European Festival Report 2014 by IQ Magazine

LIVE MUSIC INTELLIGENCE

Issue 57

A n I L M C P u b l i c a t i o n . Ja n 2 0 1 5

European Festival Report 2014

ILMC 27 SUPERGUIDE

STROMAE TOUR REPORT

THE GAFFER: WOB ROBERTS

LATIN AMERICAEuropean PARTEFestival DOS Report 2014 2014: YEAR IN REVIEW DRALION - BEST IN SHOW

European Festival Report 2014 We won’t say it too loud, in case we jinx it, but Europe’s emergence from years of recession seemed to bolster the continent’s festival sector in 2014. Fans booked more tickets for multiple days and promoters resisted the urge to hike prices, creating a generally positive vibe in the marketplace.

t’s been quite a year in the European festivals marketplace. As you’ll read in the following pages, the data we gleaned from the events that took part in our 2014 survey is largely optimistic. What our stats do not convey, however, is a move by some of the bigger players in the marketplace to consolidate their business. For example, Germany-based FKP Scorpio continued to grow with key acquisitions in Finland and Denmark, as well as new events in Sweden. Elsewhere, the international juggernaut that is Lollapalooza announced its plans to visit Europe for the first time in 2015, no doubt prompting consternation among other festivals who report they are already worried about the level of competition in the market. One of the frustrating things about compiling IQ’s annual European Festival Report is that events that have had a bad year are under no obligation to share their data with us. Although all data remains confidential, certain promoters might want to keep sensitive data private, which is entirely understandable. But 2014 appears to have been a good year for Europe’s major events, as our annual survey of the business attracted 89 respondents, compared to 82 a year ago. Unlike a year ago, everyone who took part in the 2013 poll also held their event this year, so although a number of festivals do inevitably fail, those who participate in IQ’s annual health-check seem to fair well – so we’ll be hoping that, with that knowledge, we can attract even more events to participate 12 months from now. Despite the turnover we experience with respondents, in order to provide you with the most accurate statistics that we can, all event organisers that participated in the survey were asked to provide numbers for both 2014 and 2013 to help us identify any trends that are taking place across the business. Also helping us sift through the data this year is economist Chris Carey, whose newly launched company Media Insight Consulting, is already working with a number of major players across the music industry, providing vital analysis of consumer

trends both in the live music and recorded music sectors. “Taking a quick look across the headline data from this year’s European Festival Report survey, it looks as though promoters are doing a sterling job in keeping the fans happy, as the market throughout Europe looks very healthy,” Carey tells IQ. And with that hint of what’s to come, let’s crack on with it. Carey’s observation of a healthy marketplace is echoed by a significant chunk of event organisers. Including those who described the market as ‘fantastic’ or ‘healthy’, were 44% of our respondents, while adding in the ‘static’ description, which arguably should not be seen as negative in economies which are still to fully start growing again, boosts that ratio to a whopping 70%. Indeed, our category for ‘others’ included a slew of FKP Scorpio events, where company executive Jasper Barendregt states that the festival scene is “healthy in Germany, not healthy in the Netherlands.” Looking back on previous European Festival Reports, two years ago, just 28% described the festival landscape as healthy. In 2013, confidence started to return, with 46% using the term ‘healthy’, while an impressive 78% described the market as either ‘static’ or ‘healthy’. When it comes to crystal ball gazing, our question regarding the long-term future of the business highlights promoters’ fears that artist fees will keep climbing year-onyear as competition gets ever more fierce, and a perceived lack of headliners will leave events stretching their budgets to attract the A-list stars. But more on that later. In terms of staffing, those respondents that revealed their personnel numbers, told IQ that they relied on a total of 74,236 volunteers and 42,919 professional staff to run their festivals, or a ratio of 63% volunteers to 37% pros. Those percentages perfectly match those of our poll in 2013, compared to 59% volunteers in 2012 and 52% in 2011.

IQ Magazine January 2015

European Festival Report

Other

Festival Capacity and Attendance

urope’s festivals are continuing to grow in size year-onyear. Across our surveyed festivals, the average capacity for 2014 was 34,770, compared to an average of 33,655 in 2013. That represents a 3.3% growth in capacity, allowing promoters to count on increased revenues from larger audiences, in theory at least. Of course, increasing the size of your festival does not guarantee that you can attract those extra fans. But it seems our plucky gang of respondents achieved just that feat. When it came to attendance by capacity, the average across our surveyed events was 79%, which is exactly the same percentage achieved a year ago. When it comes to sold-out events, there was another indication that the good times are returning to the music festival business, with exactly half of our respondents selling out in 2014. Comparing that with last year’s numbers, where only 43% sold out, then the shoots of growth are encouraging. Of course, there are a number of events, such as Glastonbury Festival, T in the Park and Wacken Open Air, that sell out as soon as tickets go on sale. But for the most part, our surveyed events work extremely hard on their marketing campaigns, with many still selling walk-up tickets when the event opens. Yet another indication that confidence is returning to the European economy was an upward shift in the duration of festivals... The trend among promoters was to add dates, rather than consolidate downwards. Only three of our surveyed festivals were one-day affairs, a significant decline on last year’s respondents, while the number of two- and three-day festivals being organised rose, with two-day gatherings in particular proving more attractive. Three-day festivals remain the most popular format, making up 42% of our total respondents, but with many people now treating their festival breaks like full-on holidays, the proportion of summer gatherings now taking place over four or five daysplus is also on the rise, making up 21% and 16%, respectively, of the overall market. That trend seems to be continuing, as Provinssirock (Finland), Jazzopen Stuttgart (Germany), Paleo (Switzerland) and DCode in Spain are all adding days in 2015. “The increases in capacity and number of sell-outs on the up all point to a healthy market,” comments Carey. “And the fact that event organisers seem to be adding extra days to their festivals also suggests that promoters are feeling more confident about demand and ticket sales.”

Average Festival Ticket Prices

2014: €146.11 2013: €144.31

IQ Magazine January 2015

11% Worrying

Fantastic

3% Healthy

41%

19%

How would you describe the European festival market?

Static

26%

Ticketing

he all-important issue of ticket pricing – where some promoters come in for criticism over perceived inflated numbers – reveal some prudent strategies among Europe’s festival promoters. With a range of anywhere from €10 to €850 for their events, our 89 survey participants charged, on average, €144.31 for their full festival passes in 2013, but despite the ongoing economic recovery and signs that consumer spending power is once again on the rise, event organisers remained cautious about pricing this year, with average prices being €146.11 – a rise of just 1.2%, a little below inflation across the Euro zone. FKP Scorpio founder Folkert Koopmans comments, “Most promoters do care about ticket prices and I personally think that we’ve reached a level where ticket buyers are struggling to finance these. Therefore we kept the prices as they were last year.” In the Netherlands, Friendly Fires’ Rense van Kessel agrees, “With the economy still only seeing small signs of recovery, and customers having a lot of choice on what to spend their money on, pricing is key.” However, Paleo Festival’s Dany Hassenstein believes ticket prices will start to rise again in the year ahead. “This moderate 1% increase in 2014 was due to a general fear of saturation which has not been confirmed,” he says. “I think we will see a bigger increase in festival tickets prices in 2015.” For his part, Carey says, “Festivals don’t appear to be charging extra, but what they are doing is increasing capacity to generate more revenue. One of the obvious benefits of that is that more people on-site will help bolster at-event spend – the likes of food and beverage sales. Presumably, this will also allow festival promoters to charge their concessionaire partners more, as they will have more customers to sell their goods to.” Koopmans reads the data differently, telling IQ, “It’s more that we are offering better services (through our concessionaires), which is giving us the possibility to increase turnover.” Elsewhere, NorthSide Festival in Denmark has taken

European Festival Report

Mobile

Ticket sales by type

Walk Up

Call Centre

Online

75%

Box Office

14%

advantage of its growth in audience numbers to set higher demands regarding service, sustainability, and organic food. The event’s John Fogde reveals that organisers have created “a bonus plan, which has actually made it cheaper and more profitable for vendors to sell food at NorthSide.” He adds, “The higher level of organic food you sell, the better deal you’ll get with the festival, which has not only moved vendors to think more about organic products, but also helped increase their profits.” One interesting move, from arguably the daddy of all events, was Glastonbury being granted permission to gradually extend its capacity to 198,000 over the next ten years. Ticket sales for the event will remain capped at 135,000, but staff and volunteer numbers will increase from 37,500 to 63,000, meaning that there will be an additional 22,500 mouths for concessionaires to feed and water. Pointers to improved economic conditions are everywhere. In the survey’s ticketing structure section, it appears that more promoters are cutting the availability of day tickets to their events, suggesting that fans are more willing to buy passes for multiple days again, now that their disposable income is

What proportion of your audience is from abroad?

15%

0-5% 6-10% 11-20% 21-40 41+

18%

14%

45%

growing once more. The number of events offering day passes in 2014 decreased by one-third, while weekend-only tickets increased by a similar ratio, hinting that those same events have simply replaced one form of passes with the other, as the number of festivals that offer both day-tickets and whole-event tickets to fans remained steady at 79%. Examining ticketing data more thoroughly, the number of festivalgoers who bought day-only tickets to our surveyed events in 2014 made up 24.9% of the total audience, whereas in 2013, that figure was 34.7%. Weekend-only tickets proved more popular with last year’s 20% of the audience increasing to 25% in 2014, while whole-event tickets (which can encapsulate one-day events, weekend festivals and those events which last more than three days), also rose from 46% of the audience last year to 50.1% in 2014. Those results appear to back up the strategy put in place by promoters to reduce the number of day tickets available for sale. “This is really good news for the sector as a whole, because with the data on capacity showing that events are growing in size, and the fact that festivals are selling more whole-event passes, things are looking good,” says Carey. However, Koopmans believes one-day tickets also offer significant opportunities for growth. “We are actually offering one day tickets right from the start to encourage those people who haven’t been to a festival yet to take part in the festival experience,” he says. “Events are clearly demonstrating that promoters are offering fans value for money, which is a good news story for the promoters, who are doing a hell of a job,” says Carey.

Attendance From Abroad

eading back across IQ’s previous reports, it’s interesting to note the significant movements in people travelling to other countries to experience the festival scene. Events such as Sziget Festival in Hungary rely on foreign visitors for the majority of their audience (60%), but our questionnaire this year delivered some mixed results when it came to festivals attracting fans from abroad. Split into percentage slots, those events who reported that 0-5% of their overall audience came from other nations, grew impressively. In 2013, 31% of our participating festivals had small numbers of foreign visitors, but this year, that number was 45%, hinting that fans are becoming more adventurous and are travelling to more events than ever. However, numbers fell across the 6-10%, 11-20% and 2140% brackets. But, in the 41%-plus category, those festivals reporting significant foreign traffic doubled from 4% a year ago to 8% in 2014. With such conflicting data, it’s difficult to imagine a definitive reason for the various cross border activity, except perhaps to suggest that a small number of events have had very successful marketing campaigns in other countries. However, Media Insight’s Carey comments, “Looking at these numbers, I imagine that a lot of events are doing better at winning over fans in their domestic market, as the growth of events must be coming from domestic sales at the majority of festivals.”

IQ Magazine January 2015

European Festival Report

New Technology and RFID

VIP

ne fascinating trend that emerged from this year’s survey responses was a tail off in the number of festivals that offered fans the chance of a VIP upgrade in 2014. That may be because previous experiments with VIP packages have proved disadvantageous, but given that many VIP packages are the domain of third party providers, this is not conclusive. While 2013’s questionnaire revealed that 45% of our report’s community were offering some sort of value-added upgrades, that number fell to 39% in 2014. The figure in 2011 was 75%, so there has been some significant movement, but whether promoters view the VIP offers in the same way as they did four years ago is probably something we need to factor in to next year’s survey... Getting deeper into the VIP statistical data, it emerges that 58% of the festivals with VIP offers do not believe that the packages affect profitability. That number is up 10% on last year’s 48%, while those events that view VIP as somewhat important, have slipped from 37% last year to just 27% in 2014. Talking of which, it’s perhaps not coincidental that 58% of events did not sell-out their VIP upgrades. When it comes to the audience take-up of VIP packages, results were mixed. No fewer than 62% of our surveyed events report that between 0-5% of fans upgraded their festival experience to some level of VIP. In the 6-10% of audience total, almost a fifth (19%) reported upgrade levels, while a handful of events (7%) reported that more than 20% of their entire festival audience had paid for VIP experiences.

“ Complaining about competition is boring. We feel there is plenty of room for good new events and we are eager to create them. The lesser ones will struggle and hopefully go away.” Rense van Kessel, Friendly Fires (Netherlands) Very Important

Doesn’t Affect Profitability

58% Somewhat Important

27%

How Important are VIP Packages?

Important

11%

he speed of technological development is forever increasing, with the email inbox at IQ Towers groaning at the seams with daily press releases from a slew of companies, old and new, proclaiming breakthroughs that will transform the way the live music industry operates. But, with so many systems, gadgets and, in particular, apps to choose from, the task of the festival organiser to sort the wheat from the chaff can be tricky. Nonetheless, the majority of festivals across Europe appear to be brave enough to take the plunge, as 56% of our participating events disclosed that they had introduced new technology in 2014. Last year, those tapping into new tech amounted to just 41%, suggesting that event organisers across Europe are having positive experiences with the tech they are deploying in their fields and venues. The importance of having some kind of festival app is very apparent. In last year’s survey, 12% of participants said they had launched a new festival app. This year, that number nearly doubled to 23%, as more and more promoters exploited the communication possibilities that software can provide them – allowing fans to easily navigate around the festival site, find out about stage times and even receive safety instructions should the likes of a storm hit the site. Festivals utilising some kind of social media for the first time totalled 4% of our participants (hardly surprising, as most events have been running such services for years), while the magical ‘Other’ tech category attracted 16% of our class of 89. Among those ‘Other’ events were Norwegian pacesetters Slottsfjell, which debuted ingenious bottoms-up beer taps (if you don’t believe us, check out the profile in Techno Files on page 24). Slottsfjell booker Per-Christian Rae reveals, “The beer tap system is the idea of some random dudes from Indianapolis that we met a while ago. They do it at Indy 500 and some baseball stadiums, I think, and now they’re trying to get into the European market – we liked it so much we bought the rights for Scandinavia and my colleague Christoffer Rød does this now instead of running the festival!” At December’s UK Festival Conference in London, Live Nation’s John Probyn revealed that at least one of the festivals under his remit will be going 100% cashless in 2015. And from the cashless feature in IQ issue 56, we know that many others are examining cashless systems. This was borne out in our survey, where 10% of respondents adopted cashless technology in 2014, compared to 8% a year ago. The usage of RFID technology throughout the European festivals business continues unabated, with more than a quarter (27%) of the events that filled out our 2014 survey now incorporating at least some sort of the contactless tech. Those that introduced RFID technology in 2014 accounted for 3% of participants, compared to just 1% in our 2013 survey. The most prevalent use was by promoters utilising cashless payment systems on-site for their audiences, with 17 events offering the cash-free option. RFID access control was used across 12 festivals, while a similar number took advantage of the social media applications the technology allows. Elsewhere, five festivals set-up information touchpoints around their sites, while Lowlands in the

IQ Magazine January 2015

European Festival Report

Lowlands and Spotify W

e all understand that playing a festival can drive great exposure for bands. This summer, Spotify teamed up with Lowlands festival and Chris Carey (Media Insight Consulting) to begin to measure the impact playing a festival has on a band’s performance on streaming and social media. With a capacity of 55,000, Lowlands is one of the biggest festivals in the Netherlands. Spotify is the biggest streaming service in the Netherlands, with one in ten of the population using the service. A survey carried out by Lowlands and Spotify showed that over two thirds of festival attendees used the service. When we look at how they used the service, before the event 70% of those Spotify consumers used the service to listen to bands that were playing the festival that they had not listened to before. During the event, they kept their focus on the stages, with only one in three Spotify users engaging with the service onsite. After the event, 48% used the service to catch up on bands they had missed out on seeing whilst on-site. Looking at behaviour on Spotify, the acts playing the festival saw a healthy increase in streams in the build up to the event and a large spike after the festival, as people went home and continued to listen to the bands they had enjoyed during the event. From an artist perspective, Swedish band First Aid Kit were the biggest Spotify breakthrough of Lowlands festival, with streams increasing 135%. Perhaps more interesting was the massive jump in people listening to the band, which grew 80%, demonstrating that the band had really connected with a new audience. All of this starts to put a measure on the ‘good’ that a festival can do. It also shows that Spotify can be a great enhancement to the festival itself. For aiding with the discovery of bands and artists before, during and after the event; and in the build up to the event, helping people plan which bands to see. And for prolonging the festival experience once it is over. Netherlands ran a fascinating project in conjunction with Spotify (see Lowlands breakout, above). Of course, the most successful events tend to be the festivals that continuously work to improve the experience for fans, be that by introducing new technology, adding new stages or, as was the way for a fair number of our respondents this year, moving to a new location to develop their brand. In addition to events like Lollapalooza and Tomorrowland expanding into new markets, the likes of T in the Park (Scotland) are moving site, while Øya in Norway, ARTmania in Romania and Arezzo Wave in Italy moved location this year. Meanwhile, Bestival organiser Rob da Bank is planning two additional festivals in 2015 and the likes of FKP have merged Chiemsee Reggae Summer and Chiemsee Rocks to a five-day event combining reggae, rock and electro in one festival. Of our participating events, 81 responded to the question over improvements made this year, with a third (27) saying that they had not made any improvements in 2014, but two-

IQ Magazine January 2015

thirds (54) saying that material things had been done to make their festivals better. While a number of events reported that they had changed layout, quite a few did so to help with food and beverage outlets, with an emphasis on many new restaurants across festivals throughout the continent. Cristina García at Festival PortAmérica in Spain was typical of that trend, reporting that there were “12 Estrella Michelin chefs cooking for the public.” Demonstrating similar moves in the catering sector, Stefan Breitenmoser at SummerDays Festival in Switzerland reveals that they had a successful new site layout for F&B stalls, while in Finland, Mikko Niemelä at Ruisrock Festival notes, “Layout design updates, and bar and restaurant upgrades.” Also in Finland, Markku Pyykkönen at Ilosaarirock says, “We are improving our restaurant services and upgrading our camping facilities.” Cristina Calejo at the Nos Alive festival (formerly Optimus Alive) in Portugal, tells IQ of a novel addition to that event in 2014. “The Future Moms Area,” she says. “It was an area for pregnant women to see the concerts at the main stage.” Elsewhere, at Nos Alive, organisers added a new stand-up comedy stage, built a vintage barbershop, and established a new project that aims to promote the social economy and stimulate the creation of youth employment. Denmark’s innovators looked toward the catering side of things to improve the F&B offer to ticket holders. John Fogde at the NorthSide event in Åarhus reports that the products stocked by stalls were 70% organic (perhaps taking a leaf out of the neighbouring Way Out West in Sweden which went entirely vegetarian in 2013), while the festival also introduced an organic beer in 2014. Even the continent’s most established and popular weekenders are working hard to make sure they are making the experience more enjoyable for the audience. “The festival ground was bigger than last year, but we kept the same capacity to provide better comfort,” states Yo Van Saet at Belgium’s 88,000-capacity Rock Werchter. And noting that events can also be bolstered by moves outside of the venues, Lea Hapig at ELBJAZZ Festival in Germany says, “We strengthened the transport and logistic system with bigger barges and buses.”

Competition

25%

Economy

37%

Reasons festivals suffered a decline

Lack of Headliners

19%

Weather

19%

European Festival Report

Improvements for 2015

sked if they were already working on projects to improve their events in 2015, the results, albeit asked at the tail end of the 2014 season, proved that organisers already have a raft of ideas in mind for next year’s edition of their festivals. The professionals behind Sweden Rock festival are planning free Wi-Fi and free printed programmes for audience members next year, for example. Joe Gibbs at the Belladrum Tartan Heart gathering in Scotland reveals that he is planning an extra headliner for the first day of the festival, as well as a new VIP area. Provinssirock festival in Finland is adding more days, as is the Jazzopen event in Stuttgart, which is expanding from eight days to ten. Also in Finland, the Tuska Open Air Metal event’s Eeka Mäkynen says it has a programme to improve customer experience by, “Updating food and other services at the location and involving the audience to create future years’ festivals.” The Main Square festival in France reports that it is trying to inject more fun on-site and is looking to introduce free make-up and a free photo booth next year, while Tibor Holoda at the Wilsonic Festival in Slovakia is employing a simple strategy to boost numbers. “We will improve the festival venue,” says Holoda. “That will allow us to have a wider programme and bigger capacity, so that the tickets can be cheaper.” Meanwhile, keen to capitalise on foreign visitors, Ivana Jelaca at the InMusic festival in Croatia reveals that 2015 will involve, “More promotional focus on international audiences and marketing activities abroad.”

Potential Pitfalls

f course, not every festival can boast year-on-year growth and while economic recovery is somewhat taken for granted in most territories, there are parts of Europe that are still suffering, with promoters in parts of southern Europe particularly bemoaning the financial situation in their countries. While 78% or our respondents either grew or remained flat, 22% reported a decline on revenues compared to 2013. Asked for their opinions on why their festivals had suffered declining sales in 2014, the responses were bluntly honest – and largely the same as those events who experienced similar disappointments in our 2013 report. The economy was the biggest bugbear, with 37% of those whose numbers decreased pointing to the lack of cash in the pockets of their target audience. Competition from other events was the reason given by 25%, while ‘lack of headliners’ and unfavourable weather each grabbed 19% shares of the blame. Jorge Gosálbez from Bona Nit Barcelona notes, “We expected more people than 2013, but the crisis in Spain is terrible.” And at the eastern end of the continent it appears there was a similar story this year, with Ivana Jelana flagging up the overall economic crisis in Croatia, adding, “[There is] low purchase ability and increased impoverishment of local audiences.” However, with the majority of promoters apparently cautiously optimistic after a decent season in 2014, one of

Environmental costs

1% Legislation Weather

Artist Fees

40%

A Lack of Headliners

9% Production Costs

9% Declining Sponsorship

7% Other

3% Competition

22%

What will affect the industry over the next 5 years? the annual gauges we use in the European Festival Report to take the temperature of the industry is our query about what issues keep festival organisers awake at night. Unsurprisingly, as it has been the primary concern for a number of years now, artist fees was the top issue identified by events, with 41% of our respondents ticking that box. And fees also top the poll of the second most important factor, meaning that those events who had a particular issue with the likes of the weather or a lack of headliners this year, still believe they are paying over the odds for talent. Comparing our chart (see page 50) with that of last year, one emerging trend that jumps out is the competition from rival festivals, which our gang of 89 reports is getting more and more fierce. Talking of the increase in competition, Koopmans highlights what is happening in Germany, where DEAG is introducing Grüne Hölle and Rockavaria, while C3’s Lollapalooza is also coming in to the market. But competition isn’t something that worries van Kessel in the Netherlands. “Complaining about competition is boring,” he tells IQ. “We feel there is plenty of room for good new events and we are eager to create them. The lesser ones will struggle and hopefully go away.” And Paleo’s Hassenstein comments, “The true danger is not the growing number of events but the competition from events who are financed by a brand or a private patron, capable of offering high end fees without economical ambitions.” On a similar note, the fact that the number of promoters that view competition from the touring sector as an issue is negligible, but given that many festivals insist on exclusivity clauses when booking talent, that particular stat, may not come as a surprise.

“ We will improve the festival venue. That will allow us to have a wider programme and bigger capacity, so that the tickets can be cheaper.” Tibor Holoda, Wilsonic Festival (Slovakia)

IQ Magazine January 2015

European Festival Report Also creeping into promoters’ recurring nightmares are rising production costs and the lack of festival headliners, while the economy remains a significant concern, but less so than 12 months ago. And while the ‘Others’ category attracted a significant number of votes, these were mainly country specific, such as the observation that the Spanish market is hampered by the nation’s 21% VAT levy on the cultural sector, or the 15% tax imposed on foreign acts performing in Germany. Taking an overview of the factors that affected European festivals in 2013, there appears to be a common thread linking the main concerns, namely a lack of headliners that competing festivals are battling to book, leading to escalating artist fees. Without wishing to end on a gloomy note, we also prompted our surveyed professionals to vote on which issues they believe will have a negative effect on European festivals. It appears that nobody believes the cycle of escalating artist fees is going to be broken anytime soon, as nearly 40% stated that artist fees will be the biggest threat to their business. Underlining the feeling that the market is oversaturated, 22% of event organisers highlighted competition from rival festivals as their perceived biggest threat - coincidentall (perhaps) the sam ratio of festivals that suffered a decline in 2014. But, on a more positive slant, it appears that the improving economic situation is boosting confidence in

certain areas, as the number of people who think that declining sponsorship revenues will harm the market has halved from a year ago to less than 7%. So, there we have it. A positive observation on what has largely been an upbeat year in the European festivals business, or at least for those events that chose to take part in the 2014 survey. Of course, there were a number of festival failures throughout the continent this summer, with major events such as Oxegen (Ireland) and Rock Ness (Scotland) cancelling their 2014 editions. But from a market point of view, there were certainly fewer news stories about fans being out of pocket in 2014 than there have been in previous summers. With countries such as France, Germany, the UK and even Greece now officially out of recession, it is hoped they will continue to build financially in the year ahead, which would also help their European neighbours who are still victims of the economic crisis. But with even those nations with the strongest financial foundations walking a thin line, optimism within the live entertainment sector as a whole, remains cautious. Thankfully, music fans are a passionate lot and despite us all living through the deepest recession in living memory, the demand for festival escapism has helped savvy promoters weather what has hopefully been the worst of the storm.

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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Participating Festivals A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise (NL), Appelpop (NL), Arezzo Wave Love (IT), ARTmania (RO), Belladrum Tartan Heat (UK), Best Kept Secret (NL), Blaj aLive (RO), Bloodstock Open Air (UK), Blue Balls (CH), Bona Nit Barcelona (ES), Bråvalla (SE), Cactusfestival (BE), Chiemsee Summer (DE), Cornbury (UK), Cully Jazz (CH), Dcode (ES), Down The Rabbit Hole (NL), Ejekt (GR), ELBJAZZ (DE), EXIT (RS), IN-SOMNI Barcelona - Girona (ES), Week-end au bord de l’eau (CH), FIB Festival De Benicàssim (ES), Frequency (AT), Gent Jazz (BE), Haldern Pop (DE), Heineken Jazzaldia - San Sebastian Jazz (ES), Hellfest (FR), Highfield (DE), Hurricane (DE), Ilosaarirock (FI), Indian Summer (NL), INmusic (HR), Into The Great Wide Open (NL), Jazz Fest Wien (AT), Jazz Middelheim (BE), Jazzopen Stuttgart (DE), Jelling Musikfestival (DK), Latitude (UK), Leeds Festival (UK), M´era Luna (DE), Main Square (FR), MasterCard Balaton Sound (HU), Melt! (DE), Metal Hammer Paradise (DE), Mighty Sounds (CZ), NorthSide (DK), NOS Alive (PT), OpenAir St.Gallen (CH), Paléo (CH), Pinkpop (NL), Popaganda (SE), PortAmérica (ES), Positivus (LT), Primavera Sound (ES), Provinssirock (FI), Pukkelpop (BE), Reading (UK), Riverboat Jazz (DK), Rocco del Schlacko (DE), Rock for People (CZ), Rock Werchter (BE), Rolling Stone Weekender (DE), Ruisrock (FI), Shambala (UK), Skanderborg Festival (DK), Skive (DK), Slottsfjell (NO), Smukfest (DK), Sonisphere (IT), SOS 4.8 (ES), Southside (DE), SummerDays (CH), Summerjam (DE), Sunrise Celebration (UK), Sweden Rock (SE), Sziget (HU), Taksirat (MK), Taubertal (DE), Øya (NO), Tuska Open Air Metal (FI), Umsonst & Draussen (DE), Urban Art Forms (AT), Volt (HU), Wacken Open Air (DE), Wilsonic (SK), With Full Force (DE), Wychwood (UK), Zomerparkfeest (NL).

IQ Magazine January 2015