ROSKILDE, Denmark--Denmark's Roskilde Festival has been called the Glastonbury Festival of Continental Europe. It draws approximately the same amount of spectators (up to 110,000 per year), has been going since '71 (Glastonbury started in '70) and raises money for worthy causes. It's even more organized than Glastonbury, instituting recycling of plastic cups and employing an army of litter collectors who miraculously manage to keep the grounds clear of debris for four days. But, best of all, the scheduling of bands is renowned for running like clockwork on seven large stages.

So how and why did the nine deaths at Pearl Jam [ tickets ]'s set on Friday night happen? Whether it was the mud, lack of security or just an over-enthusiastic crowd, it was a tragic accident and there will never be just one answer.

Thursday started off on a good-enough note. The weather was overcast but warm. This year's attendees had arrived en masse two days beforehand, so there was absolutely no room for late arrivals to pitch tents. Unlike the Brits and their festivals, Scandinavians knew how to set up camp in style, with huge platform army tents and sofas and reclining chairs arranged in the mud to comprise outdoor lounges. Beer was cheap, and as one worker at the festival's organic food stall described it, "Bankers have come here to be hippies for the weekend." Hence, a cleaner-cut version of Glastonbury, with the drug-taking a lot less obvious. (People getting their jollies in their tents versus standing in the middle of fields screaming "E! Anyone selling E?")

Nine Inch Nails and Reprazent were in the Tech Tent, and both put on better performances than the week before at Glastonbury. Trent Reznor's angst was ten shades blacker as he and his spiky-haired crew worked through mainly old material, including "March of the Pigs," "Head Like a Hole" and "Gave Up." Reprazent also took delight in making their Tech Tent audience shout with glee every time the MCs yelled "Hey Roskilde!"

Iron Maiden [ tickets ], headlining the main Orange Stage, was the biggest jewel in the crown. The band was in excellent form as it played every song off of its latest album "Brave New World" in retaliation to the Roskilde program's claim that Iron Maiden would be playing an "arsenal of classics." Yet, no matter how new its material was, the band's image was still hilariously outdated. Spinal Tap seemed resurrected as Bruce Dickinson and crew, big hair flying in the breeze, poured on the heavy metal poses and staticky guitar solos for two hours.

Despite the 50-degree weather and on-off rain showers that followed on Saturday, audiences were still light-hearted as they began their evening merriment with a danceable reggae set from Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers on the Orange Stage, followed by Willie Nelson & Family's pure country experience in the Green Tent.

Big Brit-hitters Travis, who followed Nelson and Gomez over in the Yellow Tent, were the perfect teasers for Pearl Jam [ tickets ]'s much-awaited grunge extravaganza on the Orange Stage. And as a 50,000-strong crowd gathered--the largest audience so far--a psyched Eddie Vedder launched into "Breakerfall," followed by "Animal" and "Given To Fly." Pearl Jam was in top form, thanks to the Orange Stage's excellent sound system.

After the seventh song, "Insignificance," all hell broke loose and people were down on the ground. Vedder had pleaded for the audience to move back from the front of the stage, but he had not been heeded. As a result, nine people were killed and another 25 were injured.

At 1a.m., official reports stated that at least four or five people had been crushed to death during Pearl Jam's set. The Cure then cancelled their show out of respect for those who had died.

In many ways, it would have made sense for organizers to cancel the festival on Saturday. However, more mass chaos would have ensued if 100,000 people tried to leave all at once. So, as the saying goes, the bands played on.

Calexico [ tickets ] and the Flaming Lips have always been lively acts and their spirits were not totally broken after the events from the night before. While members of Calexico tried to cheer everyone up with their gaudishly dressed mariachi-band uniforms, the Flaming Lips relied on confetti and monkey hand puppets.

Dressed in tinfoil suits, aging anarcho-punks Chumbawamba [ tickets ] put on an excellent show in the Green Tent. "Tub Thumping," "Enough Is Enough" and "On the Day the Nazi Died" were irresistible crowd-pleasers, despite the atmosphere outside of the tent. Saturday ended with a whimper, though, as headlining acts Oasis and the Pet Shop Boys both cancelled their sets. As a result, buses and trains into Copenhagen that night were more crowded than usual, as fans who couldn't take anymore called it quits.

Although the sun finally came out and temperatures reached 75 degrees, the Roskilde Festival was officially a ghost town on Sunday. There were now huge gaps among the tents where frustrated people had uprooted their nylon abodes in the early hours. Instead of gleefully boozy sing-a-longs filling the site, there was now a fenced-off memorial in front of the Orange Stage. A special service for the dead had been held at Roskilde cathedral that morning. No one was out to have fun anymore. They just wanted the weekend to end as swiftly as possible. The band Live cancelled its show in the Green Tent. EBTG frontwoman Tracy Thorn's performance of hits like "Tempermental" and "Walking Wounded" was mechanical at best.

It ironic that Balkans act the Goran Bregovic Wedding & Funeral Band played on the Orange Stage on Sunday. However, it was Danish act D-A-D, the Orange Stage headliner, who had the somber task of ending the already lifeless festival by passing around 8 torches to the audience to pay tribute to the 8 people who had been confirmed dead by Sunday.