Pitchfork

Each year, about 20 miles outside of Copenhagen, roughly 100,000 music fans converge on the city of Roskilde, Denmark for Northern Europe's annual musical highlight, the renowned Roskilde Festival. Established in 1971, it's easily the longest-running festival on the European circuit-- and this year, with the cancellation of Glastonbury, it was also the largest. Boasting hundreds of the world's biggest and best artists spread out over six stages, Roskilde 2006 was a utopian four-day free-for-all, the likes of which North America has very little to compare to.

Among the big draws this year were Bob Dylan, Guns 'n Roses, Kanye West, Tool, Sigur Rós, Franz Ferdinand, The Strokes, The Raconteurs, Arctic Monkeys, Morrissey, The Streets, Death Cab for Cutie, Animal Collective, Parliament/Funkadelic, Primal Scream, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Scissor Sisters, Silver Jews, Soulwax, Rufus Wainwright, Opeth, Happy Mondays, Ricardo Villalobos, and yes, Roger Waters performing Dark Side of the Moon (not to mention more than three hours of other Pink Floyd stuff ranging from Ummagumma-era freakouts to crowd-pleasers off The Wall).

Not eager to miss what was certain to be the most spectacular musical event in all of Europe this year, Pitchfork traveled more than 4,000 miles to witness a series of inconceivably massive concerts-- the proceeds of which, incredibly, benefit humanitarian non-profit organizations. Here's what we saw:

GUNS 'N ROSES:

AXL VIA VIDEO FEED:

CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH:

KANYE WEST:

HAPPY MONDAYS:

THE EX:

STEVE REID & KIERAN HEBDEN:

MORRISSEY:

JR EWING:

TIGA:

SCISSOR SISTERS:

UNDER BYEN:

[Photos by Ryan Schreiber and Chris Kaskie]