Sustainable collaboration

Dean of Studies: “The collaboration with Roskilde Festival is unique”

For the 15th time, Roskilde Festival is being used as a laboratory by DTU students. This year, 24 projects can be experienced at the festival.

 Recharging Together recharges your phone while you row. Photo: Ditte Valente.

Friday 04 July 2025

Linnea Lundberg

A rowing machine that charges your phone while you use it, sanitary facilities that are easier and more enjoyable to use, and a coffee machine that turns waste into a steaming hot cup of coffee.

You can experience all these projects at this year’s Roskilde Festival, which is currently in full swing. Created by DTU students, the projects aim to solve specific challenges for the festival.

This year’s projects include initiatives in areas such as sanitation, waste sorting, energy consumption and inclusion. All projects are conceived and carried out by students as part of their education. Each project is assigned a supervisor, and students typically receive 5 ECTS credits for their work.

For the past fifteen years, DTU and Roskilde Festival have been working together to enhance the education of engineering students and find solutions to the numerous challenges that arise in a temporary city with a population of around 130,000. For comparison, Aalborg, Denmark’s fourth largest city, has a population of just over 120,000.

At Energy Bar festivalgoers can turn their waste into a steaming hot cup of coffee. Photo: Ditte Valente.

Knowledge and education meet real-world challenges

“Our collaboration with Roskilde Festival is unique because it enables our students to test solutions to the challenges that arise in a large, temporary city. It’s in collaborations like this that knowledge and education meet real-world challenges and create new solutions,” says Lars D. Christoffersen, DTU’s Dean of Studies and Student Affairs.

Roskilde Festival’s Deputy Director, Christina Bilde, is also enthusiastic about the collaboration:

“Roskilde Festival was founded to make a difference for children and young people. We donate all our profits to support opportunities for children and young people. We do the same when we give DTU students the opportunity to test projects at the festival,” she says, adding:

“Roskilde Festival is like a city, albeit temporary, and we face many of the same challenges as an ordinary city. When the students suggest ways to improve waste sorting, for example, it inspires us to develop our current solutions further. In this way, we learn from them and they from us.”

All DTU students have had the opportunity to contribute project ideas or suggest ways to solve specific challenges that the festival has identified.

Blue Rack is a reusable holder for beer and soft drink cans. The students behind its design have suggested that if Roskilde Festival chooses to put it into production, it should introduce a deposit on it. Photo: Ditte Valente.
The KOLT mini cooler keeps your drinks and food cold, so you can enjoy them even in the sunshine. Photo: Ditte Valente.
DTU's landmark at Roskilde Festival is the ARC pavilion. You'll find it close to the open air stage EOS. Photo: Ditte Valente.
Squat'n'Piss is designed for female festival goers. Photo: Ditte Valente.

Contact

Lars Dyreborg Christoffersen

Lars Dyreborg Christoffersen Senior Vice President and Dean of Studies and Student Affairs Office for Study Programmes and Student Affairs Phone: +45 45251009