Promotion Giants On Verge Of Turf War

AEG and Live Nation look close to locking horns in Sweden, as both could be trying to book big lineups on the same midsummer weekend.

New Hultsfred Festival chairman Per Alexanderson, whose job is to repair the damage done by last year’s event dropping $1 million, says he’s disappointed because he feels Live Nation’s EMA Telstar is reacting to losing staff and the booking of Hultsfred to AEG by organizing an event to compete with those former staff and the festival itself.

"I suppose they have to react because they’re a huge American company that has had a monopoly here for many years, and now they’re faced with another global competitor," Alexanderson said.

"Yes, I’d have to say that I’d rather not have had another big outdoor on the same weekend [June 12-14] and the competition for acts that it inevitably brings, but it’s a free country and so they can do what they want.

"As I’m telling the Swedish journalists, it’s too early for me to comment until I see exactly what it is that they’re planning to do.

"It seems a little crazy that Rock Party, the small provincial organization that founded and runs Hultsfred, can be in a battle with such a huge worldwide organisation," he added.

EMA Telstar’s Thomas Johansson weighed in, telling Swedish daily Barometer, "Maybe we’re going to do something on our own but nothing is decided. But there’s no war going on between Swedish festivals."

"At the moment there is not too much to talk about as there is not yet a festival in Stockholm," he told Pollstar.

However, Russell Warby from William Morris Agency’s London office, who represents The Foo Fighters in Europe, says he’s confirmed the act will play the city through Live Nation on June 14.

So far, Hultsfred has announced Finnish rock act HIM and the U.K.’s Babyshambles, plus top Swedish talent including Timo Räisänen, Those Dancing Days and Sugarplum Fairy.

According to reports in the daily Aftonbladet, the new Stockholm event is rumoured to be on the campus of the city’s university and will be called Way Out East.

Last year Luger, which is part-owned by EMA Telstar, started an August festival in Gothenburg called Way Out West.

Although Johansson said he’s "far too old to be getting back at people," many in the Swedish music business see the new event as a reaction to David Maloney and Mikael Tillman leaving LN to join AEG in September.

AEG then bought Supreme Royal Deluxe, the Hultsfred booking company owned by Petri Lunden and Janne Kleman, thereby securing the booking of the festival.

Previously, while Maloney was still there, Live Nation handled the booking of the talent for Hultsfred. After he defected to AEG, the festival was faced with being loyal to LN or loyal to Maloney, an issue decided when AEG bought Lunden and Kleman’s company.

Lunden says he was in discussion with AEG and Live Nation regarding the sale of Supreme Royal Deluxe but declined to give details of his talks with the latter or reveal why they broke down.

As for the two companies squaring up with each other in Sweden, he says the market is big enough for both but feels it doesn’t help anyone to have two big festivals on the same weekend.

"I’m not saying who’s right or wrong and I don’t care because I’m not involved, but I think this is unnecessary and nobody will benefit."

The news of this potential AEG-LN showdown comes at a time when Hultsfred has discovered that it’s in a little better financial position than its board once feared.

Although neither would name the benefactor beyond describing him or her as "a friend of the festival," Alexanderson, Kleman and Hultsfred marketing manager Per Rosenquist have revealed that the festival has been offered an undisclosed loan on a "pay it back when you can basis."

Alexanderson, who co-founded Rock Party and has just returned from a four-year stint as Malmo Festival director to take up the reigns at Hultsfred, says some of the event’s sponsors have also offered extra financial support when the new deals are negotiated.