Sky Festivals acquires Norway’s Stavernfestivalen
Sky Festivals, the largest festival owner in Norway, has acquired Stavernfestivalen, the country’s most popular music festival, which has taken place near the city of Larvik since 2001.
Stavernfestivalen, which moved to its current home at the Larvik Golf Arena in 2015, welcomed more than 80,000 guests across three days in 2019, with revenue of more than €10 million. Sky Festivals already owned 50% of the event, and has now acquired the remaining 50% of shares from festival founder Roger Albin.
Past performers at Stavernfestivalen include Ed Sheeran, Elton John, Post Malone, Travis Scott, Kygo, Neil Young, Sting, Bob Dylan, Roxette, David Guetta, Pharrell Williams and Alan Walker.
“We are determined to make Stavern 2022 the biggest and best version ever”
Sky Festivals – part of Sky Agency – adds Stavernfestivalen to a festival portfolio that also includes the 20,000-capacity Findings Festival in Oslo (co-owned with Live Nation); Festningen (18,000-cap.) in Trondheim; Utopia (12,000-cap.) in Stavanger; Landstreff Fredriksten (10,000- cap.) in Halden; and Idyllfestivalen (15,000-cap.) in Fredrikstad.
“We strongly believe in the Norwegian festival market for the years to come, and Stavern is a very strong brand that we really feel we can on keep growing in the future,” says Trond Opsahl, Sky Festivals co-founder (with Christoffer Huse), CEO and festival booker. “We are determined to make Stavern 2022 the biggest and best version ever.”
Stavernfestivalen returns for its 20th anniversary next summer. At press time, only festivals of up to 5,000 people are allowed in Norway, even with rapid testing, and must be divided into groups of just 500.
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Future-focused European Festival Conference returns
The European Festival Conference (EFC) will move from Austria to Norway for its second edition this November, organiser Yourope has announced, taking place from 22 to 25 November at the Farris Bad hotel in Larvik.
Some 100 delegates are expect to attend the conference, whose main theme will be ‘the future of festivals’, with panels on health and safety, weather, terrorism, mobile technology, secondary ticketing, audience and artist expectations and more.
This year’s speaker line-up includes Ben Challis (Glastonbury Festival), Andras Berta (Sziget), Holger Jan Schmidt (GreenEvents Europe), Henrik Bondo Nielsen (Roskilde Festival), Pascal Viot (Paléo Festival de Nyon), Manfred Tari (Pop 100), Fruzsina Szép (Lollapalooza Berlin) and Music Ally staff.
Participating industry associations are the Green Operations Group (GO Group), Yourope Event Safety Group (YES Group) and the European Marketing and Communications Group (EMAC), which was formed at the first EFC.
“The first conference was the starting point for many initiatives for European festivals, and I am convinced we will continue in that same positive spirit”
Other panel topics include work-life balance in the music industry, hosted by Music Support, and – continuing in the vein of Yourope’s Take a Stand initiative – a discussion on “whether festivals are getting their message across to the audience. Are they still speaking the same language? If not, how do they get back in touch?”
“The first EFC garnered overwhelmingly positive feedback from attendants for its interactive and participatory nature,” says Yourope’s Christof Huber.
“The European Festival Conference is different from other conferences and seminars. All the participants are very much involved in all the workshops, create and give input. The first conference was the starting point of many projects and initiatives for European festivals and I am convinced we will continue in that same positive energy and spirit.”
Conference tickets are priced at €800 for a single room or €700 for a shared double room, with a €100 discount for Yourope members, and are available from www.europeanfestivalconference.com.
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