Switzerland’s Paléo Festival Nyon Sells Out In 21 Minutes

The Paléo Festival Nyon 2024 reports that all 200,000 tickets for the July 23-28 event sold out in just 21 minutes March 20, just one week after it was announced, “underlining the tremendous loyalty of the public,” according to a festival statement.

“The Festival team is delighted with the overwhelming response to this year’s line-up, an invitation to broaden one’s musical horizons even further,” the statement continues.

The festival lineup includes Sean Paul, Patti Smith, Booba, Nile Rodgers & CHIC, Paul Kalkbrenner and Véronique Sanson,  as well as Burna Boy, Sam Smith, Gazo & Tiakola, Aurora, Zaho de Sagazan and The Blaze.

The Ticket Exchange will open at 11 a.m. local time on March 27. During the festival, 1,500 daily tickets will go on sale every morning through the festival website.

The Paléo Festival, located between the cities of Geneva and Lausanne, sold out in 41 minutes last year and is considered one of Europe’s largest open-air fests.

“The Festival team is delighted with the response and would like to thank the public for their incredible loyalty,” the statement reads.

It appears that Paléo has overcome fears, as recently as pre-COVID 2020, that the Swiss festival market had become oversaturated.

Paléo was founded in 1976. As the biggest and oldest event in the region it enjoys a lot of loyalty from its customers, the vast majority of which – around 95% French speaking locals – live within a 50-mile radius of the festival. It could be one of those events that sell out before announcing a single act.

A non-profit association runs Paléo Festival, the majority of people working on the event each year are volunteers, some 5,000 in total across all positions, with the exception of the management level.

“All the money we earn with this even, we reinvest into the event. And the audience feels that they’re our first priority. They feel like they’re being taken serious, and the value for money is the best they think they can get. And when they’re at the event, the experience is always close to perfection. It’s all about the audience, and this makes the whole difference,” longtime talent buyer Dany Hassenstein told Pollstar in 2020.