Police Bored With Sweden Rock

Ingolf Persson said he knows his organization is improving the way it runs Sweden Rock each year because the local police have told him they’re starting to get bored with it.

“They told me they don’t have anything to do except listen to the music and watch the fans enjoying themselves,” Persson told Pollstar after this year’s sold-out, 25,000-capacity event resulted in fewer than 20 arrests.

“All of them were because the people were too drunk to stand up,” he explained.

This year’s bash took a month longer to sell out than last year’s, but Persson said that’s because the 2005 gathering had an exclusive Scandinavian show from Mötley Crüe.

“We’re still very pleased with how it all went this year, particularly because some of the acts are saying Sweden Rock is ‘simply the best,'” he said. “I don’t know if that’s true but I know our aim has always been to try to be the best.”

Among the acts helping the fans to rock, even until one or two of them dropped, at the Solvesborg site June 8-10 were Def Leppard, Whitesnake, Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, Journey, Venom, Ted Nugent, Queensryche, W.A.S.P., Edguy, Krokus, Jeff Healey Band, George Thorogood & The Destroyers, and Michael Schenker Group.

– John Gammon