LN Rocks En France

As the dust settles on Live Nation Belgium’s first attempt to get involved in the French festival business, the initial signs indicate some of the local promoters may have overreacted to the idea of a neighbour trying to muscle in on their patch.

Turning a profit, Herman Schueremans and his team defied predictions that their foray on to French soil would end in costly failure. Meanwhile, attendance figures from the two major outdoors staged over the same weekend as LN’s Main Square Festival in Arras both sold out.

Les Eurockeennes de Belfort had 33,000 per day and Solidays in Paris pulled 50,000 per day.

At Main Square in Arras, 12,000 turned up for a pre-festival "dance day" with Chemical Brothers and Underworld July 4, with 18,500 watching Mika and The Kooks the following day. Radiohead and Sigur Ros sold out the final day by bringing in 27,000.

The Celine Dion show LN did the following day, which wasn’t part of the festival, attracted 18,000 people.

"We made a profit in our first year," Schueremans told Pollstar, although how far LN is in the black will depend on the final ticket count for the Metallica show in Arras August 14. As of July 14, the presale stood at 19,500 and Schueremans is confident it will do 25,000.

Asked how he plans to build his company’s share of the French festival market, Schueremans said, "We’re working on it and looking at several options." Live Nation international music chief Alan Ridgeway has made it clear he’s expecting expansion.

Schueremans, Leduc and Live Nation France president Jackie Lombard will work together to produce "world leading" events.

Although buying a majority share of the France Leduc-owned company that runs the events at Arras may further antagonize the French, Ridgeway struggles to understand why some of the promoters were so vocal about opposing the move.

"I wasn’t in Europe when we bought into Jackie Lombard’s company, but I understand there was some local opposition to that," he told Pollstar. "But I think it went away when everyone realized Jackie was still Jackie and she was just carrying on doing her business in the same way as she’d always been doing it.

"If Live Nation is expanding its festival business in France it makes sense for us to use Herman’s expertise, in the same way as it may make sense to use Leon Ramakers, John Mulder, John Probyn or whoever on other occasions. What’s the big issue?" he said.

And with the fading of Europe’s national boundaries – in and outside the EU – this is not unprecedented.

Folkert Koopmans from Hamburg-based FKP Scorpio and his part-owned satellite companies promote festivals in Switzerland, Austria, Slovakia and Croatia. There are numerous examples of similar cooperations, like the ones Live Nation’s Tim Dowdall has forged in Russia and The Balkans, and the one Thomas Johansson and Risto Juvonen from the Nordic branch of the company set up in The Baltics.