Late Sales Boost For Pori

A surge in ticket sales during the two weeks leading up to the festival appears to have helped get Pori Jazz off the hook, although the Finnish festival may still have dropped somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000.

The losses amount to no more than 2 percent of the festival’s $5.4 million budget and a Pori spokesman told Pollstar, “It’s not killing. The exact figure will come out after a couple of months.”

Pori, which started in 1966 and has become one of the best known jazz festivals in Europe, attracted 42,000 to the 35 ticketed shows and about 130,000 for the 77 free-entry shows July 14-22.

The festival reaches its break-even point after selling about 57,000 tickets.

This year’s drop can be covered by recent festivals that have made money, such as 2006 when co-headliners Sting and Kanye West helped Pori toward sales of 75,000.

Organisers say the low turnout was due to Finland being “overloaded with big concerts and festivals” in 2012.
At least the weather was kind to Pori, which is on the west coast of Finland, as it enjoyed a sunny week while the rest of the country was subject to the storms and showers that have dampened Europe’s outdoor season.

The acts helping to lift Pori sales included Norah Jones, Paul Anka, Emeli Sande, Jools Holland Orchestra, Estelle, Bad Plus and Joshua Redman.

Elsewhere in Finland, Ilosaarirock Festival in the university town of Joensuu recorded its 16th successive 22,000-capacity sellout July 13-15.

But Ilosaarirock isn’t a great barometer for the state of the market, as it has 15,000 students on its doorstep. North Karelia, where the festival is situated on the shores of Lake Pyhäselkä, is too far north of Helsinki to be affected by the number of international acts passing through the Finnish capital.

This year’s bill included Antony and the Johnsons, Apocalyptica, The Hives, Children of Bodom, D-A-D, Pulled Apart By Horses, and Goran Bregovic & His Wedding, and Funeral Orchestra.

Further south in Turku, Ruisrock – Europe’s second longest-running festival – also reported figures slightly down on the 67,000 that attended in 2011, although in recent years the crowd figures have hovered around the 70,000 mark.
About 63,000 showed July 6-8 to see a bill that included Snoop Dogg, Pulp, Nightwish, The Cardigans, Robin, Disco Ensemble, and Ewert & The Two Dragons.