Hurricane And Southside Do 125,000

Hurricane, which takes place at Scheeßel, near Bremen, did 65,000 of its 73,000 capacity, while Southside – in southern Germany near Tuttlingen – sold all its 60,000 tickets.

Apart from Marek Lieberberg’s twinned Rock am Ring and Rock im Park fests, they are regularly Germany’s biggest annual festivals. For the first time the Scheeßel site used a cashless payment system, which was provided by YouChip, the same firm Live Nation successfully used at this year’s Download Festival in the UK. As with Download, there were a few teething problems at Hurricane, although they were soon traced to the radio system and quickly resolved.

Local police chief Heiner van der Werp felt the recent reduction in petty crime at Hurricane had been accelerated by the use of a cashless system. “The trend of recent years continues,” he said, “Probably the introduction of the cashless payment system is a decisive factor.” Scheeßel mayor Käthe Dittmer-Scheele praised the cooperation between the festival and the local authorities, highlighting the efforts Scorpio has made to keep a clean site.

Scorpio chief Folkert Koopmans was pleased with the upgrading of the catering at Hurricane, which involved bringing in 50 trucks from Austria and abroad. It meant the bars were well-stocked with a wide variety of drinks and there was no queuing to get served.

The acts keeping the music fans happy at Hurricane and Southside June 19-21 included Placebo, Florence &The Machine, Deadmau5, Alt-J, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, and The Gaslight Anthem.