dreamt out louder – and in front of more people – than I ever thought possible. I stood on the iconic Orange Stage at Roskilde Festival 2018, in front of a packed crowd of at least 70-80,000 people. And I stood there, dreaming out loud, on stage, because I was photographing one of my favourite bands, The Minds of 99 (that I previously spent a day with in 2016 in Tivoli) who very kindly allowed me to be part of and document the whole show for them.
I get goosebumps just thinking back on this. There was a blonde young boy back in the 80s, sitting in his room on the farm, walls decorated with posters of Michael Jackson and Duran Duran from Bravo magazine, the latest tunes recorded off the radio playing on cassette on a ghettoblaster. A young boy who would never have dared or even imagined it was possible to dream this loud.
The Orange Stage is so iconic and the size of the crowd so massive that even the most seasoned world famous stars are blown away and perhaps sometimes intimidated by it. I have been in the photopit just in front of the stage many times, but to actually stand on stage with one of my favourite bands is something entirely different, and I was actually really nervous before the show. This is it, this is the peak of my music photography life up till this point, this is dreaming out louder than ever and it is my favourite Danish band and I really, really wanted to do well. I could not quite get my mind to catch up during the first song, I think it took several minutes before I even took the first music picture. I could talk about how the light at that time is really difficult, sun on the crowd, deep shade on stage, and how I always wish I did just a bit better, always wanting to improve. But it is not about that.
It is about the peak of my music photography career, the peak of my life as a music fan all the way back from those stack of cassettes in the early 80s. I wish I could tell that young 11 year old me that things like these are possible. And most of all, I wish I could tell my late father about this. I hope you were watching from above dad, look what I did!
Thank you so much to the band, Ole from The Bank management and tour manager Søren Borkmann. Thank you for making this dream come true.
Walking to the stage
Pre-show rituals!
It is funny, hanging out on the backside of the stage is reasonably relaxed. It is when you go through the curtain and see the crowd that your jaw drops.
Game time.
Niels Brandt greeting the crowd.
It is when I walked out and saw this mad sea of people that my brain did somersaults.
Niels Brandt, lead singer.
Louis Clausen, drummer.
Takeoff
Niels was flying.
Jacob Bech-Hansen on synth.
Asger Wissing shredding it on the bass
Anders Folke Larsen, guitar
Niels Brandt doing his acoustic solo version of Hurtige Hænder.
And Louis and Jacob…
And Anders and Asger took the opportunity to have a drink.
The Fans knew every single lyric and had a magic time.
Anders took his guitar solo to the people! And later did some crowd surfing (where I really could have used a massive zoom lens for once.)
The Minds of 99, the iconic Orange Stage and that mega sized crowd.
Mega balloons during the last song – and I just noticed the entire band is in the frame which makes me happy, I have this thing about trying to get shots with every member in the frame.
75 minutes of Dreaming Out Loud.
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PS. The young farm boy in love with music is now somewhat older, and he is really grateful that his friend Kim Matthäi Leland took pictures of him from the photo-pit. Thank you Kim!
Spot the old blonde boy in the back peaking out in a “holy moly this is really happening” moment. Photo by Kim Matthäi Leland.
“Holy moly that is a lot of people out there!” Photo by Kim Matthäi Leland.
