With Covid in the rearview mirror, the 2023 festival season is eagerly awaited. The European summer has seen millions of enthusiasts create unforgettable memories on the course, but there are still many challenging situations. In this first break of the latest report on European festivals, we take a look at how the year went. . .
The 2023 festival season was a huge improvement over the post-Covid rush of 2022, when some markets were still facing persistent restrictions. As we’ll see later, 64% of festivals sold more than 80% of their tickets, and 21% of festivals told us that the ticket sales price was “much better” than last year.
Many events saw record ticket sales. Promoted by Live Nation-owned Luger, Swedish festival Way Out West reported its highest attendance yet, with 55,000 fans flocking to this year’s edition. Luger’s Natalie Ryan-Williams said: “This edition was really special to us, and we ended up with a new attendance record, having the most attended day in the history of the festival on the final day.
“We are very pleased to see that even in times of financial difficulty, audiences, including a young generation joining us, need to prioritize their attendance at the festival, and we are very grateful for that. “
And in France, 126,000 people flocked to Arras for Live Nation’s Main Square Festival. “If it took more than a year of hard work, we are happy and grateful to have been able to live these moments with you,” organisers of the event – which marks its 20th anniversary in 2024 – told fans. Dutch festivals Down The Rabbit Hole and Lowlands sold out at impressive speeds.
The French festival Lollapalooza Paris ran for three days in July and celebrated with Stray Kids, one of the first K-pop groups to headline a first European festival.
Norwegian band Tons of Rock sold a record 100,000 tickets in 2023 and won the Best Trade Association award for their collaboration with the Norwegian postal service, which allowed festival-goers to send home all the products they bought at the festival instead of taking them with them. . to them. Lollapalooza Berlin has become the first German festival accredited according to the ISO 20121 sustainability standard, offering a line-up made up of more than 50% female artists. And the company announced a new two-day electronic music event, U Nation, Pride. The festival promotes diversity, inclusion, environmental sustainability, unity and responsibility.
“The DEAG festival segment is expanding to all music genres in England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany and Switzerland”
As the second largest festival promoter in Europe after Live Nation, Superstruct has also had its percentage of success. Among them is Sziget, which celebrated its 30th anniversary this year with the odd sold-out event, adding to welcoming its 10 millionth visitor. Sónar in Barcelona celebrated its 30th anniversary with more than 120,000 participants, 32% of whom came from a hundred countries outside Spain; and Germany’s largest dance festival, Parookaville, sold out 225,000 tickets for its seventh edition. The ID Brand
The German multinational DEAG hopes to attract a record number of visitors to its festivals this summer, with over 800,000 people expected in its main markets: Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Switzerland.
“DEAG’s festival segment is expanding across all music genres in England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany and Switzerland,” said Peter Schwenkow, CEO of DEAG. “The remarkable audience reaction opens the way for us to new formats, new venues and an extra rewarding progression in this incredibly attractive realm of music festivals. “
In the UK, the 10th anniversary edition of BST Hyde Park, promoted through AEG Presents, saw the highest ticket sales ever. Headlined by Guns N’ Roses, Take That, Blackpink, Billy Joel and Lana Del Rey, plus two nights of P !nk and Bruce Springsteen
“I never imagined I could say we sold more tickets than last year, but we sold more tickets than ever before. It’s incredible, every ticket was sold out,” said Jim King, CEO of AEG Presents European Festivals.
And it’s not just the big festivals that have been successful. In August, a number of Spanish festivals recorded very positive attendance figures for 2023, in addition to the boutique festival Jardins Terramar, which welcomed 24,220 spectators over 12 days; The Cap Roig Festival attracted 53,025 participants in 23 dates for an overall occupancy rate of 94%; Mallorca Live’s Es Jardí concert series, held from 16 June to 6 August, brought together 60,000 people for 23 nights; and the historic Porta Ferrada Festival in Sant Feliu de Guíxols celebrated its 61st edition on the Costa Brava from June 30 to August 20 with 73 concerts and almost 60,000 participants. ” We are [. . . ] with 11,000 spectators, and now, ten editions later, we are close to 60,000,” said executive director Sergi Roselló.
“We are still feeling the after-effects of the two pandemic years in many areas, especially in terms of price increases”
The Roma Summer Fest in Italy, at the 3,000-capacity Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone Auditorium, saw ticket sales at record prices and its revenue increased 28% year-on-year to more than €8. 5 million on 153,000 tickets sold.
In addition to record-breaking ticket sales, the staff and crew are more experienced than last year and, at least overall, are back to the same efficiency as always. The logistics are confusing and the world’s top artists are once again combining tours and festival appearances. According to Stephan Thanscheidt, co-CEO of FKP Scorpio, at the London International Forum Festival in September, he is relieved that other people are laughing after a hellish 2022. “No one laughed last year, so to see other people laugh doing such big projects was great. “
CTS Eventim welcomed 35,000 more people to its Highfield Festival, 25,000 to M’era Luna, 50,000 to Hurricane and Southside, and 60,000 to Deichbrand.
“The enormous popularity is the most beautiful confirmation for us,” fellow co-CEO Folkert Koopmans told IQ magazine. “We are still feeling the consequences of the two-year pandemic in many areas, especially in terms of value increases. And unfortunately, we have to pass some of those prices on to customers, even if we try to keep this burden to a minimum. The fact that we have now held festivals around the world in the second year after the pandemic and that other people have had a wonderful time and accepting as true that being able to offer them reports of very special festivals in 2024 makes us very happy.
Still, it’s a year of mixed emotions. The industry has rarely “gotten back to normal” yet, and while some festivals had their most productive occasion when enthusiasts flocked to see their favorite artists, others went through a torrid time.
So what pressures does this colorful summer activity still face?We take a look at the numbers to look at some of the demanding situations that still persist.
“We are monitoring the situation very closely, given the growing demand around the world. “
Already in May, Koopmans, co-general director of FKP Scorpio, warned of the impact of this project and estimated that only 20% of the events were profitable.
“The fact that we didn’t make money from a sold-out Hurricane in 2022 and yet lost it, is also due to the fact that we had basically sold out the tickets three years earlier,” he told German newspaper Kreiszeitung. de. “But since all festivals are now outpaced by costs, I think in the end only 20% of them will still make money. This challenge had already been reported in 2016/17, but after the coronavirus it has worsened.
“Of course, just like our other festivals, we don’t have to give up on Hurricane because, at the end of the day, they’re [all] important, they’re part of the portfolio, and most of all, they’re Hurricane’s HurricaneBut as I said, it’s a challenge and we’re following it very closely, given the growing demands around the world.
“We are struggling to manage this problem, trying to keep prices under control. But it’s incredibly difficult. Of course, we also have an incredibly high break-even point. And my company now makes money basically from big gigs, for example through the Rolling Stones or Ed Sheeran. “
German promoter DreamHaus (Rock am Ring/Rock im Park) also claimed that production prices for this year’s festival season are rising by 25 to 30%.
“We can just reduce the cost of the whole festival experience, but it would have a significant effect on its overall quality. “
“There aren’t many suppliers that can supply festivals of our size, so we’re also in a take-it-or-leave-it situation,” said Catharine Krämer, the company’s director of festival experience. I would charge for the entire festival experience, but it would have a significant effect on its overall quality. “
At the IFF, which took place in September at the end of the season, Thanscheidt reflected on his colleague’s earlier statement and noted that although the company had had a successful year when it came to festivals, “there’s a limit to how much of the enthusiasts would be willing to pay to attend the festivals on those days, so we had to announce bigger camps and VIP reports to attract more people to come.
“Keeping costs below price while maintaining profit margins is proving incredibly challenging right now. “
But what can be done about this emerging cost? At a time when inflation hits citizens’ pockets, significant increases in ticket values are not really an option for top events, whose audiences are sometimes younger and therefore less able to increase the value of 30%.
Interestingly, some festivals are looking for strategies to reduce ticket costs for those who can least afford it. Speaking at the fifth European festival YOUROPE convention in Croatia in November, Artur Mendes of Boom festival in Portugal said that since 2002 his event has had a 10% allocation of tickets priced at “friendly price” or “guest country” from its total price of 40,000 tickets.
A total of 500 tickets are given free of charge to other people from the guest country, which are replaced with the edition and chosen according to places where the earnings are particularly lower than average, while the bargain-priced passes are for people with low incomes. . The effects of these projects mean that Boom’s audience comes from 169 countries and only 20% of the participants are Portuguese. ” It is attractive to see that in both we have a guest country, the next edition arouses more interest from the territories to buy tickets and paintings at the festival. “
“The sheer number of occasions has made organization and implementation much more complicated this summer”
In the UK, a study conducted by the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) in the first half of 2023 showed that six hundred music festivals were held in the UK in 2019, but only 482 were held in 2023.
The organization said the 19. 7% drop included festivals that disappeared during the pandemic and those that tried to return in 2022 but failed or took a stand but didn’t in 2023.
Among the most prominent casualties across the continent this year is Germany, who will take up position for the first time, with headliners Slipknot, Parkway Drive, Volbeat and The Prodigy on June 23 and 24.
“Despite the excellent programming, the sheer number of outdoor events has made the organization and implementation particularly challenging this summer,” said a representative for the organizers, Live Nation GSA. “Unfortunately, the technical hurdles to production proved insurmountable. “
In the Netherlands, what would have been the sixth edition of the Oh My!It was cancelled in July, with organisers blaming “the cost-of-living crisis, rising producer prices in general, and last-minute protection and protection. “We have to implement crowd regulations due to recent events in our industry. “
“After complicated years of pandemic and war in Europe, our festival concept, our buying behaviour and the sector in general have changed considerably”
The Langelandsfestival, one of Denmark’s largest and oldest festivals, filed for bankruptcy in June after racking up millions of dollars in debt. The event has been held since 1991, but this year’s event was cancelled at the end of 2022, and organisers explained that they had invested heavily in skill for that year’s 30th anniversary occasion. The festival was unable to “sell the number of tickets for the festival that was very important to ensure a proper festival economy. “
“Once all expenses for 2022 are paid, the result is a significant deficit of millions,” it reads.
And in August, Poland’s Fest Festival filed for bankruptcy after selling just 50% of the tickets available for its fourth edition.
Several mid-sized Norwegian festivals cancelled due to “skyrocketing” costs, including Beitostølen Live, a two-day festival in the south of the country. “After difficult years of pandemic and war in Europe, our festival concept, the public’s buying habits, and the industry in general have changed significantly,” said a statement. “With increasing competition, rising prices, demands for advance payment at all stages, failing ticket sales both this year and last year, less sponsorship income, and the absence of public financial support, the math, unfortunately, does not add up.”
Kadetten – a hip-hop festival launched in 2022 that featured Megan Thee Stallion, Central Cee, and Burna Boy – cancelled its 2023 edition earlier this year. “The cancellation comes solely from the costs of the artists and availability in 2023,” wrote Kadetten organisers. “The prices of everything have skyrocketed; in addition, the predictability for American artists has become a logistical nightmare with flights etc.”
Other cancelled festivals include 19-year-old Skal in Grimstad, Oslo Americana (and its sister events in Sweden) and Festival Imperium.
What effect will those cancellations have on customer confidence?It remains to be seen whether the 2023 trend of buying tickets later than usual will continue in 2024, as some people wait to see if an event happens before committing.
“We’ll have normal summers in the future, but the probability of normal summers is decreasing”
All of this combines to make the booker’s task more difficult than ever. As Walter Hoeijmakers of the Dutch festival Roadburn tells us: “We’ve noticed that the headliners or headliners ask for a lot more money, to the point that we can’t buy certain bands. “
One slide showed the massive increase in the number of “extreme weather events” between 2010 and 2023, and left the audience speechless.
“We will have summers in the future, but the likelihood of summers is decreasing. And continental areas of Europe are the most exposed to tail risks,” Lončarić said, advising organisers to “bring in a speed-dial meteorologist”.
One of the biggest weather-hit festivals in 2023, the Wacken Open Air in Germany, which forced the denial of access to about 25,000 subscribers after adverse weather conditions left the venue “resembling the Mordor movies from The Lord of the Rings,” Wacken booker Jan Quiel told the IFF in London. It’s heartbreaking to have to send so many people home. It’s even worse than having to cancel due to Covid. We also suffered a huge monetary loss due to the extra prices we paid to have an additional camp to host more shows.
“Of the 40 days of pre-production, it rained 35, which caused all the bus and car spaces to be flooded, and the mobility plan was not what we had initially planned”
The co-founder of the Superstruct-backed festival, Thomas Jensen, estimated the loss of profit due to the reduced capacity at more than €7 million. The event then picked up and sold out the 85,000 tickets for next year’s event in a record time of 4 1/2 hours.
The final day of MetalDays in Slovenia was cancelled due to torrential rain and flash flooding in the region, and the 25,000-capacity British Bluedot festival subsidised through Superstruct was forced to cancel its final day due to unprecedented rainfall. It has cancelled its 2024 edition to allow the field to recover, organisers say.
The first day of Primavera Sound Madrid was cancelled due to persistent weather conditions, while in July the Dutch festivals Awakenings, Bospop and Wildeburg were halted due to warnings of severe storms and hail. “Of the 40 days of pre-production, it rained 35 days, which caused all the bus and car spaces to be flooded, and the mobility plan was not what we had initially planned,” Primavera Sound director Alfonso Lanza told Spanish newspaper El País. There are no plans for the occasion to return to Madrid in 2024.
And it’s not just festival organizers who have to deal with torrential rains. Last year, the Villa Pop festival in France canceled over fears of wildfires.
Festivals are turning to expensive measures to prevent weather from becoming an issue in the future. After seeing more rain in the three days leading up to the June 2022 edition of Austria’s Nova Rock than in the previous six months, this year, promoter Nova Music Entertainment (part of CTS Eventim’s Barracuda Music) spent €300,000 on renewed lawns and drainage, plus a new network of paths for arrival and departure. A new shuttle service was also in operation.
“Excel sheets are the supreme god of the festival; Creativity and artistic expression are »
“Though 2022 brought about a lot of excitement with everything coming back to a semblance of normality, I’d say that there’s been a gap where we’ve seen a generation not accustomed to attending festivals due to the pandemic,” Pavla Slivova of Czech festival Colours of Ostrava told IFF. “In my opinion, there needs to be a change in marketing. What worked in 2019 or 2022 isn’t working this year, so we need to refocus our attention on what Gen Z finds attractive these days.”
Agent Alex Bruford of ATC agreed when it comes to thinking about what would appeal more to that particular demographic. “There were a number of festivals that struggled with attracting the Gen Z crowd, who aren’t gravitating towards more hedonistic activities than previous generations,” he said. “We need to have a collective think about what an actual festival means to them and what’s appealing and appropriate to today’s young people.”
Among them is Serbia’s EXIT festival, which began in 2000. EXIT head Dušan Kovačević said: “The biggest challenge to remaining independent in 2023 is emerging pricing in the festival industry. Corporate-backed festivals have really ample monetary resources, greater marketing power, and established relationships that make it less difficult for them to secure the necessary investment in times of crisis.
“Without the help of sponsors or lead investors, it can be difficult to maintain a sustainable business style and deliver a high-quality experience while maintaining fair prices. “
However, Kovačević says that the main advantage of remaining independent is “freedom. “”Independence allows us to think and grow beyond monetary reports. Excel sheets are the supreme god of the festival; Creativity and artistic expression are. In this way, we can tame the spirit of the festival that made it so magical in the first place.
“Remaining an independent entity offers us the freedom to execute our creative vision without constraints”
In Belgium, promoter Greenhouse Talent bought the Gent Jazz Festival after the bankruptcy of its previous organizer, the non-profit organization Jazz en Muziek, at the end of 2022.
“Every time festivals take over bigger machines, they start to get more agile and a little bit identical. This is something we would like to avoid,” says Pascal Van De Velde, director of Greenhouse. “We’re a very independent company. We don’t like to rely on bosses or structures that have goals that aren’t directly similar to promoting shows. We are focused on concerts and festivals and maintaining that purity is very important.
Czech band Rock For People was founded in 1995 and has been independent ever since. “Remaining an independent entity gives us the freedom to execute our artistic vision without restriction, allowing us to create an exclusive and original experience for our attendees,” says David Nguyen, co-founder of the 40,000-seat event.
Click here to read IQ magazine’s article on ten key festivals in Europe.
Music Saves UA is a fundraising initiative created through the Ukrainian Association of Musical Events to provide humanitarian aid in the country. This year, the organization toured 20 festivals, 12 of which are members of YOUROPE, raising funds and raising awareness about the plight of locals and the music industry in the war-torn country.
“We want to use the strength of our events, the strength of our art, the strength of anything we can prove to replace technology in Ukraine. “
Festivals donated to the cause by collecting deposit cups, recycling cans or bottles, promoting charity products, hiring Ukrainian artists, soliciting donations from guest list members, and much more.
Festival efforts raised €91,000 (74% of which came from YOUROPE members) this summer.
A particularly strong supporter of the plight of the Ukrainian people is Slovak promoter Michal Kaščák, who organises the 30,000-capacity Pohoda festival. He first visited his neighbouring country in December last year and said it was a transformative experience. Since then, he has integrated multiple Ukrainian elements into his festival; helped Ukrainian crew, artists, and musicians secure work at festivals and events around Europe; and performed with his band Bez Ladu A Skladu in the country.
And he suggested festivals across Europe do everything they can to help. “We all communicated more about this; We use the strength of our events, the strength of our art, the strength of anything to try to replace technique in Ukraine,” he told IQ magazine.
“I’m afraid that people will come to the stage where we will think that the war is a normal part of our lives, as it’s not in our countries, it’s not so painful, and it’s not so horrible. But people in Ukraine dream about freedom. They can see absolutely clearly that it’s not a special war operation: it’s genocide – one country trying to destroy another nation.”
“Ruisrock exists to make the world happier and happier, and we hope our project has been successful”
Whether it’s educating the public on vital issues like equity, sustainability, or human rights; assistance in scaling up environmentally friendly measures and technologies; or through an investment in local communities, festivals make a primary contribution to the planet. Hungary’s Sziget runs a show called Love Revolution, which returned to the main level this year to offer a ten-minute program of presentations and short speeches at breaks. between changes, to raise awareness of social issues.
Since its inception more than two decades ago, the Serbian organization EXIT has spearheaded many projects, including Life Stream, in partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme, the large Green R:Evolution reforestation program, and a pioneering intellectual fitness program.
Many festivals have raised huge sums of money for charities. Among them is the Danish company Roskilde, which will distribute DKK 10 million this year to associations and organisations working with young people and young people. Glastonbury donates £1 million a year to charities shared between organisations. such as Oxfam, Greenpeace and WaterAid, while for more than 25 years, Festival Republic has supported organisations such as Action Aid, Oxfam and Child. org.
Summing up this year’s Ruisrock festival in Finland, lead promoter Mikko Niemelä speaks on behalf of all festivals: “Ruisrock exists to make the world happier and more joyful, and we hope that our project has been successful. It has always been wonderful and for that I would like to thank our glorious audience, the artists, the partners and the entire festival team.
The European Festival Report, a comprehensive annual overview of the most important trends, events and projects on the continent’s scene, is a project of Future Fit Festivals, co-funded through the EU. Read the second edition of the annual publication in its entirety below.
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This expansion follows successful editions in Los Angeles, Jakarta, Manila and, most recently, New York.
After successful editions in Los Angeles, Jakarta and Manila, the 88rising-led event will debut on the East Coast this spring.
Dance music and video games were combined at the Fire Festival, a virtual music festival held in the popular video game Minecraft.
Tour bus specialist Beat the Street is in the United States and will launch its new double-decker, 16-berth coach in January 2020.
Richard Ashcroft will join Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend and their touring band to headline Saturday 11 June 2016
IQ is the world’s leading news platform for the live music industry. IQ news, articles, insights and analysis are read by 100,000 foreign professionals every month. IQ publishes a regular magazine, several annual reports, and a daily news digest, IQ Index. IQ’s circle of family members also includes ILMC, the live music industry’s largest foreign conference, and the International Festival Forum (IFF).