Sign up for IQ Index
The latest industry news to your inbox.
"We are coming back humble, stronger, and with an ambitious plan to create an even more beautiful festival," say organisers
By James Hanley on 10 Sep 2024
Poland’s Fest Festival is to return next year following a “restructuring process” at organiser Follow The Step.
The scheduled fourth edition of the event, which last took place two years ago, was cancelled in August 2023 – just days before it was due to take place – and filed for bankruptcy after selling only 50% of its tickets.
Follow The Step began a restructure in the wake of the cancellation, which came two months after it called off its Warsaw festival On Air, and suspended its participation in all its pending events, which it switched to other promoters.
However, Fest Festival 2025 has now been confirmed for Silesia Park in Chorzów, near Katowice, on 15-16 August.
“We spent the last year on intensive restructuring work,” says a statement by organisers. “The 2023 edition was a huge lesson for us and we learnt from it. We are coming back humble, stronger, and with an ambitious plan to create an even more beautiful festival.”
The 35,000-cap festival, which was set to feature the likes of The Chemical Brothers, Kasabian and Peggy Gou, had previously seen its attendance expand by 30% per year to become one of the fastest-growing music festivals in eastern Europe.
“Participants who have not received a refund for their purchased tickets will receive passes from us to next year’s Fest”
Next year’s capacity will revert to 20,000 – the same number as the first edition of the event, with ticket-holders left out of pocket by the 2023 cancellation to be offered free admission to the event. Tickets go on sale on 23 September.
“Our main goal is to focus on what matters most – you, our participants,” continues the statement. “We start the new year with a settlement from 2023 and as promised earlier, participants who have not received a refund for their purchased tickets will receive passes from us to next year’s Fest.
“Five thousand tickets will be given for free to customers who did not receive a refund for previously purchased tickets. The remaining 15,000 places will be divided into 12,000 two-day passes and 3,000 one-day tickets for each day of the festival.”
In order to be “completely transparent” with fans, the team have detailed the plans on the event’s new website, including a rolling ticket sales counter.
“The 2025 edition is held under the sign of full transparency and transparent communication,” it adds. “To prove these words, we have placed a counter on the website indicating the current number of participants in the upcoming edition of the event. This data will include the total number of tickets sold and participants who received tickets for the next edition of the event.”
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.