Greenfield ‘Better Than Decent’

FKP Scorpio chief Folkert Koopmans’ festival season got off to a “better than decent” start as Greenfield – Switzerland’s first major summer outdoor – pulled 25,000 per day.

With his twinned Southside Festival June 18-20 already sold out and Hurricane very close to it, which is a total of 120,000 tickets, his comment may also apply to his expectations of how the 2010 festival market will turn out.

Hurricane and Southside are two of Germany’s fastest-growing festivals as only six years ago their combined capacities amounted to only 75,000 people.

“In Germany we have a saying about not speaking of things before they have actually happened, but at the moment everything is looking good,” he told Pollstar.

FKP Scorpio’s German festival season also includes Highfield, M’Era Luna, Chiemsee Reggae and Area 4 – plus any outdoor shows his company does at Hamburg’s 10,000-capacity horse racing track at Trabrennbahn Bahrenfeld.

The only minor hitch at Greenfield was the arrest of three people behind a counterfeit ticket scam, which caused Scorpio to once again repeat its call for fans to only buy tickets from official sources.

The acts helping to get the summer off to a bright start at Interlaken June 11-13 included The Prodigy, The Hives, Rammstein, Coheed & Cambria, HIM, Beatsteaks, Danko Jones, Juliette Lewis, and Heaven Shall Burn.