‘16
EUROPEAN
FESTIVAL
REPORT
Europe’s festival organisers and promoters, by and large, enjoyed a successful season in 2016, with seemingly fewer cancellations than recent years. But once again, the weather took its toll. And looking ahead to 2017, bookers are more worried than ever about the prices they are being quoted for acts… While many promoters around Europe reported healthy ticket sales and successful events during 2016, it was, nevertheless, an incident-packed season for the outdoor live music industry. Cancellations in the 2016 season included One Love Festival in Turkey, Wickerman and ATP in the UK, The Flying Dutch – Swedish Journey festival, Les Muzik’elles and Les Voix du Gaou in France, and who could forget the pro-Brexit onedayer, bpopLive which finally bit the dust following a string of withdrawals by confirmed artists. In the ever buoyant German market, some of the biggest gatherings, including Rock Am Ring, Hurricane and Southside, were all severely hit by storms, although somehow the team at FKP Scorpio managed to work overnight miracles to save Hurricane’s 20th anniversary event, and have turned adversity into opportunity. Managing director Stephan Thanscheidt, says, “Despite the weather problems we had at Hurricane Southside, we’re having the best sales ever for those events. 30-35% of the bands rescheduled for 2017 straight away, which helped, but
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also a lot of people said that instead of their refund, they’d rather use that money and pay a bit more to get a ticket for next year. “How we handled the storm situation on social media and dealt with the damage caused by the weather was very good. We’ve won a few awards from it, and actually the atmosphere it helped create at the event was fantastic.” In terms of trends, the 101 festivals that participated in this year’s European Festival Report (EFR) delivered conclusions that closely mirrored some of last year’s headlines, with average capacities rising and ticket prices nudging higher, but with attendance also increasing, proving that the efforts that are being made across the board to enhance the fan experience are indeed paying off. In 2016, a new question was added to the EFA survey in which we asked individuals to summarise how they feel the festival market performed in their own country throughout the year – and the results show that despite European borders
IQ Magazine January 2017