Sinnamon Launches Summer Showcase

With U.K. promoters Vince Power and Denis Desmond teaming to buy a slice of Benicassim Festival and Sinnamon Productions launching its new Summercase, the largely underdeveloped Spanish open-air market looks to be heading for what could turn out to be boom time.

The new twinned event will be unwrapped on 30,000-capacity sites in Madrid and Barcelona July 14th and 15th.

Historically, the problem with the Spanish outdoor market has been the country’s lack of any real festival culture or heritage, and boom has all too quickly turned to bust.

Outdoor events that were aimed at becoming part of the European summer touring circuit have ended up as memories.

The 12-year-old Benicassim and – to a lesser extent – the Madrid-based Festimad have bucked that trend. But international agents no longer pore over their route books and try to weigh up what sort of offers they’re likely to get from Doctor Music or Esparrago.

This year, the same agents will be enjoying a field day – well, actually it’s a little more than a week – as Depeche Mode, New Order, Morrissey, Massive Attack, Scissor Sisters, Pixies, Placebo, Franz Ferdinand, The Strokes, Daft Punk, Keane, The Chemical Brothers, Primal Scream, The Cardigans, Razorlight, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Dandy Warhols, Happy Mondays, Starsailor, Belle & Sebastian, Sigur Ros, Maximo Park, Super Furry Animals, Coldcut, dEUS, Madness, Beth Orton, Editors, and the Futureheads play either Benicassim or Summercase July 14-23.

Jose Cadahia from Sinnamon, a record label that licences a lot of U.S. and U.K. talent in Spain – including the Rough Trade roster – said the company has been looking at the viability of running a regular summer outdoor for the last three years.

He readily admits to modeling his new twinned event on the U.K.’s V Festivals, but prefers urban sites like Madrid’s Boadilla del Monte and Barcelona’s Parc del Fòrum because the local crowds should be strong enough to support them and they won’t have the expense or the inconvenience of traveling miles into the country and camping.

Cadahia, whose company has run the San Miguel-sponsored Wintercase festival each November for the last three years, said he doesn’t think being so close to Benicassim in the calendar will be a problem because the two events have different target markets.

The bill-toppers at Summercase July 14-15 include New Order, Keane, Massive Attack, Daft Punk, and Belle & Sebastian.

– John Gammon