Europe: Bestival, Timber, Guts, Ticketmaster

Bestival UK Moves Into ‘Peak Season’

Facebook – Bestival

The next edition of the family-friendly Bestival will take place Aug. 2-5, 2018, moving its traditional early-September date forward.

Next year marks the 250th anniversary of the Circus at Lulworth Estate, and festival founder Rob da Bank intends to celebrate the occasion “Bestival style! Bearded freaks, insane acrobats, high wire daredevils, mutant jugglers and an out of control ringmaster all eager for you to join the most colorful show on earth await!

“And what makes this show even more unmissable is we have moved into peak season August style and will be open a month earlier than usual.”

The decision to move dates forward is a “response to festivalgoers’ feedback.”

This year, the event took place on the grounds of Lulworth Castle in Dorset, England, for the first time, leaving its former site, the Isle Of Wight.

Presale tickets for Bestival 2018 will be priced £139 plus fees, early birds on sale is £149 plus fees.

Timber: New Forest Festival By Wild Rumpus

Timber is to combine music, art, philosophy and sustainability in the heart of the English National Forest, July 6-8, 2018.

The new festival intends to highlight the “transformative impact of forests” and let visitors explore “what woodlands can mean to us and how we can re-imagine our relationship with our environment,” according to the announcement made by the National Forest Company and  promoter Wild Rumpus, which also produces the Just So family and arts Festival.

Timber aims to be carbon neutral and exclusively powered by renewable energy. To achieve this, organizers are partnering with other international forest festivals.

The music program will likely include three live music stages. The lineup is to be announced early 2018.

The exact location is Feanedock, a 70-acre woodland site at the heart of the National Forest, which embraces 200 square miles of the English Midlands. The forest was created 25 years ago, and more than eight and a half million trees have been planted since then.

The directors of Wild Rumpus, Sarah Bird and Rowan Hoban, said in a joint statement: “We are thrilled to be partnering with the National Forest Company to create Timber together. We can’t wait to welcome audiences to the first festival which will provide incredible and transformational experiences and, we hope, fast become a solid addition to the thriving UK festival scene.”

Ticketmaster Extends Got Event Partnership

Live Nation’s Ticketmaster is going to provide ticketing for Got Event’s numerous venues in Gothenburg, Sweden, for the coming three years.

The venues include the 43,200-capacity Ullevi stadium, the 12,000-capacity Scandinavium arena, the 6,500-capacity Bravida Arena and the 3,500-capacity Lisebergshallen, together hosting more than 400 events annually.

Got Event is owned by the City of Gothenburg and manages events at the city’s sports venues. CEO Lotta Nibell said, “It’s great to have the opportunity to continue our work with Ticketmaster. As a business that runs over 400 events annually, it is of utmost importance to have a partner capable of managing all different kinds of ticket sales to fans across Sweden and beyond.”

Kristian Seljeset, CEO of Ticketmaster Sweden, added: “Got Events provides the magic of live entertainment to hundreds of thousands of fans every year. We’re very proud to have not only renewed our partnership with Got Event but strengthened it with the addition of its sports club ticket sales.”

Blockchain Ticketer Guts Raises $2.5M

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Guts, an Amsterdam-based company that offers primary and secondary ticketing using Blockchain technology, has raised $2.5 million in an Initial Coin Offering.

An ICO is an IPO for companies operating with crypto currencies. Instead of shares, investors receive tokens that will increase in value if the company is successful.

Guts claims to have created a “self-aware” ticket, to use the words of Maarten Bloemers, co-founder of the Amsterdam-based company.

“We create a smart ticket by registering it in the Blockchain with a unique code, the Hash. The ticket has properties and a unique owner, and is constantly checking if those properties are still in order and whether the owner is still the same,” Bloemers told Pollstar in a previous interview.

Properties include when and where a ticket can be sold or at what level the resale price should be capped. Because the ticket exists digitally on the Blockchain, it can be programmed to work in a certain way, according to rules that artists, agents and promoters decide.

As a smart ticket “knows” when it is resold, automatically creating a new code, and the ticket’s entire life cycle is archived on the Blockchain.

Guts aims to give promoters and artists complete control over every aspect of their ticket, with pricing being the most important – especially now that the Dutch senate has rejected legislation that would limit the mark-up on the resale of concert tickets.

“Without legislative protection, artists, promoters, and event organizers continue to have almost no control over the secondary market for their tickets.  Predatory resellers, also referred to as ‘scalpers,’ can continue to take advantage of this arbitrage opportunity, shifting the market for an artist, and edging out fans,” a statement from Guts read.

The company expects to raise another $17 million when the ICO officially commences on Nov. 15th.