Record-Breaking Ruisrock

The 40th edition of Ruisrock broke its attendance record by shifting 92,000 tickets over the July 3-5 weekend, but a quirk in the way the Finns work out anniversaries means the celebrations won’t happen until next week.

The country’s major outdoor is like the festival version of Buzz Aldrin – the second man to set foot on the moon. Ruisrock started later in the same year as Holland’s Pinkpop Festival, which has the Guinness Book Of Records entry for being the world’s oldest continually running festival.

“Pinkpop celebrated its 40th anniversary this year, but we will wait until next year and then celebrate the fact we have then completed 40 festivals,” said Ruisrock chief Juhani Merimaa, explaining why he won’t be blowing out the candles on the birthday cake until 2010.

Ruisrock could have the record book entry for itself, as it was scheduled for earlier in the calendar than Pinkpop, but the original organisers couldn’t find the right acts and postponed until later in the year.

The festival’s Friday night focuses on rock and this year featured Slipknot, Disturbed and Children Of Bodom, which pulled 27,000.
The Saturday night lineup was dedicated mainly to Scandinavian music and included Mew from Denmark, The Sounds from Sweden and top Finnish talent such as Eppu Normaali and Disco Ensemble, which did a sold-out 35,000.

On the final night night, Faith No More, Volbeat, Calexico and The Gaslight Anthem did another 30,000.