Festival heads talk costs: “There is trouble ahead”
European festival heads discussed the impact of spiralling costs on the 2022 and 2023 festival seasons at last week’s Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg, Germany.
Stephan Thanscheidt (FKP Scorpio, DE), Catharine Krämer (DreamHaus, DE), and Codruța Vulcu (ARTmania, RO) were among the pros discussing higher expenses during the Festival Season 22/23 panel.
Thanscheidt told the panel that while Hamburg-headquartered FKP Scorpio sold out 27 of its 28 festivals, the margins were “complete shit” due to higher expenses.
“Production costs are up 25–30%,” he said. “It depends on the department because some [costs] are up just 10% but others were like 120%. This year we were put into a corner where we could either say yes [to the increase] or just not do the festival.”
The company’s festival portfolio includes Hurricane (DE), Southside (DE), Provinssi (FI), Sideways (FI), Greenfield (CH), Best Kept Secret (NL) and new festival Tempelhof Sounds (DE) – some of which were €30 to €50 more expensive to attend this year.
While FKP Scorpio sold out 27 of its 28 festivals, the margins were “complete shit” due to higher expenses
“We’re trying to [increase ticket prices] in a very smooth way,” said Thanscheidt. “If we get to €400–500 for normal festival tickets, we’ll have a problem. We’re trying to be very sensible in setting the prices. So we’re very happy that the audience was fine with that and we sold all the tickets without getting a shitstorm on socials or something.”
In Romania, rising costs are only exacerbated by the country’s close proximity to the war in Ukraine.
“The inflation rate is 15.5% which is extremely high so everything from production to personnel was completely out of proportion,” said Vulcu, CEO of ARTmania, Romania’s longest-running rock festival.
Vulcu told the panel that many of the festival’s partners backed out of supporting the 2022 event but the main sponsor, German hypermarket chain Kaufland, offered to make up the slack.
“They said ‘Okay, let’s give you some more money to survive. Can we take extra costs from you that we can put on our budgets?’ So it was a positive and totally unexpected turn but apparently, they were they are wanting to be the saviours of festivals,” she said.
“The inflation rate [in Romania] is 15.5% so everything from production to personnel was completely out of proportion”
Looking towards next year’s ARTmania, which is already on sale, Vulcu says it’s hard to see how the festival can spread skyrocketing costs.
“We book mainly internationally and the prices that I’m getting from some artists are not low but we can’t put the ticket prices so high that the young people can’t come,” she explained.
DreamHaus’ Krämer says the Berlin-based agency is facing a similar stalemate situation for next year’s festival season after their production costs increased 25–30%.
“No supplier will ever say ‘We’re going back to the prices that we had in 2019’,” she said. “So we could lower the cost of the whole festival experience but this would have a significant impact on the whole quality of it.”
CTS Eventim-backed DreamHaus is jointly responsible for organising and programming the Rock am Ring and Rock im Park festivals, which have a combined attendance of 150,000, among other events.
“We could lower the cost of the whole festival experience but this would have a significant impact on the quality”
Referencing Thanscheidt’s earlier point, Krämer added: “There are not that many suppliers that can supply festivals of our size so we’re also in a corner, where we can take it or leave it.”
Thanscheidt says the crisis will only get worse ahead of next year’s season, though he’s bullish about the industry’s ability to come up with solutions.
“Costs will not go down next year,” said Thanscheidt. “Gas and electricity prices are doubled now and they will be tripled in a few weeks. Inflation might go up again.
“There are some months of trouble coming up and the result is yet to be seen. But of course, we will all stay very positive because that’s what we always do in an industry in which most of us have a DIY background. So let’s see how we solve this but it will not be easy.”
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ARTmania spearheads launch of job site for Ukrainians
European festivals ARTmania (Romania) and Pohoda (Slovakia) have teamed up with Music Export Ukraine to launch a pan-European job site that aims to help displaced Ukrainians from the live music industry find work in other countries.
The companies say that ARTery was launched as a reaction to the war in Ukraine but that the platform will also counter the effects of the staff shortage in Europe caused by Covid.
“We want to help [Ukrainians] resume their lives with dignity in other countries and give them a sense of normality by helping them to do what they’re trained to do,” Codruța Vulcu, festival director at ARTMania in Romania, previously told IQ.
“We want to help [Ukrainians] resume their lives with dignity in other countries”
“The aim is that these people don’t end up washing dishes in Berlin, for example, but that they can continue the work they’ve studied and prepared for – and all that added value will not get lost,” she says.
The platform officially launched on Saturday (7 May) and is already advertising jobs for ARTmania festival, Music Export Ukraine and European Music Exporters Exchange in Belgium.
Companies can post a job, while Ukrainian music representatives can register and create a profile in order to browse job offers and apply directly. Visit the ARTery website here.
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European live industry stepping up for Ukraine
Live music markets around the world are pitching in to support the citizens of Ukraine, as the Russian military continues its full-scale invasion of the country.
From helping with logistics at borders to finding employment for displaced professionals, the global sector is utilising its unique resources to help those fleeing the conflict.
Codruța Vulcu, festival director at ARTMania in Romania, is spearheading the launch of a pan-European job site that aims to help uprooted Ukrainians from the live music industry find work in other countries.
“We want to help them resume their lives with dignity in other countries and give them a sense of normality by helping them to do what they’re trained to do,” she tells IQ.
“I would call it an ideological solution for what Putin is trying to do. He’s trying to destroy a way of life and whatever these people have built and invested in.
“We want to help them resume their lives with dignity in other countries and give them a sense of normality”
“The aim is that these people don’t end up washing dishes in Berlin, for example, but that they can continue the work they’ve studied and prepared for – and all that added value will not get lost,” she says.
The platform, due to launch within the next week, is called ARTery for that very reason. “An artery keeps life going,” she explains. “It keeps the flow of blood and life – and so to say the activity of art – going.”
Michal Kascak from Pohoda, Slovakia’s biggest festival, is also involved in the project and the pair are attempting to enlist as many festivals, companies and venues within the industry as possible.
Vulcu hopes that, even after the war, the platform will be used by creatives around the world fleeing from conflict areas or dictatorial regimes – including Russians.
Alongside the launch of ARTery, ARTMania and Pohoda are deploying production staff to help organise logistics at their respective borders.
“I think that we as concert promoters, venues, clubs, festivals should offer slots in our events to Ukrainians who can play”
In addition, Pohoda also recently organised a solidarity concert for the people of Ukraine, which became a high-profile event in Slovakia.
“Slovakia’s president Zuzana Čaputová came to the event and made a great speech onstage, which was a surprise for everyone,” Kascak tells IQ.
“I was also positively surprised that public TV called us the evening before and asked to join the concert. Slovenska One, the major channel in Slovakia, broadcast the concert live on TV for three hours nonstop!”
The concert took place last Sunday (27 February) in Bratislava’s Main Square and featured more than 20 acts from Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Ukraine.
“I think that we as concert promoters, venues, clubs, festivals should offer slots in our events to Ukrainians who can play and bring a message from their country to ours,” says Kascak. “I think it can be a strong gesture and can also help to unite people and to spread the message about what’s going on in Ukraine.”
But it’s not just neighbouring countries that are pitching in to support citizens in Ukraine. In Austria, promoter Barracuda Music has transformed part of Nova Rock‘s festival site into a refugee centre.
Nova Rock Hall, which is typically used as a backstage and hospitality area during the festival, is now equipped to accommodate up to 480 refugees.
“The hall is set up in multiple sections, which are suited for 50 people each and include beds and seating,” Barracuda Music CEO Ewald Tatar explains to IQ. “Electricity, water, heating, light and hygiene and sanitation facilities (toilets, garbage disposal etc.) are all installed to accommodate the refugees.”
“It is important that the international live music industry shows solidarity with Ukraine,” adds Tatar.
Alongside the refugee centre, Nova Rock is also gearing up for a fundraising concert, titled ‘We Stand with Ukraine’.
The charity gig, announced today, is scheduled for 19 March at Ernst Happel-Stadion, Vienna, and donations will benefit people affected by the Ukraine war.
Nova Rock’s event is one of countless fundraisers around the world that have been organised to aid victims of the war.
Romanian promoter ALDA is spearheading two benefit events – We Are One at Bucharest stadium and Dance for Ukraine in Poland. Elsewhere, Brussels-based festivals, nightclubs and events have announced an open-air festival at Atomium.
Poland’s Follow the Step is gearing up to announce “the biggest show in Poland together with television and local artists”. While, across the pond, New York’s City Winery is hosting a benefit featuring Ukrainian-born Eugene Hütz & Gogol Bordello, as well as the likes of Patti Smith.
See a non-exhaustive list of benefit concerts, compiled by Music Export Ukraine, below.
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ARTMania’s Codruța Vulcu honoured in Romania
Codruța Vulcu, owner and CEO of ARTmania Festival, visited the Cotroceni Palace in Bucharest on National Culture Day to receive Romania’s Order of Cultural Merit.
She was awarded the prestigious medal on 15 January by Romanian president Klaus Iohannis in recognition of her services to the arts.
Vulcu is the director and founder of ARTmania Festival in Sibiu, the East European Music Conference and Showcase Festival, BlajaLive Festival and Romanian Music Export, as well as vice-president of the Romanian Association of Promoters of Concerts and Cultural Events (Aroc). In 2019 she also organised the official ceremonies for Pope Francis on the Field of Liberty in Blaj, Romania.
“This distinction that belongs to each colleague and collaborator that has been by my side during my 17-year career”
“I am honoured to receive this special distinction, unique in the life of a professional,” she says. “It is an acknowledgement that belongs to all those who believed in me and taught me; a distinction that belongs to each colleague and collaborator that has been by my side during my 17-year career in the music sector.
“Developing and launching international projects like ARTmania or BlajaLive, establishing a musical export bureau, and successfully organising the ceremonies during the official visit of His Holiness Pope Francis, are the results of not just one individual but of an entire team.”
ARTmania, Romania’s longest-running rock festival, won best small festival at the European Festival Awards in 2019, while Vulcu won the award for excellence and passion last year in a personal capacity. The 2021 edition of the festival takes place from 23 to 25 July.
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Festival bosses talk cash flow, artist fees
The second IQ Focus festival panel, Festival Forum: The Next Stage, saw festival leaders from around Europe discuss the thorny issues of refunds and insolvency, as well as the outlook for 2021, in what should have been the halfway point of the 2020 season.
Hosted by IQ Magazine editor Gordon Masson, the panel welcomed Mad Cool’s CIndy Castillo, Isle of Wight Festival/Solo Agency’s John Giddings, ARTmania’s Codruta Vulcua and Goodlive’s Stefan Lehmkuhl, two months on from the initial virtual Festival Forum session.
The current situation, said Giddings, has made it “blatantly obvious” that the business has an issue with cash flow and that many promoters don’t have any kind of “war chest to go forwards”.
“I don’t understand how you bankrupt companies by refunding tickets,” he said. “You shouldn’t be spending the ticket money on costs – you need to be in the position to be able to refund all the money. We have a responsibility to the audience.”
Giddings noted that some promoters have got into the habit of “taking money from the future to pay the past”, and it has become clear that this doesn’t work.
“This may teach people a lesson on how to run a business,” he said.
The other panellists agreed to an extent, but noted that a lack of support and clarity from the authorities has complicated matters in a lot of cases.
“This may teach people a lesson on how to run a business”
“Our government hasn’t even declared force majeure yet for live events”, said Castillo, who promotes Madrid’s Mad Cool festival. “This has put us in a very tricky legal situation.”
The Mad Cool team only started its refund period last week, explained Castillo, but is allowing people to make the decision on whether to hold onto tickets for next year or refund them until after the full 2021 line-up is revealed.
In Romania, said Vulcu, an immediate reimbursement “would have bankrupted many organisers”, as the government is implementing new restrictions every two weeks.
“There are companies with shows built up, everything ready and paid for, and then suddenly it had to be cancelled,” she said. A voucher scheme implemented by the government, allowing promoters to offer credit for shows or merchandise in place of cash refunds, has been a lifeline for many.
ARTmania did choose to offer refunds, but only received 43 requests. “Our decision to trust our audience really worked for us,” said Vulcu, adding that this tactic may “work for rock and metal audiences perhaps more than for others.”
Lehmkuhl, who runs German festivals including Melt, Splash, Superbloom and With Full Force, added that a lot depends on how long the shutdown continues for.
“So far, we have been able to spend our own money,” he said,” but the next step would be to touch the ticket money, then to get low-interest credit from the government in case it takes longer.
“What happens if it takes longer than a year?” he asked. “Few companies will be able to survive for longer than a year.”
“Our decision to trust our audience really worked for us”
Mindful of cash flow, Goodlive has asked for deposits back from acts it booked for this year. “There is mutual understanding there,” said Lehmkuhl. “We are trying to rethink our festivals for next year, adjusting dates and concepts. We will start from scratch in some ways next year.”
As the promoter of Isle of Wight Festival, Giddings said he also asked for deposits to be returned. “We are doing contracts going forward for next year and will pay the deposit then.”
In terms of being an agent, Giddings said he is not going to take a fee reduction for artists. “I would rather they didn’t play than take a reduction on my act,” he said.
“As an agent I wouldn’t book an act for festival next year unless they’re going to pay me the same money,” he said, “and we’ve done the same thing as a festival.”
Ticket prices will also have to stay the same, as so many fans are rolling over their tickets to next year. “Anyone raising ticket prices is insane,” said Giddings. “We need to get an audience back first before charging more.”
Vulcu, who said she left the money with the agencies when rescheduling, agreed that she will not be paying artists less money, “but we will definitely not pay more”.
“Romanian audiences will have a lot less money and the priority will not be going to festivals,” she said.
“As an agent I wouldn’t book an act for festival next year unless they’re going to pay me the same money, and we’ve done the same thing as a festival”
Castillo said her experiences have been “positive” with every agent. “We are looking out for each other to prevent the industry collapsing,” she said.
The Mad Cool booker admitted that it will be “really hard” to get the same audiences next year, “so we need help with fees to make things happen”.
“We are running a big risk with the festival next year”.
The recovery of the music business in Spain “hasn’t event started yet”, said Castillo, as “you first have to understand our business model, identify problems and offer solutions – and we haven’t been offered any solutions yet.”
Vulcu added that support packages offered by governments in western European countries such as Germany and the UK may put newer markets at a disadvantage, as they are less likely to receive support.
Giddings replied that, although the recent culture funding package announced by the UK government is sizeable, “we have no idea who it’s going to go to and how it will work”. He added that it was more likely to benefit venues than agents or promoters.
Sponsors are another issue for 2021. “Investing in events is risky now,” said Castillo, “and this is definitely affecting us.”
Vulcu said that, while ARTmania has secured its main sponsor for next year, “it is very difficult to get new sponsors”.
“Investing in events is risky now, and this is definitely affecting us”
Most Isle of Wight Festival sponsors have also “stuck with us” said Giddings, who believes that sponsors will start to come back in once it’s clear the event is going to happen, although they may be “different kinds of sponsors relating to our changing normal”.
Giddings added that he is “praying” for some direction on what will happen next year by Christmas, with clear information needed by March at the latest.
For Lehmkuhl, the key for the “new normal” is a high level of flexibility and an ability to keep running costs very low.
The Goodlive co-founder said that the idea of testing at festivals “is one of the few realistic plans [for getting event up and running] nowadays”, provided that the government is able to provide tests for free.
“It is hard for me to imagine that we will be able to do festivals as normal next year,” he admitted, “but one thing’s for sure, I will not be doing them with social distancing.”
The next IQ Focus session State of Independence: Promoters will take place on Thursday 16 July at 4 p.m. BST/5 p.m. CET. To set a reminder head to the IQ Magazine page on Facebook or YouTube.
Watch yesterday’s session back below, or on YouTube or Facebook now.
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IQ Focus returns with ‘Festival Forum: The Next Stage’
After a week’s break, IQ’s virtual panel series – IQ Focus – is back with Festival Forum: The Next Stage, which sees representatives from a handful of European festivals give an update on the state of the sector.
The ninth panel of the popular IQ Focus series, the session will be streamed live on Facebook and YouTube on Thursday 9 July at 4 p.m. BST/5 p.m. CET, building on a previous Festival Forum panel almost two months on.
Midway through what would have been this year’s festival season, it’s a summer like no other. But are we midway through the crisis, or is there still further to go before the festival sector can confidently progress into 2021?
How confident are promoters feeling about next year, and are artists and audiences ready to return?
With a number of government support packages in place, and much of this year’s line-ups transplanted to next year, how confident are promoters feeling about next year, and are artists and audiences ready to return?
IQ Magazine editor Gordon Masson hosts this IQ Focus discussion with panellists Cindy Castillo of Spain’s Mad Cool festival; John Giddings of the Isle of Wight Festival and Solo Agency; Stefan Lehmkuhl who promotes Splash, Melt, Superbloom and With Full Force festivals at Germany’s Goodlive; and Codruta Vulcu of Romania’s ARTmania Festival.
All previous IQ Focus sessions, which have looked at topics including diversity in live, management under lockdown, the agency business, large-scale and grassroots music venues and innovation in live music, can be watched back here.
To set a reminder about the IQ Focus Festival Forum: The Next Stage session on Thursday head to the IQ Magazine page on Facebook or YouTube.
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European metal festivals form new alliance
Thirteen independent metal festivals from around Europe have joined forces to create a new alliance, which is hosting a virtual event in August to raise money for the independent festival sector.
Unveiled today (17 June), the European Metal Festival Alliance (Emfa) is a joint venture between Alcatraz in Belgium, Romania’s ARTmania, Bloodstock in the UK, Czech Republic’s Brutal Assault, Dynamo and Into The Grave in the Netherlands, Spain’s Leyendas Del Rock and Resurrection, Slovenia’s Metal Days, Midgardsblot in Norway, France’s Motocultor and German events Party.San and Summer Breeze.
The alliance is putting on a streaming event from 7 to 9 August with exclusive live performances from artists chosen by each festival, as well as a selection of interviews.
Thirteen independent metal festivals from around Europe have joined forces to create a new alliance
Viewers will be asked for €6.66 for a ‘full festival pass’ to raise funds for the independent festival sector, which has been particularly hard hit by the Covid-19 crisis. The pass will give fans access to three days of performances from over 35 acts, as well as a discount on a Emfa ‘Rebooting for 2021’ t-shirt.
Throughout the summer, the newly launched Emfa website will host a range of footage from its founding festivals, including many sets that have not been previously broadcast.
The line-up and schedule for the streaming event will be announced in the coming weeks, with tickets going on sale on 10 July here.
Bloodstock director Rachael Greenfield was among festival heads to take part in the IQ Focus panel Festival Forum: Here Come 21 last month. Set a reminder for this week’s panel, IQ Focus & The MMF: Managing the Crisis, on Facebook or YouTube.
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Romania’s Saga postpones as lockdown lifting nears
The inaugural edition of Insomniac- and Alda-promoted Saga festival has been postponed to September, as the Romanian government prepares to begin a staggered easing of lockdown restrictions in mid-May.
Organisers of Saga, which was originally set to debut from 5 to 7 June in Bucharest’s Izvor park, state the postponement is “the best option for Saga festival with the health and wellbeing of visitors a main priority”.
Although the line-up for the rescheduled event on 11 to 13 September “may be slightly different due to artist scheduling”, organisers assure fans the billing “will be up to [the] standards” of dance music giants Insomniac (Electric Daisy Carnival) and Alda (Amsterdam Music Festival, New Horizons).
Saga joins fellow Bucharest festival Europafest, a multi-venue jazz, blues, pop and classical music event, to change its 2020 dates in view of the coronavirus crisis. Scheduled for May, organisers say they are now planning for Europafest to take place in the second half of July, with dates depending on the evolution of the situation in Romania and at European level.
Other major festivals in Romania, including electronic music events Untold and Neversea and European Festival Awards 2019 winners Electric Castle, Jazz in the Park and ARTmania, have yet to announce changes to their 2020 editions. The government expected to give more details on the future of public events when it begins to ease its stringent lockdown laws – which have seen citizens collectively fined up to €78 million for flouting restrictions – on 15 May.
“Large-scale events are unlikely to take place given the announced and forecasted restrictions”
Although Emil Boc, mayor of the city of Cluj-Napoca where Untold, Electric Castle and Jazz in the Park take place, has said that large-scale events are “unlikely to take place given the announced and forecasted restrictions”, he notes that “difference and diverse ways of organising these events can be found”.
Festival organisers in Romania have also found diverse and different ways of helping the fight against coronavirus in recent weeks.
Promoters in Cluj-Napoca are selling “solidarity tickets” as part of the A Single Cluj (Un Singur Cluj) campaign, which brings together event organisers and others in the region to synchronise relief efforts and pool resources. By purchasing a solidarity ticket, fans can make direct donations to hospitals and other public institutions. “Ticket” prices range from RON 10 to RON 5,000 (€1,034).
Money raised by the campaign has gone towards buying surgical masks for help workers and supplying food to frontline staff. Members of the initiative have also helped to construct emergency triage centres.
The team behind Untold festival, currently set to take place from 30 July to 2 August with acts including Martin Garrix, Steve Aoki, Pussycat Dolls and David Guetta, launched the United Romania initiative, which aims to “bring together the good in Romania”.
So far, the campaign has helped supply six trucks with equipment such as portable flooring, geotextile and lighting from Untold and Neversea festivals for a field hospital in the city of Constanta and has provided 12,000 tests and other medical materials to hospitals in Cluj.
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EEMC enjoys second successful year
The Romanian city of Sibiu hosted more than 30 industry delegates from around the world for the second annual East European Music Conference (EEMC), 26–28 July, where artists expanding their careers outside of Romania’s borders featured heavily on the conference agenda.
Organised with the support of the Romanian Association of Concerts and Cultural Events Organisers (AROC) and sponsors Kaufland, and financed by Sibiu Municipality, the event provided a day-time programme for delegates attending ARTmania Festival, promoted by AROC chair Codruța Vulcu, who is also one of the leading exponents of the country’s new export office.
International producers, booking agents, promoters and showcase event organisers were among those who witnessed the first Romanian Music Export’s showcase, where five acts chosen by an international jury performed on the eve of the ARTmania festival.
The conference schedule included discussions involving the Take a Stand and Music Moves Europe campaigns; initiatives to improve event sustainability; how to make the most of showcase events; and how to set up an export office, while attendees were enthralled by keynote interviews with promoting legend Laszlo Hegedus and Exit Festival founder Ivan Milivojev.
“The business is becoming more professional and artists are being introduced to all sorts of new opportunities”
But with an emphasis on helping Romanian talent to establish meaningful careers, EEMC also featured networking and mentoring sessions for musicians and their representatives, while workshops on subjects covering the live, recording, publishing and branding side of an act’s activities were led by International Music Managers Forum policy advisor Jake Beaumont-Nesbitt, whose presentations captivated the many artists at the conference.
“The Romanian music industry is still in it’s infancy, but thanks to the many experts that have given up their time to come to EEMC over its first two years, I’m happy to say that the business is beginning to become more professional and artists are being introduced to all sorts of new opportunities to help them make a career from music,” says Vulcu.
“The launch of Romanian Music Export is another significant step toward developing our country’s vibrant cultural scene. More than 200 acts applied to take part in our first showcase event, highlighting the importance of creating such a support network for artists and those working in the local industry.”
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Colectiv fire: One year on
Together with the attack on the Bataclan some two weeks later, the tragic fire at the 700-capacity Colectiv nightclub in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, on 30 October 2015 is one of the worst disasters to hit the European live music industry – and Europe in general – in living memory. Sixty-four people are known to have died and close to 150 were injured, with many still in hospital, after pyrotechnics ignited inflammable acoustic foam at a show by metalcore band Goodbye to Gravity, with up to 500 people in attendance.
At an event commemorating a year since the disaster last Sunday, Romania’s president, Klaus Iohannis, paid tribute to the victims and praised the changes implemented in the wake of the disaster, which include the mass closure of unsafe venues, the introduction of an indoor smoking ban and the election of a new ‘technocratic’, non-politically affiliated government led by Dacian Cioloș after the resignation of the previous prime minister, Victor Ponta, amid mass anti-corruption protests triggered by the fire.
“Romania has changed,” he said. “A year later, things have changed for the better. Safety checks are clearer and more common at event venues.”
“A year later, things have changed for the better”
However, Iohannis criticised the speed of investigations into the cause of the fire: public prosecutors have yet to bring anyone to trial for their role in the disaster, despite Colectiv only having one exit and reportedly being well over capacity on the night of the fire. “After one year, we would like to know who is responsible for this terrible accident,” he said.
Speaking to the Associated Press, ‘Flueras’, a 32-year-old music photographer, said survivors are still awaiting the trial of the club’s owners and those involved in the firework show. “Unfortunately, there is no precedent and things haven’t moved quickly,” he said. “The trial hasn’t begun and we are [still] in a preliminary phase.”
In addition to the criminal trials, a total of 248 people are suing Colectiv representatives for damages of more than €212 million.
At ILMC 28 in March, Codruta Vulcu, festival director of Transylvania’s ARTmania, said it “took a tragedy for the government” to take notice of Romania’s music scene. “We have festivals, we have shows, but we have no regulations – or when they do exist they’re not enforced,” she said. “After the fire, the government realised the [55,000-capacity] National Arena had no fire licence!”
“There are more fire extinguishers at clubs and concerts, but I don’t think society is more aware”
Some progress has been made since then: a number of Bucharest venues lacking fire exits were shuttered in the aftermath of the disaster, and several more, including Expirat, La Bonne Bouche and Biutiful, were forced to close by a new law forbidding public gatherings in buildings considered to be unsafe in the event of an earthquake. (A 5.6-magnitude earthquake hit Vrancea county on 23 September.)
Cioloș’s government also banned smoking in enclosed areas, including bars, venues and restaurants, as of 16 March.
Despite these reforms, many Romanians remain unconvinced the country would be better equipped to deal with another Colectiv should it happen today. “We did not learn a lot from what happened,” Razvan Braileanu, a journalist and musician who survived the fire, tells Reuters’s Romanian correspondent, adding that from his flat he regularly sees fire engines struggling to squeeze past cars parked in his narrow street.
“Sure, there are more fire extinguishers at clubs and concerts – but I don’t think society is more aware.”
“The private sector is now approaching the government to say let’s regulate the industry, let’s make laws a lot clearer”
Speaking to IQ, Vulcu – now also president of newly formed Romanian concert promoters’ association Aroc, which includes ARTmania, the Electric Castle, Sunwaves and Summerwell festivals and Romania’s biggest concert promoter, Emagic – says if there’s one positive to be drawn from the disaster, it’s that Cioloș’s non-political government is now listening to the music industry.
For the first time since the fall of communism, she says, “we’ve found support from the government”, with ministers willing to properly regulate the Romanian live sector. “The private sector is now approaching the [government] to say let’s regulate [the industry], let’s make laws a lot clearer,” she explains. “They say, ‘We understand, we’ll try to change things.'”
Vulcu’s relief at having what she calls Romania’s “first respectable government” in 25 years is, however, tempered by the spectre of the “old communists” in the PSD (Social Democratic Party) returning to power in the upcoming general election on 11 December. She says she “truly hopes”, for the sake of the Romanian music industry, that “this technocrat prime minister [Cioloș] will be willing to say on as an independent”.
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