Features
Main Square Becomes Main Event
The 11th edition of Live Nation France’s Main Square Festival in Arras provided its first sellout, with crowds of 40,000 per day.
In France
Armel Campagna, LN’s head of French festivals, says the 20,000 three-day passes were sold out in January, although at the time only Muse, Lenny Kravitz, Pharrell Williams, Shaka Ponk, and Lilly Wood & The Pricks had been announced.
Sam Smith, The Script, Hozier, George Ezra, and Rudimental were among the acts later added to the July 3-5 bill.
The festival was started more than a decade ago by Live Nation Belgium chief Herman Shueremans, causing something of an outcry among French festival promoters. Over the same three days as Main Square, Les Eurockeennes de Belfort – which wasn’t among the festivals that protested the arrival of Main Square – also had a three-day sellout.
The 34,000-per-day crowd at Belfort enjoyed Sting, The Chemical Brothers, Alabama Shakes, Royal Blood, Ibeyi, and James Blake, among others.