Scorpio Calls Time On Hultsfred

The news is no surprise, particularly to anyone who heard FKP chief Folkert Koopmans’ comments on the Swedish festival market at last September’s Reeperbahn conference in Germany.

He said that, in his own country, established festivals such as Rock am Ring, Rock im Park and his own Hurricane and Southside have built up reputations, but reputation doesn’t seem to amount to much in Sweden.

He said the Swedish audience seems to prefer a new festival, evidenced by the fact Koopmans’ inaugural Bravalla Festival was the country’s biggest in 2013.

Hultsfred was once Sweden’s biggest festival and was its third-biggest as recently as 2009.

A year later, the company behind it had to throw in the towel two days before what would have been its 25th anniversary, with ticket sales reportedly 8,000 short of the break-even mark.

The festival struggled through years of failing to hit the break-even point of about 22,000 people, leading it to collapse under a pile of accumulated debt.

Koopmans bought the event out of receivership at the beginning of 2011, but neither of the Hultsfreds he’s subsequently staged have performed as well as his other Nordic events. He told Pollstar that next year he will replace Hultsfred with another new Swedish festival.

Recent events seem to bear out Koopmans’ view of the Swedish outdoor market as top fests including Arvika and Peace & Love have fallen by the wayside. The first sign of change (and the demise of Hultsfred) came in October, when Koopmans reorganized the company’s Stockholm office.

Scorpio festival bookings chief Stephan Thanscheidt, who’d recently been promoted to joint managing director, took over the programming of FKP’s Swedish outdoors.

Gunnar Lagerman, who had run the Swedish end of Hultsfred and had been its international booker for 20 years up until 2003, was moved to a consultancy role.

Further south in Denmark, FKP’s Northside Festival received a ringing endorsement from Århus mayor Jacob Bundsgaard. He told local media that the city is proud to host the event.