Scorpio Wins At Horse Track

Folkert Koopmans’ FKP Scorpio should be making money at the horse racing track, after securing a deal to put on live entertainment at Hamburg’s Trabrennbahn Bahrenfeld circuit.

The company has already confirmed Blink-182 will play the track Aug. 24, followed by Unheilig, Jethro Tull and Ten Years After, and Xavier Naidoo Aug. 27-30.

Koopmans has occasionally used the track for large shows in the past and it’s usually turned out to be profitable for him.

“I believe it was once used for a Rolling Stones show, and I have used it for Robbie Williams, Peter Fox, and Herbert Gronemeyer. In ’97 I used it for Backstreet Boys and it did so well it helped me fund the first Hurricane Festival,” he explained.

His current deal lasts until 2012, although the area he can use isn’t as big as the 80,000-capacity site that’s been available in the past. The Trabrennbahn track has undergone its own refurbishment and can no longer be used for huge shows. But the 20,000-square-metre area available at the Luruper Bogen site can be used for shows ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 people.

Koopmans is hoping it will enable him to compete with the other large German outdoor venues such as the Tanzbrunnen in Cologne and Berlin’s Wuhlheide.

It’s more likely to complement rather than compete with the annual series of summer shows that rival Hamburg promoter Karsten Jahnke puts on in the city’s Stadtpark, which can hold crowds of up to 4,000 people.

Staking Koopmans’ Hamburg racetrack gamble has so far cost a “euro six digit” investment in the track’s infrastructure, including putting in electricity, water and drainage.