Pieroni May Change Evolution

Although he’s disappointed with the attendance at his new Evolution Festivalin Italy, Andrea Pieroni says he alone is to blame because it’s his events that have sucked money out of the marketplace.

"It was too close to my Gods Of Metal festival and my Metallica show," he told Pollstar after the 15,000-capacity event pulled less than 7,000 over two days.

"Next year I may make it part of the festival by starting an Evolution Stage," he said. It could be an appropriate solution, as he started the event to promote some of the medium-sized rock acts he couldn’t accommodate on the two big shows at the 30,000-capacity Bologna Parco Nord.

Although Evolution was at Milan Idropark, the cities are only 125 miles apart.

"Perhaps the rock fans chose Gods Of Metal [June 27-29] and Metallica [July 22] and there wasn’t enough money to also do Evolution [July 11-12] in the middle."

The acts at Evolution included Opeth, Gamma Ray, Death Angel, Pain Of Salvation, Dark Lunacy, Sonata Arctica and Cavalera Conspiracy.