Questions for Rikke Øxner, main booker, Roskilde Festival.

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Last weekend we gave you all the opportunity to send questions to Rikke Øxner, main booker at Roskilde Festival. We've received a lot of questions, and a summary of these were send to Rikke. Read the answes here. Musicbookers How many are you? How old are you? What are the backgrounds of the bookers? Are you experst on your specific musicgenres? How often do you go and listen to live music? The Booking What is your 'constitution' - what are your main task? Do you have en ideer of the type of music you will hire - a "theme" for each year - or are you trying to book a wide selection of bands and genres? What has this years "theme" been - if any? When do you start the booking process for the next years festival? Hvor stort er budgettet til kunstner honorarer? How much money do you spend on music/bands? Does some bands ask to play the festival or do you have to make the contact to all bands playing? Does european festivals cooperate when booking bands or does each festival follow its own special path? Are there greater competition between the european festival tha earlier on? A lot of big 'headliners' is wanted by the audience and a lot of names has been requested. Can you try to explain some of the reasons that bands you want to play the festival isnt comming afterall? Is it money? safety? ...? Are there ands you dont book, because they require too much 'VIP-attention'? Do you make safety assessments for each bands playing, and if so are there bands you do not book for safety reasons? Are there bands that do not wish to play the festival due to the tragedy in 2000? This years programme - so far Is RF a festival for alternative music - and how do you define 'alternative'? How is the ballance between hiring a lot of small bands and newcomers and still selling 65000 tickets... ? How do you hope to distinguish yourselfs from other big european festivals - if you are trying to do so al all? What is the ideer behind the great focus on american bands this year? A lot of people seems to think that the programme is more pop than prevoius years. Is this true, and if so is it a consious choice you have made (ie are you trying to hire more not-rock genres. Also we're thinking about Esben's wish to hire Madonna ...) How do you feel about many oldtime 'hardcore' RF-fans renounce allegiance to the festival and this years programme? Citing one of the mails we have recieved: "Clever marktingpeople is saying: 'If you are trying to target everybody you will hit nobody'". Are you trying to target a wider audience, or is it still the rock that has to be the main part of the programme? Can (may?) you name some bands you were trying to hire but did not get? How would you like to describe the musical taste of your audience? The Future How do you decide in which direction the musicprograme shoul be developed? Is the compsition of the expetise in the booking group adjusted to the kind of music you want to hire for aech year? A proporsition from one of the mails: "why not book stand-up comedians to entertain in between concerts?" Will RF cover even more musical genres in the future? If a big popstar like Madonna would play the festival would she be booked? Will the resignment of Leif Skov influence the musical composition of the festival? What band(s) you coul not get to play this year will you try to get next year?