The price is right? Festivals heads discuss ticket hikes
Ticket price increases for European festivals are cooling off ahead of next summer, according to analysis by IQ.
Prices for full festival tickets increased by an average of 5% between 2024 and 2025, compared to almost 7% from 2023 to 2024, according to analysis of a cross-section of 20 European festivals.
The increase in festival ticket prices between 2023 and 2024 is perhaps best explained by the ballooning rise in costs caused by issues including post-Covid inflation and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“The cost of infrastructure has increased so much with the combination of Covid and the cost of Brexit”
German promoter DreamHaus (Rock am Ring/Rock im Park) said production costs increased in the region of 25-30% for the 2023 festival season.
On top of this, organisers had to make up the shortfall from a 2022 edition priced in 2019, as well as two cancelled editions due to the pandemic.
“The fact that we didn’t make any money with a sold-out Hurricane in 2022, but actually lost it, was also due to the fact that we had basically sold the tickets three years earlier,” FKP Scorpio CEO Stephan Thanscheidt said at the time.
“Keeping ticket prices under control while maintaining profit margins at the same time is proving extremely difficult right now,” he added.
But costs are still an ongoing concern for the sector in 2024 – as evidenced by the slate of festival cancellations referencing “financial challenges” and steadily increasing ticket prices.
“I still think festivals are incredible value for money when you compare them to other forms of entertainment”
“The cost of infrastructure has increased so much with the combination of Covid and the cost of Brexit,” John Giddings, Isle of Wight boss, tells IQ. “Plus the cost of artists is more because their productions are bigger.”
Tamás Kádár, CEO of Sziget, adds: “It is indeed a general trend that ticket prices for European festivals are rising to some extent. Unfortunately, we see rising supplier costs and the effects of global (and especially local) inflation. It is something we have to deal with when calculating ticket prices.”
However, raising the ticket price is no small decision for organisers, who are concerned about pricing out swathes of their audiences.
Primavera Sound’s Marta Pallarès recently told IFF delegates: “Thirty percent of our crowd is from Spain. If we [significantly increase our ticket price] we will lose that national crowd, which is important to our identity as a festival.
“Plus, after 24 years, our crowd is younger and they can’t afford a ticket that’s more than €250 so we are keeping the prices for them, to be honest.”
“It’s a constant struggle to keep tickets affordable”
Though organisers are wary of reaching a “red line” with ticket prices, many are keen to point out that festivals are generally good value for money.
“As far as I can see, at a West End theatre the average ticket price is £75-80 for a two-hour show and we’re £300 for a four-day show,” says Giddings. “Or you go to a Formula 1 race and the price is phenomenal. I still think festivals are incredible value for money when you compare them to other forms of entertainment.”
Lowlands director Eric van Eerdenburg testifies: “I think we have one of the highest ticket prices in Holland but if you compare it to a weekend in London, Paris or Berlin, it’s cheap.”
The Dutch festival raised its ticket price to €325 for 2024, up from €300 in 2023 and €255 in 2022.
“It’s a constant struggle to keep tickets affordable,” he says. “But attendees are offered so much entertainment for just €115 per day. People tell me every year that they’ve had the best weekend of their lives.”
With the price of energy, production and acts rapidly increasing, a hike in the ticket price was necessary to “make a reasonable margin” adds Eerdenburg.
“I think the [cooling off] on ticket price increases means that [the sector] is trying to provide value for money”
Sziget’s Kádár echoes these thoughts, adding that the Hungarian festival “is one of the best value-for-money festivals in Europe”. “We have structured the price of our six-day pass so that when divided by day, it becomes even more attractive,” he continues. Elsewhere, Primavera Sound’s €250 ticket price boils down to just €1 per band, according to Pallares.
Giddings adds: “I think the [cooling off] on ticket price increases means that [the sector] is trying to provide value for money.”
At the same time, festivals are doing what they can to keep festival prices down and ensure that events remain accessible to people from all walks of life.
“We offer tiered pricing throughout the year, rewarding our most loyal fans with (Super) Early Bird tickets at nearly last year’s prices,” says Kádár. “We also offer various products, as well as travel and accommodation packages to provide favourable deals for visitors. Additionally, we provide special Under 21 ticket pricing to ensure the festival remains accessible for younger attendees.
“In terms of catering, we have also introduced “budget-friendly” food options for the second consecutive year. Overall, while the economic impacts on festivals are not favourable, we believe that Sziget still can be a festival for everyone.”
Giddings concludes: “It’s not a cheap hobby to put on a festival – it’s a huge financial gamble – but we want to keep it within the realms of possibility for people to afford a four-day camping event.”
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‘Lowlands is not just a lineup, it’s a culture’
Lowlands director Eric van Eerdenburg has spoken to IQ about the 2024 event – his penultimate edition before stepping down.
This year’s instalment sold out in less than 15 minutes in February – the Dutch festival’s third-fastest sellout after 2023 (14 minutes) and 2022 (two minutes).
Around 65,000 tickets flew off the shelf for the Mojo-promoted festival, featuring Fred Again…, Justice and Gold Band among others.
Discussing the secret to Lowlands’ success, Eerdenburg tells IQ: “It’s not just a lineup. It’s a culture we’ve established over the last 25 years and have managed to stay in touch with. It’s a three-day Fata Morgana [mirage] that everybody wants to be part of. You’re there for three days getting dazzled by it all and then you wake up and real life starts again.”
The director credits his booking team, which is comprised of Mojo Concerts promoters, for staying on top of the zeitgeist.
“They book and promote 3,000 club shows a year, so they see what sparks and what doesn’t,” he explains. “It’s really important that we are in contact with the live music scene 365 days a year. The same goes for my non-music bookers, who are freelancers. They’ve got two feet in their scene and know exactly what’s going on.”
“Lowlands is a three-day Fata Morgana [mirage] that everybody wants to be part of”
Though this year’s edition was “easy” compared to the last two years, according to Eerdenburg, there were still several hurdles to clear including cancellations from several top-billing acts.
Queens of The Stone Age (QOTSA), The Smile and Joy Orbison were among the dropouts – the former leaving a headliner-shaped hole in the programme.
The Lowlands booking team managed to secure Justice as a replacement headliner in the space of a week and a half – a decision that eventually paid off.
“They delivered a very impressive show and the venue was full,” says Eerdenburg. “We were sorry we didn’t book them in the first place.”
This year’s edition also saw ticket prices increase to €325 for the three-day affair, up from €300 in 2023 and €255 in 2022.
While Eerdenburg is concerned that Lowlands’ increasingly young audience will be priced out of the festival, he maintains that the festival is good value for money.
“It’s a constant struggle to keep tickets affordable”
“It’s a constant struggle to keep tickets affordable,” he says. “I think we have one of the highest ticket prices in Holland but if you compare it to a weekend in London, Paris or Berlin, it’s cheap. Plus, attendees are offered so much entertainment for just €115 per day. People tell me every year that they’ve had the best weekend of their lives.”
With the price of energy, production and acts rapidly increasing, a hike in the ticket price was necessary to “make a reasonable margin” adds Eerdenburg.
“Artists – especially the more successful ones – are getting more and more expensive and that’s worrying me,” he continues. “There’s an ongoing struggle with agents who think their artist is worth more money.
“Within the agency business, nobody takes responsibility for the industry as a whole. No, they work for the artist and they want more money. As a festival, we have to keep investing in artists to keep the profile of the festival, to keep the young people coming in and to get a three-day full programme. But it all comes back to the ticket price.”
Ticket prices in the Netherlands will likely continue on an upward trajectory, with the Dutch government poised to raise the VAT rate for concert and festival tickets from 9% to 21%,
“For a Lowlands ticket, that means a 12% increase or €40 more just on taxes,” says the director. “I’m really worried about it. The whole industry gets hit in the face and we expect a big backlash. We’ll have to see what choices the people are going to make. I hope they keep choosing Lowlands.”
“I’m really worried about the increase in VAT… we expect a big backlash”
In order to offset costs and increase value for attendees, Lowlands ushered in a raft of new sponsors for this year’s edition including MacDonald’s, IKEA and BOL.
While some complained that the festival had become “too commercial”, the sponsors’ activations were received well by attendees, according to Eerdenburg.
“This year, IKEA provided a dome full of mattresses where people could take a power nap,” he says. “It looked like a fairy tale and after 20 minutes, you came out refreshed.
“The visitors don’t complain if the sponsors have added value. Plus, if the sponsors bring entertainment, you don’t have to bring that yourself and that’s good for the P&L.”
Elsewhere, Lowlands made huge strides with its sustainability strategy. For the first time, the festival was partially powered by energy from its solar carport – the largest in the world.
Around 1/3 of the event’s power consumption was drawn from the 90,000 solar panels, stationed in the site’s car park, instead of diesel generators.
With his time at Lowlands drawing to a close, Eerdenburg is already taking stock of his 25 years at the Dutch institution.
“There are things that pop up where I think ‘I’m so glad I never have to deal with this again’ and then there are the things I will miss very much,” he says. “It’s good that we took one and a half years to get used to the idea of me stepping back and adapt to that. I’m still fully behind the festival.”
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What’s in store at European festivals this weekend
In our latest European festival preview, IQ rounds up the biggest events taking place across the continent this weekend.
Pukkelpop, which runs from 15-18 August, will star acts such as Fred Again.., Sam Smith, The Offspring, Stormzy, Goldband, Charlotte de Witte and Inhaler. Royal Blood have replaced Queens of the Stone Age on the bill due to the latter’s frontman Josh Homme requiring “continued medical care” at home in the US.
Held near Hasselt, Belgium, the lineup also features the likes of Sugababes, The Vaccines, Skrillex, Jorja Smith, The Smile, Marc Rebillet, Denzel Curry and Loverman, who is stepping in for Rachel Chinouriri.
In the Netherlands, A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise(16-18 August) sold out within 15 minutes of going on sale back in February. The Mojo-promoted event will welcome acts to Biddinghuizen including Fred Again.., Air, Justice, Skrillex, Peggy Gou, Froukje, Idles, Nas, The Smile, Nas, Denzel Curry, Jorja Smith, Sugababes, Big Thief and Wargasm.
Dutch metal festival Dynamo Metalfest (16-18 August) will take place in Eindhoven, topped by Dimmu Borgir, Saxon, Amaranthe, Igorrr, Clutch, Skindred and Forbidden.
Set for Stradbally Hall in Stradbally, County Laois, Ireland’s Electric Picnic (16-18 August) will be headlined by Noah Kahan, Calvin Harris and Kylie Minogue. The sold-out festival will also host Gerry Cinnamon, Kodaline, Raye, CMAT, Faithless, J Hus, Kasabian, Lankum, Nas, Peggy Gou, Teddy Swims and Tom Grennan, among others.
All tickets have also been snapped up for Beautiful Days (16-18 August) in Escot Park, Devon, UK. Artists include Richard Ashcroft, The Saw Doctors, Levellers, Richard Hawley, Fat Freddy’s Drop, The Damned, Toyah & Robert, Fisherman’s Friends, Hard-Fi, Inspiral Carpets, Badly Drawn Boy and Utah Saints.
Family festival Camp Bestival (15-18 August) in Western Park, Shropshire, is headed by Faithless, Paloma Faith, McFly, Rick Astley, Orbital, Jake Shears, The Darkness, Hak Baker and Level 42, while Green Man (15-18 August) in Brecon Beacons, Wales, is topped by Big Thief, Sampha, Jon Hopkins, Sleaford Mods, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Explosions in the Sky, Arlo Parks, Black Country, New Road and Ezra Collective.
In St Giles, Dorset, Gilles Petersen Presents… We Out Here (15-18 August) will showcase performances from the likes of André 3000, Sampha, Floating Points, Kae Tempest, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Mount Kimbie.
Headlined by Becky Hill, Snow Patrol and Richard Ashcroft, the 10th anniversary of Hardwick Festival (16-18 August) will be held at Hardwick Hall, Sedgefield in County Durham. Other names include Jack Savoretti, The Charlatans, Blossoms, Soul II Soul, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Jamie Webster, Heaven 17 and Lightning Seeds.
Rock festival ArcTanGent (14-17 August) also celebrates its 10th birthday, returning to Bristol with a lineup topped by Explosions in the Sky, Spiritualized, Meshuggah, Animals as Leaders, Mogwai, Electric Wizard, And So I Watch You from Afar and Bossk.
Elsewhere, Hamburg, Germany-based music and arts festival MS Dockville (16-18 August) will host headliners Jeremias, Ashnikko and Meute, alongside acts such as Zoe Wees, The Vaccines, Mayberg, Bilderbuch, Disarstar, Makko and Mine.
Fekete Zaj Fesztivál (15-19 August) in Gyöngyös, Hungary, has booked acts including The Jesus and Mary Chain, Clan of Xymox, Unto Others, Whispering Sons and Author & Punisher.
Switzerland’s Open Air Gampel (15-18 August), meanwhile, boasts artists like The Offspring, Deichkind, Yungblud, Alan Walker, Milky Chance, Alligatoah, Tom Walker, Grandson, Less than Jake, Lany, Royel Otis and Kool Savas.
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Eric van Eerdenburg reveals Lowlands exit strategy
Lowlands director Eric van Eerdenburg has revealed his intention to step down from the Dutch festival next year.
Van Eerdenburg has been involved with the long-running event, which is promoted by Live Nation’s Mojo Concerts, since the turn of the century. But Vpro reports that he has now set the wheels in motion for his “process to the back door”.
“I’m not quitting yet, but I’ve started quitting, so to speak,” Van Eerdenburg told the De Machine podcast. “I will definitely do this Lowlands again and next year too. And someone will walk with me to take over afterwards.
“Lowlands is big, Lowlands is a lot. There is a lot of networking involved, which you don’t write down on a note and say, ‘Good luck with it.’ So I chose to do it that way.”
He continued: “Lowlands is a young festival. It’s about young culture, young new bands, new influences, new things. There you can think for a long time that you still feel it all the way down to your toes, but at a certain point that is no longer the case.”
“I’m not ready to wave goodbye to everyone yet”
Van Eerdenburg plans to hand over the reins to Mojo’s festival project manager Camiel le Rutte, who works across events such as Rolling Loud, Stadspark Live and Warehouse Project Rotterdam, and previously programmed Amsterdam’s Melkweg venue.
“He has also done things as a freelancer at Lowlands in the past,” said Van Eerdenburg. “I think he is the right man to take over this. He is now 38, 39, a good age to start. The same age as when I started.”
He added: “I’m not ready to wave goodbye to everyone yet.”
The 2024 edition of A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise will be held in Biddinghuizen between 16-18 August. Acts at the 60,000-cap festival will include Fred Again.., Queens of the Stone Age, Skrillex, Peggy Gou, Froukje, The Smile, Nas, Denzel Curry, Jorja Smith, Sugababes, Big Thief and Wargasm. Tickets, priced €325, sold out within 15 minutes of going on sale in February.
Van Eerdenburg joined the festival team in 2000 as right-hand man to MD John Mulder, becoming director the following year. Mulder himself stepped down from Mojo at the start of 2024 to “give the young guard space”. The new leadership team consists of Ruben Brouwer, with whom Mulder has co-led Mojo since 2017, as well as Ronny Hooch Antink and Kim Bloem.
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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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Festival chiefs talk sector’s issues and solutions
The Eurosonic Noorderslag (ESNS) conference programme kicked off this morning with an IQ panel exploring the shared challenges of festival organisers from around Europe and some of the ways in which they resolve those issues.
The Common Ground: Boutique and Major Festivals session, moderated by IQ editor Gordon Masson, saw guests Beke Trojan (MS Dockville), Codruta Vulcu (ARTmania), Eric van Eerdenburg (Lowlands) and Virág Csiszár (Sziget) tackle a variety of subjects including supply chain issues, ticket prices, timing of announcements, staffing, gender balance on line-ups, and artist booking.
“The problems we had in 22 and 23, I think are over,” said Van Eerdenburg about supply chain matters. “But the answer has been that we have to invest and pay much more for the stuff that’s coming in. And that translates to ticket prices that are rising faster than inflation, which is already high – that’s what is the most worrying issue for me.”
Noting that the price of a three-day ticket for ARTmania is just €90, Vulcu admitted that she and her team are contemplating taking the event to just two days because of other pressures on the audience. “The cost of hotels for the audience was maybe €100 per night, so for three nights practically, accommodation was ridiculous, which in the long term could kill the festival because it’s not sustainable.”
Trojan noted, “Our aim is to book a festival with a good mix of international national artists. But we are definitely struggling getting the international names because it’s January, and they’re only starting to make decisions now, which is very late for us, because rigorous planning and ticket sales really should be a lot earlier.
“We have a very young audience that buy the tickets very last minute, so we need to sell day tickets”
“Obviously we would want to sell three-day tickets, but we have a very young audience that buy the tickets very last minute, so we need to sell day tickets. But even with that, we can’t really announce like the day line-up yet, because we’re still struggling with international names. It’s a big problem, but I don’t really have a solution.”
Csiszár revealed that with Sziget’s massive audience involving more than 50% international visitors, local Hungarian acts are not really an option for the bill, even though some of them can sell out stadiums. “International people don’t really get it, so we can’t book them as headliners, but it’s the international stadium acts that we have to look at as our headliners, which is also difficult when there are so many stadium tours happening,” she said. “Stadium tours are definitely competitors for us during the summer.”
Both Csiszár and Van Eerdenburg said that they were using VIP offers such as glamping and sky boxes to help balance the books, rather than pushing general admission tickets too high in price, while with all the panellists working to improve gender balance on line-ups, the conversation moved to the timing of announcements and the various strategies employed by each festival.
The session concluded with panellists answering a question from an audience member regarding their expectations for the next generation of industry staff. Van Eerdenburg stated that when his colleagues work long hours at festivals, he compensates them with weeks off after the event. He added that when it comes to recruitment, “I always pick the [people] who are also working in a club, or running a stage, or volunteering at a festival, because they have the motivation to not only do it theory, but also in practice.”
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European Festival Awards winners crowned
The 2023 European Festival Awards (EFAs) officially opened proceedings at Eurosonic Noorderslag last night, with hundreds of festival organisers and staff attending the ceremony in Groningen’s Oosterport venue in the Netherlands.
Hosted by A Greener Festival’s Claire O’Neill and IQ Magazine editor Gordon Masson, the 13th EFAs saw festivals from more than 30 countries participating and 300,000 votes cast by the public.
With live performances from Berry Galazka (PL), Kingfishr (IE) and Picture Parlour (UK), the event crowned Wasserman Music’s Tom Schroeder and Poland’s Alter Art as Agent and Promoter of the Year, respectively, while Lowlands promoter Eric van Eerdenburg collected the award for Excellence and Passion.
FKP Scorpio’s Hurricane Festival was named Best Major Festival, Slovakia’s Pohoda awarded Best Medium-Sized Festival and Germany’s Maifield Derby taking Best Small Festival. Other festivals recognised included Hungary’s Sziget (Take a Stand Award), the UK’s Glastonbury (Line-Up of the Year), Switzerland’s OpenAir St.Gallen (Event Safety Award) and Portugal’s Boom Festival (Green Operations Award).
However, the biggest cheer of the night was reserved for former Eurosonic conference chief Ruud Berends who was given the Lifetime Achievement award. Referring to his exit from the event, he noted, “Life is full of surprises,” before delivering an emotional speech to the festival awards audience.
“In our more and more money-driven industry and world, where shareholders rule, it is important not to forget who we are”
“Receiving a lifetime achievement award sort of sounds like the end of a career, but it is not for me. I am not done playing and I love what I do,” he said. “I do love working with and for my current clients and friends; especially IFF and Greg Parmley in London… Neill [Dixon] from Canadian Music Week in Toronto; Nuno & Rui from the lovely West Waylab in Guimaraes Portugal; and Ruth from the new So Alive Music Conference in Sofia. Thank you for your trust and let’s build something great together.”
He added: “In our more and more money-driven industry and world, where shareholders rule, it is important not to forget who we are, where we come from, how we started, our love for music, the artists and especially the emerging artists who really need our support… I am happy, proud and grateful receiving this life time achievement award, especially as it comes from the festival family.”
Organised by Yourope, the European festival association, the ceremony’s presenting partner was See Tickets, sponsors included EPS and 3F, and the media partner was IQ Magazine.
The full list of winners was as follows:
Take a Stand Award (Presented by Take a Stand): Sziget Festival, HU
Line-Up of the Year (Presented by IQ Magazine): Glastonbury, GB
Event Safety Award (Presented by YES Group): OpenAir St.Gallen, CH
Agent of the Year: Tom Schroeder, Wasserman Music
Best Small Festival: Maifeld Derby, DE
Newcomer of the Year (Presented by ESNS): Balming Tiger, KR
Brand Activation Award: Heroes & Hype Festivals & Unilever Axe, DE
Best Medium-Sized Festival: Pohoda Festival, SK
Green Operations Award (Presented by GO Group): Boom Festival, PT
Best Major Festival (Presented by See Tickets): Hurricane Festival, DE
Award for Excellence and Passion: Eric van Eerdenburg, NL
Promoter of the Year: Alter Art, PL
Lifetime Achievement Award: Ruud Berends, NL
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NL to tackle ‘billon-dollar’ resale industry
The Dutch government says it will devise a strategy this autumn to tackle the resale of tickets for extortionate prices.
The state secretary for culture and media Gunay Uslu called resale a “persistent problem” and wants to better protect consumers.
It comes after reports that Lowlands tickets were being resold for more than €100 over the original price, prompting politicians to wade in.
The 60,000 tickets for the Mojo-promoted festival cost €300 euros each and sold out within 15 minutes.
Ticketholders are only allowed to resell tickets through Ticketmaster, with a maximum of 20% on top of the purchased price.
She said she expects to come up with a plan in the autumn after researching how other countries deal with this problem
However, Ticketmaster in the Netherlands reportedly charges over €40 euros in service costs per transaction, hiking the price of a Lowlands ticket up to over €400.
The Socialist Party of the Netherlands has been calling on the government to crack down on the ‘billion-dollar’ resale industry for years, to no avail.
However, the party submitted a motion last year that was widely supported in the House of Representatives, subsequently drawing the attention of Uslu.
She said she expects to come up with a plan in the autumn after researching how other countries deal with this problem.
Ticketing fees have been thrust under the microscope of late after The Cure persuaded Ticketmaster to offer partial refunds for “unduly high” ticketing fees charged in the Verified Fan sale for the band’s upcoming North American tour.
Various markets are already making moves to eliminate “excessive” ticketing fees for concerts and other events, with the US recently introducing a “Junk Fee Prevention Act”.
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Major festivals report speedy sellouts for 2023
Some of Europe’s biggest festivals have sold out within half an hour, regardless of significant ticket price increases.
Live Nation-backed Mojo Concerts says Lowlands (aka A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise) sold out in less than 15 minutes, despite ticket prices increasing from €255 to €300.
The 2023 edition of the Dutch festival will see acts including Billie Eilish, Florence + the Machine and Charlotte de Witte return to Walibi Holland between 18–20 August.
Discussing the ticket price increase on the festival’s own podcast LLowcast, director Eric van Eerdenburg said: “Inflation has hit us hard. It is not in our interest to have an expensive ticket. It is in our interest to have a ticket that is as cheap as possible, because then it is easier to sell your tickets. But it’s no different.
“All refugee shelters are full of stuff from the festival industry, everything is becoming much more expensive and harder to get. People who work for us have all submitted their salary demands and we must also comply with them. It’s a tough cookie to swallow, but we’re going to deliver something good for it.”
This year the 55,000-capacity festival is going mobile-only, with ticketholders allowed to resell on Ticketmaster only.
Tomorrowland has sold all 400,000 tickets, with the first 50% (reserved for Belgium fans) selling out in 20 minutes
Lowlands sister festival Down the Rabbit Hole – which also experienced a significant price increase due to inflation and higher costs – also sold out faster than ever.
Elsewhere, Tomorrowland has sold all 400,000 tickets, with the first 50% (reserved for Belgium fans) selling out in 20 minutes.
This year the festival will return to its two-weekend format, taking place in Boom, Antwerp, from 21 to 23 and 28 to 30 July.
More than 600 DJs will perform across 14 different stages including Afrojack, Amelie Lens, Armin van Buuren, Lost Frequencies, Netsky, Paul Kalkbrenner, Steve Aoki, Tiësto and Yves Deruyter.
Last year, the festival took place over three weekends to “cushion the financial hangover” of six cancelled festivals in 2020 and 2021.
Lowlands and Tomorrowland’s speedy sellouts come after the UK’s Glastonbury festival sold out in just over an hour, despite a 26% price increase for the 2023 edition.
The Glastonbury onsale failed to beat 2019’s record of just 34 minutes due to a “technical problem”, as organisers reported “incredible demand” for the 135,000 weekend tickets. Coach packages sold out in just 22 minutes.
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Lowlands festival site to be used as refugee shelter
The festival site where Dutch festivals Lowlands and Defqon. 1 are held each year will become a shelter for more than 1,000 registered refugees.
The first refugees are expected at Walibi Holland in Biddinghuizen, central Netherlands, in three weeks’ time and will be accommodated in temporary housing units until next spring.
The shelter will be used to relieve the burden on the asylum seekers’ centre in Ter Apel, Groningen, until April 2023 when the site will be available for festivals again.
The mayor of governing providence Dronten, Jean Paul Gebber, tells de Volkskrant that Walibi Holland is a good choice for a temporary shelter because of the festivals that are organised there. “If we can build a village here for 60,000 people three times a year, we can also set up a village for 1,500 asylum seekers if there is a need for it.”
The mayor of Dronten says that Walibi Holland is a good choice because of the festivals that are organised there
Walibi Holland hosts the 55,000-capacity Lowlands (aka A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise) in August each year, with the 2023 edition set for 18–20 of that month.
The festival’s promoter, Live Nation-backed Mojo Concerts, recently opened the world’s largest solar carport in Walibi Holland’s on-site car park.
The site is shared by Defqon. 1 which is promoted by Q-dance, part of the Superstruct-backed ID&T group.
The electronic dance music festival is due to return to the site between 22–25 June, 2023.
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