A Rock & Coke Revival

Baris Basaran’s return to Pozitif Productions has seen an upswing in the firm’s festival fortunes, as Turkey’s Rock & Coke pulled its best crowd in six years.

Basaran came back in January after six years at Charmenko. Earlier this month he steered Pozitif’s Efes Pilsen One Love Festival toward smashing its crowd record by pulling 15,000 per day.

The previous One Love record was 11,000 per day for Morrissey and Black Eyed Peas on the old Parkoman site in 2006. The event moved to the university campus in central Istanbul in 2008.

Rock & Coke did nearly 23,000 per day, which is its best crowd since a bill topped by The Cure, Korn, The Offspring and Apocalyptica did 25,000 per day in 2005.

That was only three years since the event started, but its fortunes have fluctuated along with those of Turkey’s erratic outdoor market, eventually leading to its cancellation in 2008.

Basaran reckons the strength of the bill had a lot to do with this year’s improvement, but he started out with a positive approach by increasing both the number of stages and international acts.

This year there were four stages filled by 60 acts, with more than half coming from outside Turkey.

The acts helping Pozitif’s Rock & Coke revival July 16-17 included Moby, Limp Bizkit, Paolo Nutini, Motorhead, Travis and Skunk Anansie.