The Naked Race: Roskilde

This is the 3rd summer I have traveled all the way to Roskilde, Denmark to camp in the open, drink my fill of booze, listen to some great bands, oh and look at a bunch of Vikings run around butt-naked the last Saturday before the end of the festival. Though more and more, not all the participants are actually Scandinavian. As this summer there were some Americans, Europeans and even someone from Brazil guy who came all the way from South America just so he could run around in his Birthday suit (He tried to register for the race too late and wasn't allowed to participate). Only 15 males and 15 females are allowed to compete in the race, and the spots for male racers fills up about 5 times as fast as it does for the ladies. Which just goes to show you that men like to get naked and show off their goods more than the ladies do ( Such a shame, though some of the participants really should never be naked in public if you ask me).


The Naked Race itself is not officially part of the 10 day long Roskilde Music Festival, as it is (mainly) sponsored by the local Roskilde Radio Station. It started something like 10 plus years ago with only a few people participating, with the male and female winner of the (mini) race getting free tickets to Roskilde for the following year as a prize. Tickets are currently over 300 bucks US, and continuing to rise. So it is not actually too bad of a prize, especially with the current economic situation. I believe they also get free drinks at some of the local bar within the festival as well, which is not too bad of a prize as well. Though I didn't see any of the participants heading over towards Gringo's bar this summer, like they normally do. In fact there were no previous runners from the 1st two times I observed the race present, which I thought was rather odd. Especially since some of the same exact people have been participating, and winning, for the past 7 or 8 years. Some friends of mine actually plan to race next summer, but we will see if they actually go through with it. There are a lot of people with cameras there and you are naked for at least 30 minutes in public if you count all the pre and post interviews, the race itself and then the meet and drink afterwards.