Lil’ Wayne Misses Frauenfeld Record

Illness was cited for U.S. rapper Lil’ Wayne pulling out of his European tour at short notice, but Frauenfeld Festival got Ludacris to step in as the event confirmed it has Switzerland’s biggest festival crowd.

A three-day attendance of 142,000 also makes it Europe’s biggest hip-hop and dancehall festival. However, the six-day Paleo-Nyon Festival – with 35,000 per day – has a total of 210,000 visitors and remains the country’s best-attended outdoor.

Frauenfeld organiser Andy Locher, whose Pleasure Productions has grown the festival from a rock and indie gathering that lost money for all who tried to run it, said that despite the recession ticket sales were about 1 percent up on last year’s record-breaking figures.

The other acts on the racetrack just outside Zurich July 10-12 included 50 Cent, Gentleman, Deichkind, Kanye West, The Game, Turbonegro and N.E.R.D.