Solid start for Portugal’s MEO Kalorama festival
The director of Portugal’s newest festival has spoken to IQ about the event’s successful launch.
MEO Kalorama (cap. 40,000) debuted at Bela Vista Park in Lisbon from 1-3 September with acts including Arctic Monkeys, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Chemical Brothers, Kraftwerk, Róisín Murphy, Years & Years, Disclosure, Jessie Ware and Bonobo.
Staged by promoter House of Fun and Last Tour – the cultural company behind events such as Bilbao BBK Live, Azkena Rock Festival, Cala Mijas and BIME Live – the festival premiere was a warmly received affair.
“It was fantastic,” says festival director Artur Peixoto. “We exceeded our initial expectations and, for the first time in Portugal, a festival of this size sold-out weekend passes and daily tickets for one of the days, headlined by Arctic Monkeys.
“In terms of logistics, it was a challenge due to all the limitations that we are still subject to in this new post-pandemic world but we managed to overcome the adversities and deliver an event with above average quality for a first edition.”
“There was room for the creation of a major music festival towards the end of the summer”
Tickets were priced from €61 (for day passes) to €145, and Peixoto believes the timing of the event fills a gap in the calendar.
“My experience working with all the major festivals in Portugal over the last 20 years led me to believe that there was room for the creation of a major music festival towards the end of the summer, taking advantage of the transit of artists in late August and early September in Europe,” he says. “It is a time when people are back in town after the holidays and there is nothing like an event focused on music to promote a reunion.
“Our summer lasts until October and with Portugal being a tourist destination it also makes it very appealing for music lovers from all over the world to visit us. As proof of that, in the first edition, 25% of the tickets were sold internationally in more than 50 countries.”
Aside from the music, there were spaces for reduced mobility, vegan food, free drinking water, non-binary toilets and reusable cups, among other sustainability measures, as part of the festival’s commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations General Assembly.
“In terms of waste management, we managed to recycle 62% of all the waste collected and the other 38% went towards generating energy,” says Peixoto. “Besides being an Eco Event – a label given by [environmental organisation] Valorsul to the festival – we are an event committed to zero waste being sent to landfill. All the waste had a use ”
“Not everything depends on money: namely, imagination, creativity, the ability to dream, to motivate, team spirit, camaraderie and collaboration”
With MEO Kalorama’s return confirmed for 31 August to 2 September 2023, Peixoto reflects on the lessons learned from its inaugural edition.
“It was challenging to achieve the three goals – music, art and sustainability – within the budget restrictions and few sponsorships of a first edition, but that ended up sharpening the creativity and team work in order to find solutions,” he says. ” These are valuable lessons that show that not everything depends on money: namely, imagination, creativity, the ability to dream, to motivate, team spirit, camaraderie and collaboration. It is a very strong, very good, constructive energy.
“Being able to share a dream that materialised and motivate the team was probably our greatest achievement of this first edition, and sets the standard for the following ones.”
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Bilbao promoter unveils second new European fest
Last Tour, the Spanish festival organiser and concert promoter behind Bilbao BBK Live, has announced a new festival in Lisbon, Portugal.
Organised alongside Portuguese promoter House of Fun, Kalorama will debut between 1–3 September at Bela Vista Park, one of Lisbon’s biggest urban parks.
The festival shares its date and the majority of its line-up with the Last Tour’s new Spanish festival, Cala Mijas.
Kalorama and Cala Mijas will be the Arctic Monkeys’ only festival appearances in Portugal and Spain, respectively, in 2022.
Kalorama and Cala Mijas will be the Arctic Monkeys’ only festival appearances in Portugal and Spain, respectively, in 2022
Kraftwerk, The Chemical Brothers, James Blake, Chet Faker, Róisín Murphy, Bonobo and Blossoms are also confirmed to play both festivals.
Last Tour previously set out a commitment to follow the guidelines of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with Cala Mijas, “both in its execution and in the way its values and importance are promoted”.
“The event’s commitment to the 2030 Agenda and to the environment of the municipality of Malaga is one of the fundamental pillars of Cala Mijas. To that end, it will base its ideals, strategies, and actions on a transversal model with measures ranging from ensuring social inclusion and complete transparency in all its processes to the promotion of local commerce, and a workflow designed to optimise and reuse all available resources,” reads a statement on the festival’s website.
Last Tour’s stable of events also includes Azkena Rock Festival, Donostia Festibala, BIME Live, Goxo, Navia Suena festival and Festival Santas Pascuas.
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Rock in Rio launches ‘Global Experience’ ticket
For the first time in the history of Rock in Rio, the Brazil and Portugal editions will be taking place in the same year.
The organisers have decided to mark the occasion with a special pass for fans wishing to celebrate the return of Rock in Rio on both sides of the Atlantic.
For under €200, the Global Experience pass will give fans access to one weekend of the Lisbon edition and one day of the Brazil edition.
The Lisbon-based edition of Rock in Rio (cap. 80,000) will return after four years between 18–19 and 25–26 June, with Foo Fighters, The National, Liam Gallagher, Duran Duran, a-ha, Xutos & Pontapés, Bush and Post Malone.
For under €200, the Global Experience will give fans access to one weekend of the Lisbon edition and one day of Brazil
The Brazilian edition of Rock in Rio (cap. 100,000) will be held between 2–4 and 8–11 September 2022 at the Olympic Park in Rio De Janeiro, and will be headlined by Justin Bieber and Demi Lovato.
The Rio De Janeiro biennial, which is the largest festival in south America, will now take place on even years while new festival The Town will take place on the odd years.
The Town was announced in August 2021 and is slated to be “the biggest music, culture and art festival Sāo Paulo, Brazil, has ever seen”.
The inaugural edition will take place in September 2023, welcoming up to 105,000 people per day to the Interlagos race track in Sāo Paulo – the largest city in Latin America.
Rock in Rio is majority-owned by Live Nation after the entertainment giant increased its shareholding in the company, in 2019.
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Sónar Lisboa unveils debut line-up
Sónar Festival has unveiled the line-up for its inaugural Portuguese edition in Lisbon.
Sónar Lisboa 2022 will be held between 8–10 April at Pavilhão Carlos Lopes, the Coliseu dos Recreios and the Centro de Congressos de Lisboa, featuring artists including Arca, Bicep, DJ Shadow, Partiboi69, Overmono, Dixon, Richie Hawtin, The Blaze, Charlotte de Witte, Nina Kraviz, Floating Points, India Jordan, Honey Dijon, Héctor Oaks, Nicola Cruz and Thundercat.
Meanwhile, the Hub Criativo do Beato will host the Sónar+D programme, which will be announced next month.
The 25,000-capacity Sónar Lisboa is organised by Pixel Harmony and is supported by Turismo de Portugal, Câmara Municipal de Lisboa and Turismo de Lisboa. A two-day pass costs €110, or €175 for VIP tickets.
Since being founded 1994, Sónar has hosted more than 100 festivals worldwide, with 76 editions taking place in 34 cities in more than 20 countries. As with its global counterparts, Sónar Lisboa will be split into Sónar by Day and Sónar by Night programming.Sónar Lisboa 2022 is organized by Pixel Harmony, which brings together the partners Made of You
(Gustavo Pereira, Paulo Amaral, Raul Duro), João Wengorovius Meneses, Patricia Craveiro Lopes, Gonçalo Félix da Costa and Kiss. Sónar Lisboa 2022 is supported by Turismo de Portugal, Câmara Municipal de Lisboa and Turismo de Lisboa.
The brand’s marquee festival Sónar Barcelona will return from 16-18 June
The iconic brand’s marquee festival Sónar Barcelona, which is majority-owned by Superstruct parent Providence Equity Partners, was called off last year but will return from 16-18 June. Sónar will present festivals in Istanbul from 18-19 March. It has also confirmed two new in-person festivals for Barcelona in autumn 2021, the AI and Music Festival and SónarCCCB.
Portugal reopened nightclubs and bars in mid-January and is one of the few European markets to be effectively open for live music at present.
Covid passports certifying full inoculation, recovery from Covid-19 or a negative test result are still mandatory to access events, restaurants, gyms and other leisure and hospitality businesses. Masks are still required for indoor spaces.
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New Portuguese association Circuito launches
A new association of independent music venues, Circuito, has launched in Portugal.
Circuito, which has 27 members across the country, will function as a “national network for the enhancement, protection and development” of grassroots music venues, aiming to secure further support while the majority are shuttered by coronavirus restrictions.
A recent Circuito campaign, #AovivoOuMorto (#LiveOrDead), aimed to raise awareness of the difficulties the sector is facing and spur the Portuguese government into taking concrete action to protect music venues.
Hundreds of people took to the streets in four Portuguese cities (Lisbon, Oporto, Viseu and Évora) on Saturday (17 October) in support of #AovivoOuMorto, queueing outside closed venues to raise awareness of their plight.
According to Espalha-Factos, the lines in Lisbon and Oporto were each more than a kilometre long.
“The coronavirus crisis accelerated the need for a representative association” in Portugal
Umbrella association Live DMA welcomes the creation of the new body. “The coronavirus crisis undoubtedly accelerated the need for a representative association which advocates for the great cultural, social and economic value of the independent live music scene, which needs to be supported,” it says in a statement.
The Portuguese live music industry is asking for greater financial help from the government, which, in common with its European neighbours, is allowing concerts only with social distancing and a very limited capacity.
Daniel Pires, of the 100-cap. Maus Hábitos in Oporto, says a recent increase in Portugal’s culture budget by nearly 8%, to €563.9 million, is “not enough” to safeguard music venues. “There must be a correction,” he adds.
Other industry associations in Portugal include promoters’ association APEFE, festival body Aporfest and the new Audiovisual Union.
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Hungry for culture: Portugal union stages shows for food
União Audiovisual (Audiovisual Union), an association providing support to Portuguese crew during the coronavirus crisis, is staging a series of concerts to help raise money for food packages for out-of-work live professionals.
The union, formed in the early days of the crisis, delivers food parcels to “audiovisual workers”, including artists, show producers and stage managers, in need. Those needing assistance can apply via a form on the union’s website or the dedicated Facebook group, with food drops available across Portugal, including Lisbon, Oporto, Coimbra, the Algarve and the Azores.
Following a concert by the Legendary Tigerman at Lisbon’s Village Underground in July, the organisation is now staging what is calls its biggest shows to date, organising two days of programming in the city of Évora this week.
The concerts – taking place tonight (24 September) and Saturday (26 September) – feature the Legendary Tigerman, Dead Combo, Duarte and Omiri and are being co-produced with local authorities.
Concert attendees are asked to bring a bag of non-perishable food goods
Tickets are priced at an “affordable” €5, the union tells the Lusa news agency, with all attendees also asked to bring a bag of non-perishable food goods.
Speaking to Lusa, Audiovisual Union’s Manuel Chambel says the organisation’s objective is to “help with food products for professionals in the artistic and audiovisual industries who have seen their work cancelled or postponed”.
“Here in the Alentejo [in south Portugal], we help only one person, but in Lisbon, Oporto, the Algarve and elsewhere, there are many more,” he explains.
With the concerts in Évora, he adds, “we want to do what we do best, which is to produce events that we think are cool” while at the same time “contribute to a noble cause”.
This article forms part of IQ’s Covid-19 resource centre – a knowledge hub of essential guidance and updating resources for uncertain times.
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Sustained growth for Portuguese festival market
There were 249 music festivals held in Portugal in 2016 – 39 more than in 2015, or an 18% year-on-year increase – according to a new report by Aporfest (the Association of Portuguese Festivals).
Aporfest’s findings, presented at last week’s talkfest festival conference in Lisbon by Ticketea marketing director Ismael García, also reveal ticket sales grew by 300,000 to 2.1 million.
Portugal’s population is approximately 10.5 million, appearing to suggest one in five Portuguese bought a music festival ticket last year. However, according to García, the growth in sales in fact owes much to what Eventbrite calls ‘super fans’ or ‘hardcore festies’, with 30% of respondents saying they had been to two or more festivals in 2016.
The Portuguese festival scene has seen sustained growth in the past three years, growing from 127 events in 2013 to 156 in 2014, 210 in 2015 and 249 in 2016. According to talkfest director Ricardo Bramão, the number of festivals cancelled in 2016 also fell, to 14, a “figure lower than in previous years”.
Rock festivals were the most popular (attended by 25% of all festivalgoers), followed by alternative music (23%), indie (18%), electronic music (9%), pop (8%), jazz (6%), hip hop (4%) and metal (3%).
The most popular events overall were Rock in Rio Lisbon, NOS em D’Bandada, Sudoeste and Nos Alive (see graphic below).
While steady growth can only be a good thing, Aporfest cautions that the market remains immature and reliant on subsidies from local authorities.
Festivals that last more than three or four consecutive editions are rare, as it is “difficult for events to be able to attract new sponsors and audiences and achieve profitability”, the report reads. “In recent years, the only festivals that have grown steadily are those that are supported or supported by municipalities.” The organisation also expresses its concern the gulf between “the so-called ‘big festivals'” and smaller players is growing, with a majority of Portuguese festivals now having fewer than 1,000 attendees.
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