Super Bock Flop?

Promoter Musica No Coracao hasn’t released the figures yet but the Portuguese press is reporting the two-legged Super Bock Super Rock Festival was a super flop.

A July 10 report in the daily Público called the July 4-5 weekend in Porto, which overlapped Rock In Rio In Lisbon, "the festival that didn’t exist." Correio da Manhã said the Lisbon leg suffered from clashing with Optimus Alive!08, which is run by former Musica director Alvaro Covoes and his team at Everything Is New.

An average of the newspapers’ crowd figures would suggest there were about 7,000 for the first day in Lisbon and up to 18,000 on the second, which was headlined by Jamiroquai.

The other acts on the Porto bill included ZZ Top, Crowded House, Paolo Nutini, Morcheeba, and Brand New Heavies.

Lisbon free daily paper Destak said the crowd for the July 9-10 second leg, which overlapped Optimus on the last day, pulled 26,000 in total.

Nearly 20,000 of those showed on the first day to see Iron Maiden, Slayer, and Avenged Sevenfold heading a metal bill. The crowd for the second day – headlined by Duran Duran – reportedly put 8,000 on the 30,000-capacity site.

The other acts on the bill included Mika, Beck, Digitalism, and Tiesto.

Everything Is New said Optimus, with a July 10-12 bill that included Rage Against The Machine, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, and Gogol Bordello, did more than 30,000 per day.

At press time it wasn’t possible to get figures for Musica’s 15,000-capacity Delta Tejo Festival in Lisbon July 18-20, which had a bill that included Gentleman, Adriana Calcanhotto, Patrice, Jah Cure, Mariza, Ana Carolina, Martinho da Vila, and Paulo Gonzo.