European festival report 2013

LIVE MUSIC INTELLIGENCE

Issue 50

An ILMC Publication. Nov 2013

2013 European

Festival Report A European summertime blessed with good weather seems to have helped events in 2013. And while there were the usual casualties of festival cancellations and bankruptcies, the overall mood in our sixth annual European Festival Report is overwhelmingly positive.

A total of 82 festivals participated in this year’s surveys – a couple more than responded for our annual health check of the market in 2012. What makes that all the more remarkable is a significant turnover in respondents – of the 82 festivals that filled in surveys for us this year, 39 did not take part in our 2012 census. While we attempt to deliver you data and analysis that reflects the issues and trends affecting the European festivals business, the quality of our data very much depends on the events that participate. So the following pages report the figures that this year’s 80 participating festivals have provided us with,, although we also compare the numbers to the experience of 12 months ago, just to identify any key movements throughout the continent.

So, where to start? Well, as hinted above, optimism among Europe’s festival organisers seems to be growing and there are signs that people believe that the worst of the recession years might finally be behind us, on this side of the Atlantic.

As usual in our annual survey, we asked festival organisers to give their opinion of the overall health of the market and, despite some of the indications elsewhere, the results were encouraging. In last year’s report, just 28% of our 80 respondents described the festival landscape in Europe as healthy. This year, confidence appears to be returning, as nearly half (46%) of our surveyed events used the term ‘healthy’ for the sector. Indeed, an impressive 78% described the market as ‘healthy’ or ‘static’, while the negative responses totalled 21%.

But underlining the rosier outlook, the ‘worrying’ description among promoters dropped from 20% a year ago to just 14% in 2013. And for the vigilant among you wondering what the remaining 1% of events think of the marketplace, one of our respondents described it as ‘fantastic’.

Addressing the health of the business, one of the continent’s foremost festival owners, Folkert Koopmans, of FKP Scorpio, reports mostly encouraging results for his stable of 18 events, dotted around Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. “In Germany, Hurricane, Southside and Mera Luna sold out; Bråvalla sold out in Sweden; and Best Kept Secret sold out in Holland. But Hultsfred [in Sweden] failed and we’re going to have to think about the concept there ahead of next year,” he told delegates at last month’s Reeperbahn conference in Hamburg.

However, pinpointing some of the obvious differences between countries, Koopmans added, “The problems with Swedish festivals failing are pretty much home-made.” He opined, “Events still had a 70s attitude and spent huge amounts of money on side projects. We’ve also found out that Swedes go to new things right away. In Germany, people don’t do that –

they want to know that something is established and works. But at our new Bråvalla Festival we had more than 50,000 people.

Swedish people move on and don’t seem to care about the old brands – people seem keen to go to the hottest new thing.”

Turning to the failure of Hultsfred, Koopmans stated, “The brand was maybe a bit too damaged when we took it over.

It went bankrupt three years ago and people didn’t get their money back.” And he contends such issues can have a longterm impact on the ticket-buying public, because although his newest event in Sweden enjoyed inaugural success, just days before gates opened, things were looking shaky. “Bråvalla sold 10,000 tickets in the final week because people were waiting to see if the festival would actually happen. So people not getting their money back from one event can be a major problem for all other promoters.”

In a year where festivals failed in many countries around Europe, such warnings from arguably the most knowledgeable mind in the business should be heeded, because if the Swedish experience is anything to go by, new festival launches elsewhere might also find themselves playing a game of brinkmanship when it comes to ticket sales.

2013 European

Festival Report Ticketing

Often criticised for the way in which it drives ticket prices ever higher, the live music business, from a festivals standpoint at least, seems determined to keep prices as static as possible for punters, perhaps knowing the effect that the economic downturn has had on the disposable income of their customers.

A number of our respondents to this year’s survey run free

2013 European

Mobile

Festival Report

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Social

1% Media Walk Up 1% 6%

Ticket sales by type

Box Office

Online

74%

14%

Call Centre

4%

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2013 European

Festival Report events, so that handful of festivals was not included in our calculations for obvious reasons and neither were those events that launched in 2013, as they had no gauge to tie them to last year’s charges. But with prices ranging from just €10 for a full festival pass, right up to a whopping €330, there was something for every wallet this summer.

Studying this year’s survey, the average price fans paid to attend those events worked out at €129, which was €1 less than the average €130 they would have had to pay for the same events 12 months ago. Although that decrease is very marginal, it is still, nevertheless, a price cut and illustrates clearly that promoters are listening to the needs of their customers. César Andión at the 25,000-capacity Dcode festival in Spain reports that tickets were €60 this year (and €40 for early birds), compared to €90 last year when it was a two-day event. “[We lowered] the price because of the Spanish economic situation,” he says, adding that the “Oneday-er concept has been a success.”

Where there was some movement in ticketing was the way consumers are buying their festival passes. Unsurprisingly, most tickets to European events were bought online, but as the reach of broadband continues to spread throughout the continent, it seems that web-based sales outlets are tightening their stranglehold on the market: a whopping 74% of tickets among our survey respondents were sold via online outlets – up from 64% in 2012. The biggest loser when it came to sales outlets were box offices which saw their share of the pile shrink from 26% to 14%.

What might surprise some people is that ticket sales via mobile devices and social media are still negligible, with both platforms accounting for about 1% each of total sales. Given the importance placed on that technology elsewhere in the business – and the seemingly endless pots of cash that mobile phone operators and social media sites throw at live music events – the general public seems reluctant to trust those methods for securing their precious festival tickets. Mind you, at 1% each, both platforms doubled the volume of tickets they processed two years ago, so there is some upward movement.

Elsewhere, the number of tickets bought by people placing orders with call centres remained static at 4%, while walk-up tickets accounted for 6% during 2013 (5% in 2012), pointing to marginally more people leaving it to the last minute to fulfil their festival fix.

As for the structure of festival ticketing, the only shift of any note was the slight increase in the proportion of day passes bought, which nudged northwards from 32.5% to 34.7% – again, perhaps an indication that fans might not be able to afford passes for the entire event, but they’d still like to attend at least some of the festival. The proportion of tickets sold for the whole event remained encouragingly static at 46%, while roughly 20% of tickets sold were weekend tickets, reflecting those who perhaps cannot take days off work to attend events, but who still crave the overnight experience.

Festival Capacity and Attendance Given the risks involved in organising and promoting a music festival, the general feeling of optimism in Europe is heartening and when it came to the number of events that enjoyed placing sold-out signs across their ticketing outlets, the trend is definitely going in the right direction. Admittedly, the

IQ Magazine November 2013

7%

2013 European Fantastic

1% Festival Report Healthy

Other

46%

Worrying

14%

2013 European

How would you describe the European festival market?

Festival Report

Static

32%

2013 European

Festival Report majority (57%) of our 80 participating festivals did not sell out, but for those in the lucky 43%, where demand exceeded supply, things were rosy indeed. And that number is a significant improvement on the 35% of events who reported sell-outs in last year’s report.

One slightly worrying trend for events was the average attendance compared to capacity dropping from 78.8% in 2012 to just 74% this year. Two years ago, our surveyed festivals enjoyed an 82.2% yield in the attendance to capacity stats, but a number of events that participated in this year’s poll reported that they had increased the capacity of their site without aiming to sell additional tickets – instead they planned to use the extra space to enhance the atmosphere of the event.

Overall, there was a 1.7% increase in capacity across our surveyed events this year, with average capacity rising to 40,357 compared to 39,673 a year ago. In the 2012 report, festivals increased capacity year-on-year by 5.2%, so although the numbers have crept higher again this year, there’s a significant slowing down in the rate of growth among our respondents.

Of course, organising festivals is a never ending task of looking at ways to cut costs, as well as initiatives to improve the experience for fans. At Tønder Festival in Denmark, Carsten Panduro says, “2013 was the second year with a totally new fenced in festival site – and we continued to build on the experience from 2012. For example, we continued to broaden the musical profile, introduced musical theme areas covering music, dance and food – NOLA (New Orleans) and Little Dublin.”

Sweden Rock’s Martin Forssman says, “We are sowing grass on parts of the area where there has been gravel until now. We are [also] making it possible to book accommodation and travel through our ticket system.” And further south, Igor Van Krieken of Portugal’s Optimus Alive! event cites, “Better access and conditions to people with reduced mobility; exclusive pregnant area with toilet and viewing platform; better social media experience.”

As for ideas that will hopefully be adopted elsewhere, Shambala coordinator Chris Johnson reveals details of a great concept. “This year Shambala banned the sale of bottled water on site, and encouraged all participants to bring a reusable bottle. We saved over 10,000 bottles being used once and discarded. We also used reusable cups on all the bars, preventing over 100,000 plastic cups being discarded.”

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2013 European

Festival Report 40+

4%

0-5

31%

21-40

24%

What proportion of your audience is from abroad?

festivals to death metal and everything in-between, the vast majority of respondents are involved in multi-day gatherings.

Only a handful of our survey participants run one-day events, while 82% have festivals that run for three days and over and 18% fall into the category of five days-plus.

Running large-scale events is not getting any cheaper and those respondents who reported staffing numbers revealed that their reliance on a volunteer workforce is growing. This year, 71 events revealed staffing levels and told IQ that they had totals of 74,144 volunteers and 42,870 paid professionals. That works out to a ratio of volunteers making up 63% of the festival workforce, compared to 59% in last year’s report.

11-20

22% 6-10

19%

Attendance from Abroad The availability of flights via budget airlines continues to have an impact throughout Europe, with more and more festival fans seeking far-flung adventures for their summertime music experiences. In this category of our survey we asked respondents to report what percentage of teir customers had travelled from other countries to attend their event. Anecdotally, music fans in the UK seem to be among those taking most advantage of cheaper ticket prices overseas, but this year’s survey did not include any facility for promoters to communicate exactly where their foreign audience members come from. Perhaps we’ll revise that in next year’s survey. However, the results of this part of the questionnaire were intriguing nonetheless.

A whopping 20% of our respondents reported that more than 20% of their entire audience was made up of foreigners. Those figures matched with last year’s numbers, hinting that those events which spend time and effort marketing to an overseas crowd appear to be winning over a loyal group of fans.

At the lower end of the scale there was significant movement.

Of our respondents, 46% said their festival audience was made up of 0-5% of foreign visitors. Last year that number was 34.8%, backing the theory that people are becoming a bit more adventurous when it comes to taking a chance on festivals in other countries. Where that argument slightly falls down, however, is with those events that reported a foreign audience of between 6-10%: a year ago 22% of our respondents were in this category, but in 2013 this dipped markedly to just 12%.

Talking to promoters from around Europe, the difference in attitude and strategy when it comes to actively attracting foreign visitors is stark. The likes of Sziget Festival, in Hungary, has achieved remarkable results, with an incredible 70% of attendees coming from other countries to the 75,000-capacity event. But while some organisers shy away from marketing their festivals in other countries, because they want to keep the event’s identity local, it appears that looking for new fans from abroad can also pose financial risks. Turkish promoter Baris Basaran of Pozitif Muzik says, “You have to be careful with your sponsors if you are trying to attract punters from other countries, because the sponsor may get cold feet if their product or service is not available in those other markets.”

The variety of events in this year’s survey also illustrates the diverse nature of the European marketplace. From folk

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VIP In the 2012 European Festival Report we undertook a major examination of the VIP market and just what these luxury packages were contributing to the bottom line for festival profitability. Ironically, while organisers claimed that offering such value-added services obviously allowed higher ticket prices, about 56% said it had no effect on profitability. Whether that rings true or not is debatable, but while just 30% of last year’s respondents had some level of VIP upgrade, 45% of this year’s surveyed events say they have VIP offers.

And the recognition that the pricier tickets can contribute to the health of an event also seems to be growing, because more than half of the events that have VIP packages place some level of importance on the luxury end of the market. Using the ‘somewhat important’ category, 37% of the event organisers who have introduced VIP camping packages in recent years admitted as such, while a year ago those respondents in the ‘somewhat’ field amounted to 26%. However, while about 6% in 2012 labelled VIP as ‘very important’, that number halved this year.

As for the ratio of festival audiences that upgrade to VIP camping, the numbers showed mixed results in comparison to a year ago. While 12 months ago 31% of our surveyed events reported that between 5-10% of their audience took upgraded, that figure this year dipped to 20%, and in a similar vein, the 10-20% category fell from 22% of respondents to 13%. Those decreases again hint at consumers counting the pennies and slashing the budgets that they once put aside for their festival experience.

Very Important

3%

Doesn’t Affect Profitability

48%

How Important are VIP Packages?

Somewhat Important

37%

Important

12%

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2013 European

Festival Report

Green initiatives stepped up at festival season 2013 It is now commonplace for festival organisers to factor in measures to combat environmental consequences when planning their events. Car-sharing and recycling, for example, have been in place across the board for some years. However, each year sees another, more ambitious green initiative launched, and 2012/13 has, been no different.

Part of the increase in sustainability measures is owed to the proliferation of supporting organisations, trade bodies and certifications which have sprung up around the music festival business. Among those having a positive effect across the UK, Europe and Australia are: Julie’s Bicycle, Yourope/Green Operations (GO, Europe), EcoActionPartnership (UK), Green Festival Alliance (UK), A Greener Festival (UK/Australia) and Powerful Thinking (UK, Europe).

In the UK this summer, for example, Powerful Thinking monitored energy use at more than 20 festivals in association with partners, the Institute for Sustainable Energy, DeMontfort University and Midas UK. Considered to be the most comprehensive monitoring project ever undertaken in the UK outdoor events industry, results will be made available this autumn.

Finding ways to conserve energy and reduce emissions remains paramount. Festival Republic (which has been accredited the highest three-star ‘Industry Green’ certification

by Julie’s Bicycle for Latitude, Reading and Leeds) has been leading by example: this year the company installed meter boxes to 50 generators on-site at all of its UK shows to monitor their performance; and, for the first time, introduced a hybrid power solution (notably solar) to particular areas of the sites.

Festival-goers have also been persuaded this year to adopt a more green approach with the EcoActionPartnership-driven campaign, ‘Love Your Tent’. It is estimated by A Greener Festival, a non-profit company that helps festivals adopt environmentally efficient practices, that some 400 tons of material (tents, sleeping bags, unused food, clothes etc) is left behind by attendees across every 10 festivals. Love Your Tent ran at more than 40 festivals in the UK and Europe and the outcome is thought to be extremely positive.

Meanwhile, Shambala, which has repeatedly won the top award at the Greener Festival Awards, launched the ‘Bring A Bottle’ campaign and banned the sale of plastic bottles at its event, Organisers made it easier to get fresh, clean water by installing more taps across the site; worked with charity FRANK Water to provide free, chilled, filtered water on all the bars and provided reusable bottles for sale for those that forgot to bring one.

Further afield, at events such as Melt! in Germany and Southbound in Western Australia, reward packages are becoming more commonplace. Patrons are encouraged to collect recyclable waste in exchange for €5/$5 vouchers which are redeemable against items/food/beverages that can be purchased on-site.

Many of these initiatives are now documented in sustainability reports, which are produced by most outdoor event organisers.

As the results from some of the larger initiatives come in, these should make for interesting reading.

Nicola Riches

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New technology and RFID Although technology is revolutionising the festivals business, 59% of our surveyed events said they did not introduce anything new this year. Elsehere, 8% of respondent events started using cashless payment systems which, compared to the 17% that introduced cashless in 2012, suggests that the take up of such technology slowed during 2013. The biggest area of growth in the technology sector was mobile apps, which 12% of our surveyed festivals introduced this year.

When it comes to RFID, just 1% of the festivals in our survey brought in that particular technology this year, compared to 5% a year ago. But the use of RFID systems nevertheless continues to grow, with those events that have already switched expanding on its use. Of our respondents, eight reported using RFID for cashless payments, six utilised it for access control, seven took advantage of its social networking possibilities, while 13 events said they used RFID for a mixture of those purposes.

Talking at Reeperbahn in September, Mojo Concerts promoter Eric van Eerdenburg acknowledged that RFID does offer fantastic possibilities, but he noted, “It’s a big risk to switch everything over when you have a 55,000 festival operating 24 hours a day.”

Turkish promoter Baris Basaran commented, “We’ve been using cashless for the last three years at our festivals and the big advantage is the data you can get so you can reprogramme the site for the highest grossing bars, etc.” But Van Eerdenburg countered that he has a coin system at his events which allows similar analysis: “It’s analog data, but it works well,” he added.

FKP Scorpio’s Jasper Barendregt states, “Although there have been some successful tests with RFID systems and some interesting ideas about NFC, there’s still a lot to be learned about the use of this technology at festivals. We’ve been visiting several festivals and experienced a lot of failures, time outs and programming mistakes.”

But Barendregt’s boss, Koopmans, remains upbeat and it looks as though the number of events that use the technology could be set to rise markedly in 2014. “In Sweden, everyone pays by card and that’s just way too slow. So maybe if we implement RFID in Sweden we can improve that,” Koopmans told Reeperbahn delegates.

As our infographic on page 41 shows, the total number of European events now using contactless technology totals 34, according to data gleaned from specialists ID&C, IVS and Intellitix.

Since 2011, ID&C has supplied more than 3.5 million RFID wristbands, 1 million of which were to festivals in 2013 alone.

The company’s head of RFID Steve Daly reports that ID&C has seen a 50% increase in enquiries for cashless RFID systems during 2013, and a similar uplift in requests for social mediabased RFID activations. Daly tells IQ, “2013 will be looked back on as a seminal year for RFID technology. Contactless tech is having its boom and early signals further support our feelings that the global uptake of RFID is on an upward curve for 2014. The technology is reaching all sides of the festival globe – we have, for example, just supported a successful RFID wristband trial at Rock in Rio, where over 4,000 VIPs experienced cashless payments using their festival wristbands to make instantaneous transactions.”

And it’s not just the big events that are interested in the technology. “Here in the UK, we’ve seen smaller festivals investing in RFID technology, with the 5,000-capacity Standon

November 2013 IQ Magazine

2013 European

Festival Report Calling running a fully cashless operation in August. Uptake from some of the country’s smaller, independent festivals signifies a turning point for the technology, as the answer to one of the long-standing questions – can small festivals afford RFID technology?”

Daly reports that the big players in the UK market are continuing to run trials, with British Summer Time (where the Stones played two successive weekends) deploying RFID wristbands for access control, cashless payments and social media integration. “For festivals adopting the technology or building on a previous trial, 2014 will be about cashless,” he adds. “Early adopters have shown an uplift in spend of anywhere between 20-30% per head. The technology offers festivals new revenue streams and cost-saving efficiencies that could sustain their future. And, while mobile can’t be ignored, in fields around the world it’s RFID and NFC-based cards and wristbands that are proving to be the chosen carrier for this exciting contactless revolution.”

Commenting on the declining ratio of events that introduced RFID during 2013, Paul Pike, co founder of Intelligent Venue Solutions (IVS), says, “There was a bit of over expectation in the market after the strides made last year and what we have been doing this year is servicing our existing clients, such as Goodwood and the Isle of Wight Festival.”

Pike says his company has employed a strategy designed to steadily introduce the new technology. “It’s quite a big step for an event to launch into a full RFID cashless scenario and we’ve taken the view that you have to walk before you run, so this year we have concentrated on introducing debit and credit card payments at festivals. We’re trying to create acceptance of using cards rather than cash to begin with, before moving on to other cashless technology.”

IVS worked in cooperation with Global Payments and TS3 to introduce chip and pin payment facilities at the likes of V Festival, Cornbury and Isle of Wight this year and Pike says payment clearance took about 3-4 seconds, “which is much faster than at retail,” he says.

Intellitix CEO Serge Grimaux notes that our report’s suggestion that expansion in the market has slowed down was the opposite of his company’s experience. Intellitix activated 1.5 million RFID chips for access control this year, as well as more than 150,000 for the operation’s next generation cashless applications. “We had a phenomenal response in Scandinavia and we entered Spain, Brazil and Australia for the first time, which was particularly pleasing as I’d targeted 2013 to launch in the southern hemisphere,” says Grimaux.

Intellitix also made inroads into sport, introducing the technology to the PGA Irish Open in Dublin and the Champions League Final at Wembley Stadium, which Grimaux says was the company’s greatest brand activation to date. And despite launching his new cashless system six months later than planned, he says its ability to allow users to top-up funds using their smartphones was a great success. “We did this at the Open Road Festival in Hungary, which is a gathering for 15,000-20,000 members of the Harley Davidson club,” he says. “Everything was cashless and we even linked the RFID wristbands to the owners’ motorcycles so that nobody could leave the site on a bike that wasn’t tagged to their RFID pass.”

RFID is also being used to include age control for buying alcohol at events, as well as more sophisticated applications such as assigning specific equipment to members of staff. And as the

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Competition

18%

Economy

41%

Reasons festivals suffered a decline

Lack of Headliners

18%

Weather

23%

technology evolves, Grimaux says events activating cashless effectively get RFID free of charge. “If we service an event with cashless, which generates a minimum 20% uplift in revenues, then we deliver access control at no cost. So we’re making the event more money and basically our fee can come from that – we cost them nothing and we make them money,” he adds.

Despite such obvious selling points, Pike comments, “Festivals don’t have to be a slave to RFID. There are lots of tech solutions we can tailor to each event.” He adds, “When it comes to RFID and access, I think growth will ultimately be sponsor driven, because when sponsors see that they can measure their impact through social media applications, then that’s when it could really take off.”

Top Concerns While optimism among our gang of 82 is increasing, the undeniable truth from our survey was that almost a quarter of our respondents (23%) suffered declines in audience numbers.

Asked for their opinion on why less people had visited in 2013, 41% blamed the economy, 23% said it was down to inclement weather and 18% claimed that the lack of headline acts had put people off. Intriguingly, the remaining 18% said that A Lack of Headliners Production Costs

7%

Legislation

3%

Artist Fees

28%

10%

Declining Sponsorship

13%

Other

18%

Competition

21%

What do you believe will affect the industry over the next 5 years?

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2013 European

Festival Report “Usually2013 competition means better European product at lower prices. But in our business, competition between promoters gets you a thinner line-up for a higher ticket price. The only people laughing are the artists and the agents.”

European reveals that a And 2013 Koopmans new dilemma emerged this year – competition from festivals in North America. “This year is the first time I did not get bands because they stayed in America thanks to all the new festivals that are launching there,” says Koopmans. But both he and Van Eerdenburg agree that 2013 European paying over the odds to land a big name act is no longer viable for most festivals. “The whole headliner business has to change,” says Van Eerdenburg. “Our audience is split more and more into niches and there are not that many acts any more that can sell 60,000 tickets just on their name alone.”

Koopmans adds, “In the past 20 years, festivals have sold tickets because of their line-up. But that is going to change and already is if you look at the years, of Tomorrowland and Lowlands. Nowadays, it’s more about the service – for instance, at Best Kept Secret we sold more on food than we did on drink. That makes us more independent from booking the big headline acts that we cannot afford.”

As part of our annual health check on the business, everyone completing a survey is asked to name the most important factor affecting the business, as well as what they believe is the second most important factor. As with previous years, artist fees remain the number one concern, as well as the second biggest concern for our respondents. The state of the economy was another major concern, as it has been over the past few years, but perhaps the biggest shift in things that are causing festival organisers worries is the rise in production costs, while competition from other festivals also featured heavily among respondents’ second most important factors. Other events have more unique issues. “The age of our audience, in general, is more than 50 years – a challenge!” notes Steffen Juul Hansen of Riverboat Jazz Festival in Denmark.”

And when we asked people to predict where the market is heading, one surprising result was that not a single person thought the weather would be an issue, despite the fact that numerous events have suffered through rain and storms in the past. But when prompted to name the issue that they think will affect festivals the most over the next five years, again artist

Festival Report

Festival Report

Festival Report

competition from other festivals had hit them hard. Last year, only 6% of respondents pinpointed competition, but given that another 12% said the Olympics had affected audience numbers, it would appear that competition from other events is a continual concern. What’s even more interesting is that no promoters blamed artist fees, while a year ago 6% identified that reason.

Talking about his Rock for People festival in Czech Republic, Michal Thomes says, “There wasn’t a decline in ticket sales, but there were more one-day tickets sold. One of the main reasons is that the festival was during the week, not during the weekend or holidays.”

When it comes to competition, it also appears event organisers are trying to call time on the outrageous fees that headline acts are being paid. Mojo’s Van Eerdenburg says,

IQ Magazine November 2013

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2013 European

Festival Report fees topped the poll, with 28% of events naming the spiralling cost of securing talent as the biggest concern for the future.

Last year, competition was also high among those concerns for the next five years, with 25% of promoters worried about other events affecting their festival. This year, that figure was 21% and remained the number-two worry, while the potential threat of diminishing sponsorship revenues is causing more anxiety than a year ago with 13% of festival organisers fretting about those contributions, again perhaps because of the stuttering economies throughout Europe. Such concerns are prompting some events into being more proactive with their corporate partners. A spokesman for Spain’s Bilbao BBK Live says, “We continued - and will continue – to improve the formula in which the sponsors give content to the festival and vice versa.”

Mikko Niemelä from Ruisrock in Finland believes there are other problems to consider. “Expansion of multinational companies like Live Nation into the festival business is having

a big impact on many independent festivals. Sweden is a prime example of this with what happened to Peace & Love.”

Summing up, 2013 was another stellar year for festivals in Europe. The UK enjoyed its best summer in decades, boosting interest in outdoor events – a situation mirrored around many countries throughout the rest of the continent.

And while a number of events failed or went bankrupt, a number of brave souls launched new events this year and enjoyed successful debuts. But with production costs increasing, economies still floundering and attendances falling, there are definite challenges for the industry to face and signs that some of the most influential promoters are looking to break the model of paying massive fees for headline stars. Only time will tell if messrs Koopmans and Van Eerdenburg will match their words with deeds, but perhaps in next year’s report we’ll be talking about a new business model for large-scale festivals that no longer rely on the A-list acts to attract ticket buyers.

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What are the first and second most important factors affecting the festival industry currently?

30 25

First most important Second most important

20 15 10

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ko he f su ad ita lin ble er s Pr od uc tio nC os ts

5

Participating festivals A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise (NL), Alhambra Sound (ES), Appelpop (NL), Arezzo Wave Love (IT), Balaton Sound (HU), Belladrum Tartan Heart (UK), Best Kept Secret (NL), Bilbao BBK Live (ES), Bloodstock (UK), Blue Balls (CH), Blues Peer (BE), Bona Nit Barcelona (ES), Bospop (NL), Bråvalla (SE), Cactusfestival (BE), Chiemsee Reggae Summer (DE), Cornbury (UK), Dcode (ES), Deichbrand (DE), Distortion (DK), Efes Pilsen One Love (TR), Ejekt (GR), ELBJazz (DE), Exit (RS), Festi’neuch (CH), FortaRock (NL), Frequency (AT), Gurtenfestival (CH), Haapavesi Folk (FI), Heineken Jazzaldia (ES), HellFest (FR), Highfield (DE), Hurricane (DE), Ilosaarirock (FI), Indian Summer (NL), In-Somni (ES), Into The Great Wide Open (NL), JazzOpen Stuttgart (DE), Jelling Musikfestival (DK), Latitude (UK), Leeds (UK), Main Square (FR), M’era Luna (DE), Mighty Sounds (CZ), Montreux Jazz Festival (CH), Northside (DK), Open Air Gampel (CH), Optimus Alive! (PT), Øya (NO), Paleo (CH), Pinkpop (NL), Pitch (NL), PortAmérica (ES), Primavera Sound (ES), Provinssirock (FI), Reading (UK), Riverboat Jazz (DK), Rock en Seine (FR), Rock For People (CZ), Rock Oz’Arènes (CH), Rockwave (GR), Rock Werchter (BE), Roskilde (DK), Ruisrock (FI), Shambala (UK), Skive (DK), Slottsfjell (NO), Sonisphere (IT), SOS 4.8 (ES), Southside (DE), SummerDays (CH), Sweden Rock (SE), Sziget (HU), T in the Park (UK), Taksirat (MK), Taubertal (DE), Tønder Festival (DK), Tuska Open Air Metal (FI), Umsonst & Draussen (DE), Volt (HU), Wacken Open Air (DE), Where The Wild Things Are (NL).

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November 2013 IQ Magazine