Europe Festivals: Scotland, Germany, Norway

Scottish Loopallu Returns ‘One Last Time’

The beloved Loopallu festival, which takes place in Ullapool, Scotland, for the 13th time this year on Sept. 29-30, won’t return in 2018. “With a heavy heart, we’ve decided that our 13th outing is going to be our last,” the festival’s organizers, Beyond Highlands, founded and headed by Robert Hicks, wrote in a statement. The festival was forced to move from its longtime home at Broomfield Holiday Park in Ullapool to the coastal town’s port pier for this year’s edition.

According to The Herald Scotland, this meant “they had to restrict numbers, with the 2,500 capacity cut by more than a half and festival-goers would be unable to camp on site.” Paolo Nutini, Mumford and Sons, Twin Atlantic, Jake Bugg, The Stranglers and Franz Ferdinand are among the acts who played Loopallu in the past. “There’s no time to be sad, it’s time to celebrate what has made Loopallu so special over the years. Time to celebrate how the little event with a big heart transformed a small West Coast village at the end of the season, bringing millions of pounds into the economy over the years, and not to mention the priceless friendships established,” the organizers state.

They also hint that “Loopallu may come back in the future in a different guise, but for now let’s have a party one last time.”

New German Rock Festival

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Popp Concerts is promoting a new one-day festival called Rockaway Beach Open Air in Losheim am See, Germany, Sept. 1. The festival will take place one day prior to Popp Concert’s third edition of Lucky Lake, an electronic music festival on the same site.

According to Musikwoche, Lucky Lake attracted some 5,000 visitors last year. Confirmed acts for the premiere of Rockaway Beach Open Air include Fehlfarben, Turbostaat and Pascow. Lucky Lake welcomes Boris Brejcha, Worakls, Felix Kröcher and others.

European Festival Conference Returns

The second edition of Yourope’s European Festival Conference (EFC) will take place in Larvik, Norway, Nov. 23-25.

Conference head and Yourope general secretary Christof Huber expects some 100 delegates from the live entertainment space, in particular festival promoters, to take part in interactive and practical sessions focusing on “The Future of Festivals,” which is this year’s motto. Participants in the EFC premiere 2015 praised the interactive and participatory format of the event.

It was therefore important to Huber to maintain that particular aspect. “The European Festival Conference is different from other conferences and seminars. All the participants are very much involved in all the workshops, create and give inputs.

The first conference was the starting point of many projects and initiatives for European Festivals and I am convinced will continue in that same positive energy and spirit.”

One such initiative was the Mission Statement of Yourope which was followed by “Take A Stand,” a campaign encouraging social cohesion in a divided world, headed by Yourope and supported by over 50 festivals, associations, clubs, companies and partners all over Europe.

In the same spirit that helped shape “Take a Stand,” a panel at this year’s edition will ask the questions whether festivals are getting their message across to the audience. Are they still speaking the same language? If not, how do they get back in touch?

This year’s lineup includes Ben Challis (Glastonbury Festival), Andras Berta (Sziget Festival), Holger Jan Schmidt (GreenEvents), Henrik Bondo Nielsen (Roskilde Festival), Pascal Viot (Paléo Festival), Manfred Tari (Pop 100), Fruzsina Szép (Lollapalooza Berlin) and more.

Technology experts from MusicAlly will be on site as well, and the Music Support Group will address Work-Life-Balance in the music industry. EFC 2017 takes place at the Farris Bad Hotel in Norway. Registration is now open.