Another Life talks with Anders Wahrén, Program Director at Roskilde Festival, about representation work and more

Another Life was founded at the beginning of 2021 with the purpose of securing a representative, sustainable and vibrant music and cultural life. Within the lifetime of the association, we have experienced a growing urge to abolish the structures that are upholding the current conditions. More people in the music sector wish to contribute to a more just and equal culture industry, but many people also experience insecurity about beginning the work with representation.

Where to start if you have little or no experience in representation or anti-discrimination work?

For Roskilde Festival , involving experts in this field was important. This is where Another Life's relationship with the Roskilde Festival began. Presenting knowledge and providing consultations regarding their recruitment process among other things.

We sat down with Anders Anders Wahrén (he/him), Program Director in charge of Music, Art & Activism at Roskilde Festival to hear how he has engaged in representation and anti-discrimination work through the knowledge gained at Another Life.?

I discovered Another Life through some of my colleagues and some of our volunteers who were in touch with some of the founders from the very beginning. So it was easy for me to be updated on the work that started and very early on.

One of the first initiatives Another Life developed was an annual report (Read the latest report here), alongside events aimed to convert knowledge into tangible methods and tools for engaging in and working with representation, discrimination, barriers, power structures, and privileges.

Anders describes his experience with Another Life work:

It was eye-opening to see some of the data in the report and hear from some of the participants in the discussions and workshops because it's not necessarily something that I would discover myself and definitely not something that I feel first-hand the way that some people are mistreated in our business.

While collaborating and supporting Another Life and the association's initiatives, the lack of industry executives participating in the work remains few. A point Anders highlights and aims to change.

I think from the events that I participated in, it was quite clear that there are not enough people in strong positions participating. So it's been very important for me to try and get more executive-level colleagues from the music business aware, and make them aware of what Another Life is doing.

Having such a prominent and influential position, Anders highlights his role and responsibility toward making a change in the industry.

I think that's a big responsibility that comes with being in a privileged position..And I have probably a bigger responsibility than some others to really try and do something good.

As the program director of one of Northern Europe's oldest (1971) and largest music and arts festival, we were interested to understand more about Roskilde Festival’s organisational culture and recent changes.

In August 2022, we did some organisational changes. This fall, I stepped into a more strategic role that hopefully will allow us to lift up the way that we look at programming, the way we work with our volunteers and all of the structures behind the scenes.?

Working collaboratively on programming and curating with volunteers and full-time employees, developing the program all year round, Anders describes the team previously being “quite homogeneous” with the aim of the recent changes to introduce new perspectives to booking and programming.

So that's part of what we are doing right now, is that we are expanding the teams, especially when it comes to music bookings where we are trying to carve out some new roles to get more volunteers on board.

With these new organisational changes and position, Anders shares how he uses the knowledge from Another Life in his practice, particularly referencing insights from the report.

I try to bring it to the team so that we work with stuff like unconscious bias; working from the perspective of knowing what the situation actually is in our business and trying to better our own methodologies and evolve the organisation so we can become more inclusive and diverse in the future.

Finally, how do we attract commercial players to engage in the work to improve conditions for minoritised groups in the Danish music industry?

I think everybody in the music and entertainment sector has a big responsibility to do better, to be more inclusive, and to have new perspectives in the way that we work. It's better for the individuals, of course, because no one should feel that they are not included or are not a welcome part of our communities. It is also better for the bottom line, actually, because once you start giving new perspectives, you start to broaden your audience as well.

Learn more about how you can support Another Life and contribute to the changes that need to be made in the Danish music and cultural sector as a Support Member or more.