Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad

Juhani Merimaa said this year’s Ruisrock in Finland would have done better than just equal of last year’s 65,000 visitors if heavy rain hadn’t washed out the third day’s walk-up.

"The crowd still held up well on that day because of the amount of presales we had for it, but the weather certainly cost us a lot of one-day tickets," he said after the sixth Ruisrock he’s run since being awarded the role by the local Turku council.

In 2001, unconfirmed newspaper reports from the region suggested the local authority in charge of the event had run up losses of more than 4 million Finn marks (US$918,000). The city of Turku, which had supported it for 31 years, decided it was time to hand it over to private promoters.

Since then, Merimaa, who has owned and run Helsinki’s Tavastia Club for more than 25 years, has steadied the ship.

During his time in charge, the event has regularly sold out the Saturday and very often one of the other two days as well.

Last year, the annual gathering on the southwest coast – the world’s second-oldest behind Holland’s Pinkpop – pulled the same numbers as this year.

Merimaa hoped for a record-breaking year, and it seems it was only the weather on the third day that prevented it.

The acts on the July 6-8 bill, which is a mix of international and the best of Scandinavian talent, included The Flaming Lips, The Ark, The Hives, The Rasmus, Mando Diao, John Legend and The Pipettes.