The Heineken’s Off

The contact between Heineken and the festival, which has run successfully for more than a decade, has come to an end.

Festival chief Mikolaj Ziòlkowski told Pollstar that both sides agreed that Heineken will remain a festival partner and sponsor but will no longer be the name sponsor.

“We are not looking for a new naming rights sponsor – Open’er Festival will be Open’er Festival,” he explained, confirming the major festival’s intention to go it alone.

Ziòlkowski seems confident the festival, which moved to Gydnia’s Babie Doly Airport in 2006 because the city’s 25,000-capacity Kosciuszko Square was no longer big enough, is a strong enough brand to survive.

Open’er now pulls 50,000 per day on a regular basis and remains the second-largest festival in the old Eastern Bloc.

Hungary’s Sziget Festival, the largest in the old Eastern Bloc, has operated without a title sponsor since parting company with Pepsi Cola more than a decade ago.

It may be that Ziòlkowski is still open to a deal as the Babie Doly is huge and requires a lot of infrastructure, while the annual bill for talent must be getting close to the $5 million mark.

This year’s July 3-7 lineup included Rihanna, Blur, Kings of Leon, Queens of the Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.