Rock A Field’s ‘Proper’ Festival

Having expanded the festival from one day to two and created a camping site, the organisers of Luxembourg’s Rock A Field believe they’ve turned the event into “a proper festival.”

Two years ago promoter Patrick Bartz told Pollstar the festival would need to run longer if it was ever going to make money. A one-day Rock A Field featuring The Prodigy, Kasabian, The Gossip, and 30 Seconds To Mars had come close to selling out its 20,000-capacity.

The small site, in a forest clearing near Luxembourg, doesn’t have space for increasing the capacity and increasing the number of days was the only way to increase revenues.

“It would cut our production and infrastructure costs if we set up for two days and there’s another clearing that’s within walking distance that could be used as a camping site,” Bartz said at the time.

“Some agents have joked about it becoming a proper festival,” he explained. “I suppose that in the past it could have been seen as a one-day concert in a field.”

Rock A Field pulled nearly 18,000 per day, the same as what has been its average one-day crowd, so the seventh reunion looks to be the start of its history as a two-dayer.

The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, to give the country its full title, has a population of less than 600,000, although its size means the festival is within easy traveling distance of the neighbouring Belgium, France, and Germany.

Although there was space for only 4,000 campers, Bartz and his team – which also runs Luxembourg’s 1,200-capacity Den Atelier – feel they coped well with running an event that had people onsite for a couple of days.

“We never previously had to consider the idea of working in shifts,” he said. “We had to employ more security of course. One thing we noticed was the number of people walking the track between the campsite and the arena. It’s a five-minute walk and the traffic was constant.”

The acts helping the crowd enjoy a sleepover in Luxembourg June 23-24 included Biffy Clyro, Motorhead, Mumford & Sons, Snow Patrol, Deadmau5, and Billy Talent.