Ankkarock Pleases Promoter

One of the highlights of the Finnish festival season started in sunshine and ended with rain, but Ankkarock organiser Juhani Merimaa said the showers came too late to make a difference and he was pleased with a weekend crowd of nearly 31,000.

The 18,000-capacity event in a park near Korso Airport about 25 miles north of Helsinki had a strong lineup of Finnish talent including HIM, Apocalyptica, Disco Ensemble, and Hanoi Rocks. Most of the other major acts were from the surrounding Scandinavian countries.

The event sold out three consecutive times in the first half of the decade but hasn’t found it so easy since it upped its capacity from 15,000 to 18,000.

However, a 17,000-strong crowd on the Saturday and 13,500 fans on Sunday is still better than two days at 15,000, and much better than the 24,000 the event required to make financial sense.

The acts helping Ankkarock August 2-3 carry on the successful Finish festival season started by Rusirock, Ilosaarirock and Pori included Kent, The Hives, and Opeth (all from Sweden), W.A.S.P, Poets Of The Fall and Scandinavian Music Group.