Koopmans Happy With Hurricane-Southside

Even before his festival season opened, FKP Scorpio chief Folkert Koopmans said he wasn’t expecting a record-breaking year. But he was still pleased the twinned Hurricane and Southside festivals pulled a combined crowd of 110,000 over the June 19-21 weekend.

The Hurricane site at Scheessel had cloud cover and storm warnings throughout most of the weekend but escaped the worst of the weather. The smaller Southside Festival at Neuhausen ob Eck, which was a 50,000-capacity sellout, wasn’t so lucky and had high winds and rain.

FKP Scorpio press chief Alexandra Mierau said the company was a little disappointed not to sell all 70,000 tickets for Hurricane but is more than satisfied with the overall result.

Marek Lieberberg’s Rock am Ring and Rock im Park festivals have this year’s German crowd records, pulling 85,000 and 70,000 respectively. But the Hurricane and Southside attendances guarantee FKP Scorpio, which has four more festivals this summer, will have at least two in the top six bestsellers.

The acts helping Scorpio perform well in tough times included Die Arzte, Kings Of Leon, Faith No More, The Pixies, Kraftwerk, Moby and Katy Perry.