Ruisrock Stands Its Ground

In fact, both sides had every reason to be satisfied as the 44-year-old Ruisrock, on the southwest coast at Turku, had a three-day crowd of 71,000, the upper end of its recent average.

Two hours away in the Finnish capital of Helsinki, 51,000 came to see Rock The Beach headlined by Green Day  Rammstein and Thirty Seconds To Mars over three days June 26-29. “In view of what was happening in Helsinki, we were very pleased to see our numbers go up,” said Ruisrock promoter Mikko Niemelä.

The bill at Ruisrock (July 5-7), the world’s second-oldest festival behind Pinkpop in the Netherlands, included HIM, Hurts, Editors and Biffy Clyro  Scott Lavender, head of Live Nation’s Finnish office, was also pleased with the first staging of his new Rock The Beach event near Helsinki’s port entrance. Lavender had run a pilot edition last year that indicated the event is worth growing, although it may take time to see a return on the investment. A week earlier, Tuska Open Air Metal, the country’s premier heavy rock bash, opened the Finnish festival season by pulling 25,000 per day for a June 28-30 lineup with Nightwish, Testatment, Bolt Thrower, Kreator, Soilwork, and The Dillinger Escape Plan.