Reeperbahn Sets Out Its Stall

However many cities are trying to stage the showcase festival and industry conference that becomes Germany’s international platform, there’s growing evidence that Hamburg’s Reeperbahn Festival has as good a chance as any.

Apart from avoiding the behind-the-scenes in-fighting that appears to have hampered Popkomm in Berlin, it’s also first to set out a clear agenda for how it will further improve in 2010.

The festival began in 2006, co-produced by Hamburg promoters Karsten Jahnke Konzertdirektion and Alexander Schulz’s Inferno Events, and there were doubts about its ability to survive, as it only attracted 9,000 people.

However, it was very well received by those who did attend and got rave reviews from the media. The following year saw 12,000 tickets sold, in 2008 it was more than 15,000 and past breakeven point, and last year it was a 17,000-capacity sellout. The capacity has been raised to 20,000 for 2010.

Three years ago Folkert Koopmans’ FKP Scorpio, another Hamburg-based promoter, joined Jahnke’s office and Schultz on the booking team. This year there may be as many as many as 220 bands – 50 more than in 2009.

Another five clubs in the Reeperbahn area, once the world’s most famous red light district, will bring the number of participating venues up to two dozen.

In 2009 the northern German city unashamedly tried to exploit the gap in the conference calendar created by the cancellation of Popkomm by bolting an international music conference on to the festival.

Hamburg Marketing media relations director Guido Neumann, one of those behind the launch of the new conference, says the city had already been planning it for some time.

The original plan had been to spend three or four years creating an alternative to Popkomm, but when the Berlin event was canceled, Hamburg decided to seize the opportunity.

Reeperbahn Campus, as the conference is called, ran parallel with the festival and attracted 1,300 music industry reps from 16 countries. This year’s Reeperbahn Festival and Campus are in Hamburg Sept. 23-25.