The festival's inaugural year saw roughly 20 bands ranging from folk, jazz, rock and pop genres all playing on a single stage, which lasted for two days with some 10,000–13,000 visitors.

[2] In 1978, festival organizers acquired the Canopy Scene, an orange musical stage previously used by the Rolling Stones on a European tour.

In 2014 the Odeon stage was cancelled along with the surrounding sustainable-style food outlets, and the area was replaced with pre-booked tents for festival guests that prefer not to bring their own.

Apart from the small and separate Camping South it is divided into two areas, East and West, each comprising a service center with establishments ranging from food stalls to a cinema.

About half an hour after the concert began, many people fell down at one place, primarily due to a series of wave-like motions in the audience, which were the result of some trying to get closer to the stage.

[19][20] Most people who fell were at a location not far from the stage, but initially not easily seen and out of easy reach for the security guards because of the dense crowd.

The victims needing further medical treatment were subsequently transferred by ambulances to Roskilde Hospital, about 2 km (1.2 mi) from the concert site.

In the area where the main fall happened, several women had been helped out earlier because they were nervous about the pushing and crowd surfers; this might explain why all the people who died were men.

[22] The incident was examined separately by police, public prosecutors, and subsequent civil trials, all of which determined that it was accidental and that there had been no criminal actions, although the response time from when the people fell over until they were rescued was criticized.

Following a detailed review, several new measures were implemented such as a larger safety area with extra emergency exits in front of the stage, more "hard" and "soft" systems to control the number of people allowed into each concert, more spacing and clear separation between audience sections with separate entrances/exits, an expanded video surveillance system making it easier to detect potential problems early, more guards among the audience, an emergency system where the safety staff can shut down the entire concert at the push of a single button, and the chain-of-command was strengthened.

A safety network of European festivals and concerts, along with experts, was started (the "YES Group") and many of the measures introduced in Roskilde have later been added elsewhere.

[24] In part because of the accident at Roskilde, Glastonbury Festival in the United Kingdom was cancelled in 2001 to implement extra safety measures.

[27] Pearl Jam's song "Love Boat Captain" references the tragedy with the line "Lost nine friends we'll never know... two years ago today."

When performed in concert, lead singer Eddie Vedder modifies the lyric to reflect the passage of time since the tragedy.

[citation needed] With more than 79,000 paying visitors (as well as approximately 20,000 volunteer day workers), the 2006 festival was among the biggest in Europe for the year.

Changes from the previous year included a new swimming lake – which proved to be very successful due to the warm and sunny weather – and a lounge stage called Bar'n.

Some of the performing artists were Bob Dylan, Immortal Technique, Roger Waters, Guns N' Roses, Tool, The Strokes, Deftones, Morrissey, Franz Ferdinand, Kanye West, Placebo, Bullet for My Valentine, Arctic Monkeys, Sigur Rós and The Streets.

[30] The full programme was released on 19 April 2007 and included bands such as Muse, Queens of the Stone Age, Björk, Beastie Boys, My Chemical Romance, Arctic Monkeys, The Who, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Killers, Tiësto, Nephew and L.O.C.

The full programme was released on 16 April 2008 and included Jay-Z, The Chemical Brothers, Band of Horses, Duffy, Kings of Leon, Neil Young, Radiohead, Grinderman, My Bloody Valentine, Gnarls Barkley, Girl Talk, The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Streets, Judas Priest, Slayer, Tina Dickow, and the Hellacopters.

[citation needed] Petter performed at the festival and had prominent visitors on stage such as Dee Pee from Rockers By Choice [dk], and L.O.C, Nine Inch Nails, Kanye West, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Oasis, Coldplay, Faith No More, The Mars Volta, Volbeat, Slipknot, Lily Allen and Pet Shop Boys, Malk de Koijn, Trentemøller and Jooks.

[31] Main names in 2010 were Gorillaz, Nephew,Them Crooked Vultures, Alice In Chains, Dizzy Mizz Lizzy, The Prodigy, Muse, Kashmir, Prince and Motörhead.

[35][36] The 2013 festival featured acts such as Metallica, Sigur Rós, Volbeat, Kvelertak, Goat, Queens of the Stone Age, C2C, Daedelus, Slipknot, Disclosure, Chase and Status,[37] Baauer, Holy Other, Jam City, Vatican Shadow and When Saints Go Machine and Rihanna.

[38] The 2017 festival featured acts such as Foo Fighters, Arcade Fire, The Weeknd, The xx, Ice Cube, Justice, Moderat, Solange, Lorde and Trentemøller.

[39] The 2018 festival featured acts such as Joey Badass, Black Star, David Byrne, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Descendents, Eminem, Fever Ray, First Aid Kit, Fleet Foxes, Four Tet, Ben Frost, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Gorillaz, Interpol, C.V. Jørgensen, Khalid, Dua Lipa, Chelsea Manning, Bruno Mars, Massive Attack, Mogwai, Pablo Moses, My Bloody Valentine, Nephew, Nine Inch Nails, Odesza, Anderson Paak & The Free Nationals, Mike Skinner, St. Vincent, Vince Staples, Stone Sour, Stormzy, The Minds of 99, Alex Vargas and When Saints Go Machine.

[40] The 2019 festival, which had a lineup of over 170 artists, featured acts such as Tears for Fears, The Cure, Bob Dylan, Robert Plant, Travis Scott, Noel Gallagher, Cardi B, Cypress Hill, Neneh Cherry, Rosalía, Testament, Philip H. Anselmo & the Illegals, Ulver, and Behemoth.

[41] The 2020 festival with performers such as Taylor Swift, Deftones, Thom Yorke, and others was supposed to start on 1 July, but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.