Demanding Excellence

Bologna’s Independent Days Festival was missing from this year’s Italian outdoor calendar because the promoters weren’t satisfied that they’d be able to get the right headliners.

“It could have been a big waste of time and money and it’s not wise to do that,” Indpendente’s Gianpietro Giachery told Pollstar.

The Pordenone-based company owned by Corrado and Sandro Rizotto – which originally scheduled the 15,000-capacity event for August 30-31 – is known for not taking unnecessary risks with the event.

The two-day or occasionally one-day event that started in 1998 and doubled its crowd to 40,000 in ’99, was scrapped for the same reason in 2006.

“We wanted to keep the quality up to the usual level and decided to miss a year rather than let it slip,” Giachery said at the time.

He said he expects the festival, which is based on the city’s Parco Nord, will be back in 2009.