Documenting Dreams Coming True. I know, that sounds a bit over the top, but sometimes as a documentary photographer this is exactly what I get to witness and document through my camera. It’s such an honour and privilege. My Roskilde Festival had several gigs that were exactly like that, and the first was Danish artist Dopha playing a 9pm peak time slot on the last of the ‘warm up days’ concerts.
Sofie Dopha is an upcoming artist, she writes some super catchy songs with a melancholy twist to them that range from pop to pop-rock and a bit of country influence as well. Her debut album came out during corona lockdown and she was actually originally booked for Roskilde Festival 2020, but as we know all festivals in 2020 and 2021 were cancelled. I had the pleasure of photographing 3 Dopha concerts in 2021, and this photo story begins in early December 2021. On a rainy evening, just after a Dopha concert at Hotel Cecil in Copenhagen, she was surprised by the whole team with the news she was booked to play Roskilde in 2022, and I really find it such a joy and honour to be present and document these special moments.
Shortly after that gig in December 2021, we had the third corona lockdown in Denmark and Summer festivals again were a big question mark. Fortunately with all the lockdowns behind us and all festivals going ahead – in late June 2022 it was finally time for Dopha and her band to go on stage at Roskilde Festival. The 3 days leading up to the 4 main concert days of Roskilde Festival are called ‘warm-up days’ and feature a lot of upcoming artists playing smaller stages. But, these are still large gigs and hugely important for an upcoming artist, you get to play a large stage in front of 5-10,000 people and introduce your music to a lot of people that might not know you.
I recommend you play Dopha’s album and then scroll through (on a large screen) the story and visit or re-visit the Countdown stage with Dopha and band. This was a fantastic live performance and you need only to study the faces of Dopha and the whole team in the last of my pictures after the show, to see what a high this was, how much this meant. It’s such a privilege to document these concerts where dreams come true for an artist and it’s really what I enjoy the most, telling these stories through old-school documentary still photography.
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