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Lowlands 2024 sells out in less than 15 minutes

The 2024 edition of Lowlands sold out in less than 15 minutes on Saturday (3 February), becoming one of the Dutch festival’s speediest sellouts.

Around 65,000 tickets flew off the shelf for the Mojo-promoted event, featuring Fred Again…, Queens of the Stone Age and Gold Band among others. And as many as 130,000 people were in the digital queue at one time.

Tickets for this year’s edition were priced at €325, up from €300 the year prior and €255 in 2022.

The 2024 sellout looks to be Lowlands’ third-fastest after 2023 (14 minutes) and 2022 (two minutes).

The 2024 sellout looks to be Lowlands’ third-fastest after 2023 (14 minutes) and 2022 (two minutes)

The speed of the sell-out seems to have surpassed the expectations of the Lowlands team. Festival director Eric van Eerdenburg told Entertainment Business at the end of last year that he didn’t think the festival would sell out within 15 minutes again: “It could be a bit slower. 2023 went very quickly.”

Mojo also announced that 6,187 tickets for Lowlands 2024 were cancelled by Ticketmaster after it was discovered that they had been purchased by ticket-buying bots.

The tickets will be “offered again and for the original price to genuine Lowlanders” this Saturday (10 February).

Lowlands returns to Biddinghuizen between 16–18 August with Skrillex, Peggy Gou, Froukje, The Smile, Nas, Denzel Curry, Jorja Smith, Sugababes, Big Thief, Wargasm and more.

 


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Skrillex, Fred Again, Four Tet to close out Coachella

Skrillex, Fred Again.. and Four Tet are teaming up again to close out weekend two of Coachella this Sunday (23 April).

The Goldenvoice-promoted festival took to social media today (21 April) to break the news, confirming that the three Wasserman Music-repped acts will assume the ‘TBA’ slot after Blink 182 on the main stage on Sunday.

All four acts were confirmed for the closing slots after Frank Ocean withdrew from Coachella weekend two on doctor’s orders due to leg fractures sustained by the singer.

The Goldenvoice-promoter festival took to social media today to break the news

Coachella was in a similar position last year when Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) pulled out shortly before the festival’s opening day. Swedish House Mafia, who were already on the bill in a headlining but unlisted time slot, played a tag-team set with the Weeknd in the rapper’s place.

This Sunday’s closing set with Skrillex, Fred Again.. and Four Tet comes after the trio teamed up for a five-hour set at Madison Square Garden (21,000) in New York in February.

Prior to that, they joined forces for a run of three surprise shows in three nights at Camden’s Electric Ballroom (cap. 1,500), Electric Brixton (1,700) and the art deco Troxy (3,100) in London.

 


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Skrillex plans five-hour performance at Red Rocks

Skrillex will deliver a five-hour performance at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre (cap. 9,545) in Colorado next month.

The American DJ (aka Sonny Moore) will play from 7 pm to midnight ET on Saturday 29 April at the famed US venue.

The format emulates his show last month at Madison Square Garden (21,000) in New York, where he and co-headliners Fred again.. and Four Tet played the same five-hour time slot.

The format emulates his show last month at Madison Square Garden (21,000) in New York

Prior to that, the three Wasserman-repped artists joined forces for a run of three surprise shows in three nights at Camden’s Electric Ballroom (cap. 1,500), Electric Brixton (1,700) and the art deco Troxy (3,100) in London.

“It was an absolute whirlwind, it feels like a dream,” Troxy’s head of live Simon Eaton told IQ. “It’s such a short period to put on a show of that scale and I can’t believe we pulled it off. It’s great to have it out the way in one sense, but you like to look forward to these big events and I feel as though our biggest event of the year has already come and gone – and it’s only January!”

Tickets for Skrillex’s Red Rocks show go on sale tomorrow (31 March) at 12 pm ET.

 


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Troxy completes dance trio’s London gig trilogy

Troxy’s head of live Simon Eaton has spoken to IQ about hosting the climactic gig in a trilogy of special London performances by Four Tet, Fred Again + Skrillex.

The electronic dance superstars joined forces for a run of three surprise shows in three nights at Camden’s Electric Ballroom (cap. 1,500), Electric Brixton (1,700) and the art deco Troxy (3,100) from 5-7 January.

All shows, which followed the release of Wasserman Music clients Fred Again and Skrillex’s Rumble collaboration with Flowdan, had tickets released on the day and sold out within minutes.

“We got a call from Eat Your Own Ears, the promoter, a couple of days before Christmas,” Eaton tells IQ. “We do a lot of work with them and are good friends of ours. They often come to us with similar ideas, although normally with a slightly longer lead time!

“They wanted to go with three independent venues – bigger venues each day – finishing with that final explosive show. They were looking for something of around 2,000 cap, which is our capacity for club nights, so we fitted what they were looking for. It was finalised around 27-28 December and it was all systems go from that point. I had to cancel my annual leave and work over the Christmas period, but it was well worth it.”

“To sell 2,000 tickets in 16 seconds and there not be a single issue was outrageous”

All three events were not announced until the days they took place, with tickets released in staggered announcements on the artists’ Instagram stories.

“They wanted to split the tickets into three sections, so each artist had their own little pot of tickets rather than everything pulling from one central pot,” explains Eaton. “They wanted the artists to make the announcements themselves, rather than the venue, promoter of anyone else.

“We’d already built all the ticketing behind the scenes and supplied them with the links the day before, so it was ready to go and we were just waiting for them to do it. Four Tet went just after midday and the other two not until a little bit later in the afternoon.”

More than 20,000 fans tried to buy tickets on the first two announcements alone, with over 9,000 users on a waiting list as soon as the final announcement went live.

“I think 16 seconds was how long it took for all tickets to be in baskets, which is insane,” says Eaton. “It’s broken all records here. To sell 2,000 tickets in 16 seconds and there not be a single issue was outrageous, so kudos to Dice, our ticketing provider, for that.”

“We had the most sold-out shows we’ve ever had at one period of time at the back end of last year – and that’s now rolling into this year”

An extended stage platform was built from the venue’s main stage which enabled the DJs to perform from a central location in the midst of the crowd.

“It was an absolute whirlwind, it feels like a dream,” adds Eaton. “It’s such a short period to put on a show of that scale and I can’t believe we pulled it off. It’s great to have it out the way in one sense, but you like to look forward to these big events and I feel as though our biggest event of the year has already come and gone – and it’s only January!”

East London’s Troxy continues its busy start to 2023 with a sold-out concert by Editors (1 February) as part of Independent Venue Week. Other shows include Black Veil Brides (25 February) and The Flaming Lips (25 April), who will be performing their Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots album in full.

“There’s a different challenge every day,” says Eaton. “[The cost of] everything has gone up and it’s difficult at the minute, but everyone’s in the same boat and we’re doing the best we possibly can with it. Fortunately, we’ve got an incredible year of events coming up, which I’m quietly confident is going to offset all those costs.

“We had the most sold-out shows we’ve ever had at one period of time at the back end of last year, and that’s now rolling into this year.”

The building, which opened in 1933, is also undergoing a refurbishment, which coincides with its 90th anniversary and will result in a capacity increase.

“We’re looking at Q4 for that coming into play, but it’s TBC on what the exact number will be in terms of the capacity increase,” he adds. “That needs to be signed off by licensing and police and whatnot, but it’s substantial.”


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Portola Festival crowd rush ‘isolated issue’

Organisers of San Francisco’s Portola Festival have played down reports of a crowd flow issue at its debut edition.

Promoted by AEG’s Goldenvoice, the event took place at Pier 80 from 24-25 September with acts such as Flume, The Chemical Brothers, Charlie XCX, Jamie xx, Jungle, M.I.A. and Peggy Gou.

According to Billboard, an incident occurred on day one when a large group of people rushed a set by Fred Again at around 5.30pm. Footage posted on Twitter shows fans jumping the barricade surrounding the festival’s Warehouse stage after a bottleneck occurred at the general admission entrance.

“There was a minimal, isolated issue with a festival stage entrance”

However, organisers say there were no injuries and no cases of gate-crashing.

“There was a minimal, isolated issue with a festival stage entrance yesterday,” says a statement by AEG. “This occurred within the confines of the grounds and was quickly addressed and corrected. There were no reported injuries and the festival continued for another six hours without incident.”

 


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