A Sort Of Happy Ending

Dieter Boes and Folkert Koopmans are both very satisfied with the way the German festival season has gone, although the latter was a little miffed that Area 4 in Ludinghausen didn’t produce much of a happy ending.

Slipknot pulled out citing illness with a little more than a week to go, and the FKP Scorpio chief found himself refunding tickets as well as trying to sell them.

“I’m disappointed but I can only be a little disappointed because it’s been such a good year,” he said after Area 4 pulled a little more than 15,000 per day. The capacity is 25,000 and he would have liked to have been 5,000 closer to it.

It was still a little up on last year and came on the back of sellouts at Hurricane, Southside, Highfield and Chiemsee Reggae, while M’Era Luna – FKP’s other major outdoor – fell only a couple of thousand short.

The acts at Area 4 August 29-31 included Apocalyptica, Die Ärzte, Gogol Bordello and Plain White T’s.

Boes, who also has a share in Southside, was happy with the 23,000 crowd that turned up to the Bodenseestadion on the shores of Lake Konstanz August 30 to see a Rock Am See bill that also included Die Ärzte and Plain White T’s, along with Iggy & The Stooges, Shout Out Louds and Bad Religion.