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Storms Smash Rock For People
Torrential rain and wind speeds up to 120 kmph laid waste the Rock For People Festival at Hradec Kralova and came close to forcing the event to be canceled.
The largest festival in the Czech Republic suffered four delays, resulting in the cancellation of many of the headline acts.
With most of them on tight touring schedules, it wasn’t possible to find them alternate slots.
Rock For People says it’s not able to refund admission fees, even for the days that were totally wiped out, because it can’t meet the cost.
The festival still hasn’t calculated the financial costs of the disaster but it may put the festival’s future in doubt.
The costs will likely include the fees for the bands that didn’t play as most contracts state that the weather isn’t a condition for not paying the fees, even if the acts aren’t able to play.
In the case of Faith No More, one of the headliners that didn’t get to play, the fee was “several hundred thousand dollars.”
There’s also the matter of thousands of dollars worth of damage to the sound and lighting equipment.
The acts that were supposed to play Rock For People July 3-6 also included Prodigy, Franz Ferdinand, The Kooks, Orbital, Skrillex, Selah Sue, and Crystal Castles.