A Super Bock On The Beach

The decision to run one Super Bock Super Rock Festival on a new coastal site, rather than a twinned event in Lisbon and Porto, proved to be a good one for promoter Musica No Coracao.

The two-legged event has suffered badly in recent years, with Portuguese daily Público once referring to it as “the festival that didn’t exist,” but this year’s switch to a beach site at Maco looks to have turned things around.

The average daily crowd figure, which the papers had at around 12,000 for the last two years, shot up to 26,000.

There were 22,000 on the first day for a bill that included Pet Shop Boys, Keane, and Jamie Lidell, 24,000 for a second day lineup that had Julian Casablancas, Vampire Weekend, Hot Chip and Leftfield, and finally 32,000 for Prince, Empire Of The Sun, Stereophonics and The National.

The other acts helping deliver a Super Bock Super Rock on the Portuguese coast outside Lisbon July 16-18 included Richie Hawtin, The Temper Trap and Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings.