Fields Of Rock Canceled
The first major casualty of the European festival season is the 40,000-capacity Fields Of Rock in the Netherlands, which has been canceled because of poor ticket sales.
A statement from Mojo Concerts, which promotes the three-day rock bash on the same Biddinghuizen site it uses for Lowlands Festival, says a lack of headliners is the problem.
The company said it’s made the decision because it wouldn’t have been "financially and creatively" wise to continue with the June 20-22 event.
It’s a setback for Mojo, which had upped the event from two to three days, particularly after last year’s gathering pulled 15,000 per day. It was the first installment since the festival moved from the Goffert Park in Nijmegen to the Evenemententerrein Walibi World site at Biddinghuizen.
"It was only doing 150 tickets per week and the numbers looked more like going down than going up," festival booker Rob Trommelen said.
Strong lineups of similar festivals such as Graspop in Belgium, which is very close to the Dutch border, was cited as a further reason for Fields Of Rock’s disappointing sales.
Most acts’ touring schedules were a better fit with other festivals that Mojo either produces or co-produces, with Metallica playing Pinkpop, KISS at Trommelen’s Arrow Rock Festival, and Iron Maiden doing the TT circuit in Assen.
The smaller acts on the Fields Of Rock bill are finding alternative slots on other Mojo outdoors or indoor shows with capacities that match their pulling power.
The arrangements to refund tickets for Fields Of Rock 2008 are already in place, and all of the ticket holders will get a five-euro discount on the next edition.
