Roskilde Festival not guilty of bribery

Oversight committee declines to send case further

There was no impropriety when the Roskilde town council expropriated 60,000 square metres of land for use by the Roskilde Festival. A state oversight authority for Zealand region ruled today that there were no grounds for the case to proceed.

Keld Bjerregaard, who owned the land before it was expropriated, had accused the council of accepting a bribe from the annual music festival in the form of a donation of two artificial football pitches worth 7.5 million kroner. Bjerregaard questioned  the legality of the decision to expropriate the land coming so soon after the festival made the donation to the city using profits from last year’s festival.

Both the festival organisers and the council had denied any wrongdoing. The festival pointed out that it donates to numerous causes in Denmark and abroad. The council said that it had tried to buy the land form Bjerregaard but that the two sides could not agree on a price. In 2010 the council had rezoned the land so it could be used by large events and outdoor sports facilities. The rezoning allowed the council to expropriate the land “for the common good” and rent it back to the Roskilde Festival at a lower price than Bjerregaard demanded.

The decision said that the council had broken no laws by accepting the pitches.

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