Jenner’s Blue Sky Thinking

After his FM4 Frequency Festival pulled 30,000 per day to the picturesque site near the Bavarian border at Salzburg, Austria, Harry Jenner told Pollstar that blue skies make for a happy festival promoter.

Apart from headline performances from Muse, Morrissey, Scissor Sisters, Franz Ferdinand, and The Prodigy, the crowd enjoyed three days of sunshine – a rare event for a festival that could be named Frequency because it regularly gets rain.

Since last year, the MusicNet chief along with Folkert Koopmans’ FKP Scorpio, which co-owns the 7-year-old outdoor, have built a bridge to replace the one that collapsed at last year’s bash.

Thirty-one people were injured, although none of them seriously, and a repeat is unlikely. The new structure, which crosses a stream and links the main stage area with the rest of the site, is strong enough to drive a tank across.

The collapse of the old bridge, a scaffold construction that was passed as fit for use by the local authority, was believed to be caused by one of the corner pillars sinking a few inches in the rain-softened ground.

Among the other acts brightening the August 16-18 event were Kaiser Chiefs, Editors, Arctic Monkeys, Ice-T and Body Count, Coheed and Cambria, and Broken Social Scene.

– John Gammon