SFX Gets Dutch Awakening

SFX’s rapid acquisition of various international electronic festival brands far outpaces company founder Robert Sillerman’s gobbling up of live music promoting companies at the turn of the decade, much of what is now Live Nation’s European operation.

The biggest acquisition so far appears to be ID&T, which started Tomorrowland in neighbouring Belgium, and – along with SFX — helped grow it to a huge global brand. Sillerman’s firm has just invested $5 million in three new North American Tomorrowlands.

Awakenings, which was founded by Rocco Veenboer in 1997, began as an indoor event at Amsterdam Gashouder, moving outdoors to the Spaarnwoude recreation area in northern Holland in 2001.

The 2014 staging of Awakenings Festival pulled more than 60,000 fans, while seven smaller events under the same brand brought in another 40,000-plus.