Danish Down The Drain Group Celebrates Festival Success With Tinderbox And Northside

Tinderbox, which took place in Odense June 27-29, attracted a record attendance of 45,000, while NorthSide in Aarhus, June 6-8, celebrated its 10th birthday with advances in sustainability.  Approximately 35,000 people attended the latter. 

Both festivals largely shared a lineup that consisted of Neil Young, Miley Cyrus, Swedish House Mafia, Lana Del Rey, The Chainsmokers, Bon Iver, Khalid, Tame Impala, New Order and more.

NorthSide, which was voted Best Medium Sized Festival 2018 at the European Festival Awards, offered a 100% organic food menu at approximately 40 food stalls, as well as in the artist and crew areas. 

The festival also completely phased out water in single use plastic bottles on site and backstage. Volunteers and the festival crew were all given a reusable water bottle and guests were encouraged to bring their own, which could be filled for free at the many water posts throughout the festival. 

Justin Vernon of Bon Iver said: “We’ve been to about a hundred billion festivals and this is the first one, where there are absolutely no plastic bottles. That seems just a little bit more important than drums, guitars, and bass.”

Down The Drain Group additionally launched an initiative to reuse plastic cups in collaboration with Tuborg, Roskilde Festival and GRØN. It resulted in the total elimination of single-use plastic cups at both NorthSide and Tinderbox, where 9,000 reusable cups were washed every hour before being put back into circulation. A deposit system on the sturdy cups made this possible. 

The promoter reported “an overall cleaner festival site, as people refrained from littering in general, thus making both NorthSide and Tinderbox the tidiest, they have ever been.” 

Since May, Down The Drain Group is part of live entertainment investor Superstruct Entertainment that also owns and operates Sziget, Elrow, Sónar, Øyafestivalen, Boardmasters, Flow Festival and more festivals across the world.

Down The Drain Group CEO Brian Nielsen said: “Five years with Tinderbox have flown by and it’s incredible to think that we have created 20 editions of festivals including NorthSide, Tinderbox, Haven, and GrimFest in just ten years. 

“In this time Down The Drain Group has emerged as a serious contender on the festival market – not just domestically, but throughout Europe. And now with Superstruct backing the group, we are very much looking forward to taking these amazing festivals to the next level.”

Dates for NorthSide and Tinderbox 2020 are June 4-6 and June 25–27, respectively.