Smeets Doesn’t Blame Competition

Pinkpop in The Netherlands failed to sell out for the first time in five years but festival chief Jan Smeets doesn’t blame competition from FKP Scorpio’s Indian Summer Festival happening the same June 14-16 weekend.

“I don’t think it was that, as Indian Summer did about the same as it did last year,” he said. “It’s not as if we were 5,000 down and they were 5,000 up.”

Smeets says if any FKP Scorpio festival hampered him it was Northside in Denmark.

“There were some rock acts I wanted to book but they were committed to playing in Århus,” he explained.

The Landgraaf festival sold 32,000 three-day tickets and 28,000 day tickets, with the average crowd being just beyond the 40,000 mark.

Last year Pinkpop also sold its 32,000 three-day tickets, but on the final night a further 30,000 showed for Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band.

On the first two days, The Cure had sold 6,000 one-day tickets and then Linkin Park shifted a further 12,000 one-day tickets, making a total of 78,000 – 50,000 more day tickets than this year.

The Pinkpop lineup included Green Day, The Killers, Kings Of Leon, Queens Of The Stone Age, The Script, Paramore, 30 Seconds To Mars, and The Gaslight Anthem.