‘Lowlands is not just a lineup, it’s a culture’

Lowlands director Eric van Eerdenburg has spoken to IQ about the 2024 event – his penultimate edition before stepping down.

This year’s instalment sold out in less than 15 minutes in February – the Dutch festival’s third-fastest sellout after 2023 (14 minutes) and 2022 (two minutes).

Around 65,000 tickets flew off the shelf for the Mojo-promoted festival, featuring Fred Again…, Justice and Gold Band among others.

Discussing the secret to Lowlands’ success, Eerdenburg tells IQ: “It’s not just a lineup. It’s a culture we’ve established over the last 25 years and have managed to stay in touch with. It’s a three-day Fata Morgana [mirage] that everybody wants to be part of. You’re there for three days getting dazzled by it all and then you wake up and real life starts again.”

The director credits his booking team, which is comprised of Mojo Concerts promoters, for staying on top of the zeitgeist.

“They book and promote 3,000 club shows a year, so they see what sparks and what doesn’t,” he explains. “It’s really important that we are in contact with the live music scene 365 days a year. The same goes for my non-music bookers, who are freelancers. They’ve got two feet in their scene and know exactly what’s going on.”

“Lowlands is a three-day Fata Morgana [mirage] that everybody wants to be part of”

Though this year’s edition was “easy” compared to the last two years, according to Eerdenburg, there were still several hurdles to clear including cancellations from several top-billing acts.

Queens of The Stone Age (QOTSA), The Smile and Joy Orbison were among the dropouts – the former leaving a headliner-shaped hole in the programme.

The Lowlands booking team managed to secure Justice as a replacement headliner in the space of a week and a half – a decision that eventually paid off.

“They delivered a very impressive show and the venue was full,” says Eerdenburg. “We were sorry we didn’t book them in the first place.”

This year’s edition also saw ticket prices increase to €325 for the three-day affair, up from €300 in 2023 and €255 in 2022.

While Eerdenburg is concerned that Lowlands’ increasingly young audience will be priced out of the festival, he maintains that the festival is good value for money.

“It’s a constant struggle to keep tickets affordable”

“It’s a constant struggle to keep tickets affordable,” he says. “I think we have one of the highest ticket prices in Holland but if you compare it to a weekend in London, Paris or Berlin, it’s cheap. Plus, attendees are offered so much entertainment for just €115 per day. People tell me every year that they’ve had the best weekend of their lives.”

With the price of energy, production and acts rapidly increasing, a hike in the ticket price was necessary to “make a reasonable margin” adds Eerdenburg.

“Artists – especially the more successful ones – are getting more and more expensive and that’s worrying me,” he continues. “There’s an ongoing struggle with agents who think their artist is worth more money.

“Within the agency business, nobody takes responsibility for the industry as a whole. No, they work for the artist and they want more money. As a festival, we have to keep investing in artists to keep the profile of the festival, to keep the young people coming in and to get a three-day full programme. But it all comes back to the ticket price.”

Ticket prices in the Netherlands will likely continue on an upward trajectory, with the Dutch government poised to raise the VAT rate for concert and festival tickets from 9% to 21%,

“For a Lowlands ticket, that means a 12% increase or €40 more just on taxes,” says the director. “I’m really worried about it. The whole industry gets hit in the face and we expect a big backlash. We’ll have to see what choices the people are going to make. I hope they keep choosing Lowlands.”

“I’m really worried about the increase in VAT… we expect a big backlash”

In order to offset costs and increase value for attendees, Lowlands ushered in a raft of new sponsors for this year’s edition including MacDonald’s, IKEA and BOL.

While some complained that the festival had become “too commercial”, the sponsors’ activations were received well by attendees, according to Eerdenburg.

“This year, IKEA provided a dome full of mattresses where people could take a power nap,” he says. “It looked like a fairy tale and after 20 minutes, you came out refreshed.

“The visitors don’t complain if the sponsors have added value. Plus, if the sponsors bring entertainment, you don’t have to bring that yourself and that’s good for the P&L.”

Elsewhere, Lowlands made huge strides with its sustainability strategy. For the first time, the festival was partially powered by energy from its solar carport – the largest in the world.

Around 1/3 of the event’s power consumption was drawn from the 90,000 solar panels, stationed in the site’s car park, instead of diesel generators.

With his time at Lowlands drawing to a close, Eerdenburg is already taking stock of his 25 years at the Dutch institution.

“There are things that pop up where I think ‘I’m so glad I never have to deal with this again’ and then there are the things I will miss very much,” he says. “It’s good that we took one and a half years to get used to the idea of me stepping back and adapt to that. I’m still fully behind the festival.”

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