Legends and ASM Global have promoted James Harrison to VP of programming, UK and Europe.

Harrison, who joined ASM in 2017, has 16 years of programming experience across leading venues and organisations such as LW Theatres, ATG and Live Nation.

He is responsible for managing the company’s central programming team and overseeing music, comedy & entertainment bookings alongside colleague James Taylor, who manages the UK/EU sports and new business bookings.

Harrison is also credited as a driving force behind the strategic restructuring of the Legends/ASM UK programming team, as well as the diversification of the firm’s venue portfolio, which includes arenas such as Manchester’s AO Arena, OVO Arena Wembley and Leeds’ First Direct Arena, plus the firm’s concert hall division, made up of Connexin Live Hull, York Barbican, Sheffield City Hall, New Century Hall Manchester and Becketwell Live Derby.

“I’m very grateful for the trust and belief that ASM Global have placed in me and our team – I believe the team is the best in the business, and our offering is unrivalled,” says Harrison. “We’re at a very exciting point in the company’s history and I’m looking forward to continuing to lead the programming team and grasping all the opportunities to come.”

“James is the rare breed executive who seamlessly straddles both the creative chaos and the business hustle of live music entertainment”

This year, Harrison is spearheading programming for the upcoming launch of Derby’s Becketwell Live, a major new live entertainment hub for Derby, and delivering an expanded 2025 schedule of 1,000-plus shows across the group.

“James is the rare breed executive who seamlessly straddles both the creative chaos and the business hustle of live music entertainment,” adds Brian Celler, SVP & head of programming and content at Legends/ASM. “He has a deep understanding and instinct for live event touring, a sharp eye for deals that benefit artists, their teams, our venues, and the vision to shake things up.

“James conceived this new programming structure, and it is setting us up for growth across every level – grassroots clubs to iconic stadiums.”

Separately, Kristofer Åkesson has joined Legends and ASM Global as marketing and communications director for the Nordic region. He will be responsible for marketing, communications and PR strategy for the company’s growing regional venue portfolio which includes venues such as Sweden’s Avicii Arena, Strawberry Arena, 3Arena, Hovet, Södra Teatern and Finland’s Kulttuuritalo.

“I’m looking forward to using my experience to further develop and elevate the brands, business and the guest experience across our incredible venue portfolio in the Nordics, at a time where live experiences, including sports, music and more, are more sought after than ever before,” says Åkesson.

“Kristofer is well-respected in the industry and has a deep understanding of the world of live entertainment”

Previously, Åkesson spent almost a decade at Live Nation Sweden as both head of PR, and marketing & communications director. Since late 2024, he has worked in a consultancy role for Stockholm Live, the Swedish branch of Legends and ASM.

“Kristofer is well-respected in the industry and has a deep understanding of the world of live entertainment, from the promoter and venue perspective and also the commercial aspects of the business,” adds Marie Lindqvist, SVP operations, Europe at Legends and ASM. “I have no doubt that he will be a great addition to our team in supporting the growth of our existing business in the Nordics and also to position Legends and ASM Global in Europe.”

Meanwhile, André Jürgens, founder of Germany’s Reload Festival, has joined the Wacken Open Air management team as co-MD alongside Thomas Jensen and Holger Hübner, who have been shareholders in Reload for more than a decade.

“We are continuously strengthening our team to continue creating the best conditions for the successful implementation of the festival,” says a joint statement from Jensen and Hübnersay. “We are therefore very pleased to have gained André Jürgens as a new additional managing director for Wacken Open Air. He lives music, is a man of the trade, and will provide additional impetus with his expertise.

“André will form a three-person leadership team with us, rejuvenating the team and providing excellent support to our metal community with his experience.”

“If it hadn’t been possible to continue Reload, I wouldn’t have accepted the opportunity”

Jürgens, who will continue to be involved behind the scenes at Lower Saxony’s Reload, describes his hiring as a “crowning achievement”.

“As if the coach of local club St. Pauli gets an offer from a Champions League club. No coach on this planet would say no to that,” he says. “This is a crowning achievement. I simply can’t pass up this opportunity. But it’s also a crowning achievement for the entire Reload Festival and the work everyone puts in there.

“I’m not giving up on Reload. This was also the subject of discussions with Wacken officials from the very beginning. If it hadn’t been possible to continue Reload, I wouldn’t have accepted the opportunity.”

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Belgian festival Tomorrowland sold 200,000 tickets in a record 18 minutes during its presale for Belgian visitors, beating last year’s 27-minute sellout.

The final batch of tickets for the electronic music extravaganza were snapped up in a matter of hours during last weekend’s global pre-sale.

Tomorrowland 2025 will welcome 400,000 ticket holders across two weekends to Boom, in the province of Antwerp, from 18–20 and 25–27 July.

The 2025 instalment will feature artists such as David Guetta, Charlotte De Witte, Armin Van Buuren, Martin Garrix, Netsky, and Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike.

Before heading to Boom, Tomorrowland will stop in Colombia for CORE Medellín in February, then in France for Tomorrowland Winter in Alpe d’Huez in March.

Tomorrowland isn’t the only festival that has reported sellout success for 2025; Wacken Open Air, Primavera Sound, Greenfield Fest and Electric Picnic have also seen tickets fly off the shelf.

Tickets for the 2025 edition of Electric Picnic, Ireland’s biggest music festival, sold out more than a year in advance without a single act being announced.

Green Man, the largest festival in Wales, sold out in a record 60 minutes and without a single act announced

General admission tickets, priced €290, were snapped up within hours. The Festival Republic-promoted festival also operates a loyalty scheme, offering discounted passes for previous attendees.

Electric Picnic will be held at Stradbally Hall in Stradbally, County Laois, from 29-31 August next year, reverting to its traditional late summer date.

Similarly, Green Man, the largest festival in Wales, sold out in a record 60 minutes and without a single act announced. Organisers say the 25,000-capacity, independently owned event is the first UK festival to sell out for 2025.

The festival is set to return to the Black Mountains in the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park in Wales from the 14–17 August with a programme that spans music, comedy, literature, film, performance and installation art, wellness and science.

Elsewhere, the 2025 edition of German heavy metal festival Wacken Open Air (WOA) sold out nine months in advance. The majority of the 85,000 tickets were snapped up days after the 4 August 2024 pre-sale, with the remainder shifted by 30 September.

The 34th edition will return to Wacken, Schleswig-Holstein, between 30 July to 2 August 2025, with acts including Machine Head, Saltatio Mortis, Papa Roach, Gojira, Apocalyptica and more.

Primavera Sound Barcelona also enjoyed sellout success, having shifted all tickets to its 23rd edition five months in advance of the event.

All full festival passes and day tickets were snapped up within 67 days of going on sale for the 75,000-cap festival at Parc Del Fòrum.

Organisers believe the feat offers an endorsement of the 2025 bill, which is headlined by Charli XCX & Troye Sivan, Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan from 5-7 June.

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The 2025 edition of German heavy metal festival Wacken Open Air (WOA) has sold out, organisers have announced.

The majority of the 85,000 tickets were snapped up days after the 4 August pre-sale, with the remainder shifted by 30 September.

The 2024 event holds the title for the fastest sell-out, with tickets flying off the shelf in four and a half hours and smashing the previous record of six hours set for 2023’s event.

“It’s actually not a big surprise [it didn’t sell out in one day] because that’s only happened twice; we had years where we needed 10 months to sell it out. We are almost sold out, so it’s all good,” WOA booker Jan Quiel said at last week’s International Festival Forum.

Last month, WOA organisers confirmed 34 bands for the 34th edition including Machine Head, Saltatio Mortis, Papa Roach, Gojira, Apocalyptica, Saxon, Within Temptation, Dimmu Borgir, Ministry, Michael Schenker, Peyton Parrish, Beyond The Black and Clawfinger.

“We are once again more than grateful for your endless support and trust”

Discussing the festival’s booking strategy, Quiel told IFF delegates: “We always do a classic act because it’s always part of the DNA of the festival. So a band like Scorpions is always a huge, cool headliner for us as well. But we definitely keep in mind that we have to grow a younger audience as well.

“I always keep some spots [open]. Let’s say the last four to five slots, I book in March or April in case there are new, up-and-coming artists, such as Sleep Token when they were growing in Germany. And so that was one of the few slots I had left and I could put them on.”

The 2024 edition of WOA was headlined by Scorpions, Korn, Amon Amarth and Blind Guardian, and was a return to form after the weather-related struggles in 2023.

“It’s time to say thank you again!” says founder and organiser Thomas Jensen. “This year we celebrated the 33rd edition of the Wacken Open Air with you during best weather conditions and the new arrival concept also worked and took you all to the Holy Ground without any problems and traffic jams. Now we can also announce that Wacken Open Air 2025 is SOLD OUT and we are once again more than grateful for your endless support and trust!”

WOA returns to Wacken, Schleswig-Holstein, between 30 July to 2 August 2025.

WOA, Tuska Festival, K2 Agency and Catch 22 surveyed the state of the metal scene at the recent IFF. Read the takeaways from the panel here.

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The ups and downs of the metal sector – and the lessons the genre can offer the mainstream scene – were pored over in a candid discussion at the International Festival Forum (IFF) in London.

Jan Quiel of Wacken Open Air chaired the Metal: Keeping in time, shredding old rules panel, which brought together Jouni Markkanen, promoter of Finland’s Tuska Festival, K2 Agency’s Sharon Richardson and Merle Doering, owner and MD of Catch 22 agency.

A key question centred on the lessons other events could learn from metal’s enduring ability to nurture a dedicated fanbase.

“Metal festivals are not focused on such a tiny pool of super-hot bands,” said Markkanen. “I don’t focus only on the headliners, but on the balance. You need to have a very strong start to the day; the party needs to start when the gate opens and it needs to last until the gate closes.

“At Tuska, we never made the mistake of just putting on one massive band because then it is like a park concert with a few support bands. Of course, somebody is closing the night, but it’s the collection of art for the weekend. You are trying to serve the wider audience; we are not just looking at modern metal bands, there is a twist of all genres here and there. Communication with the audience is super-important.”

“The pool of available bands was diminishing and we were like, ‘Okay, we need to find a new batch – a new style – to get the audience average age down.'”

Quiel added the metal “community” had bred fan loyalty through the years, although Doering pointed out that happened organically.

“I don’t think that can be learned,” she advised. “In pop music, you can have a one-hit wonder, but nobody cares about them the next year because they’re on to the next trend. I grew up very close to Wacken, and we went to Wacken on the first weekend of August. It didn’t matter who played; that was just what we did. And that’s a thing with metal culture – people identify very strongly with the festivals.”

The panellists also shared how they had succeeded in attracting a younger demographic in recent years, with Markkanen explaining he had changed his booking strategy “quite drastically” over the last few years, leading to fresh headliners such as Ghost, Electric Callboy and Lorna Shore.

“The audience was getting older and older,” he said. “The pool of available bands was diminishing and we were like, ‘Okay, we need to find a new batch of bands – a new style – to get the audience average age down.’ We didn’t do it in one stroke, but added more modern stuff here and there.”

Markkanen noted that this year’s booking of electronic rock band Pendulum was greeted with a frosty response on social media, yet their set attracted the festival’s third biggest crowd ever.

“Festival booking has become a fight for smaller to medium-sized bands, because so many bands want to tour and there are so few slots”

“Trying to find new ways of shocking the audience is nothing bad,” he added. “Of course, the old audience says that, ‘Markkanen has ruined the festival, Tuska has nothing to see anymore.’ But we grew from 15,000-cap to 23,000 and we’re selling out.”

On a similar theme, Richardson noted that K2 achieved a “phenomenal” result after securing a slot for Canadian metal band Spiritbox on the Reading & Leeds bill.

“Your job as an agent is to build that artist profile, but to get longevity out of an artist, so the slots for festivals are really important,” she said. “Reading & Leeds nowadays is more of a pop-indie festival, so for Spiritbox to play on the main stage was really difficult for them. But they won the crowd around, and it was a really good result in the fact that we put Alexandra Palace on sale around [their performances] – that’s 10,500-capacity – and it sold out in two and a half weeks, which was a phenomenal result from taking a risk.”

Wrapping up the session, Doering stressed that the metal scene was not without its struggles.

“A lot of changes need to happen because we are facing a lot of challenges,” she cautioned. “I don’t think the scene is necessarily handling the challenges very well overall, but generally it is adapting. Festival booking has become a fight for smaller to medium-sized bands, because so many bands want to tour and there are so few slots.

“At least for me, there’s a bigger threshold to taking on bands from North America because the cost of bringing them over are so much higher… Building a smaller act, especially from abroad – and you probably all know what flight costs are like nowadays – is so much more challenging. The financial situation of the band is something that comes up very early on, which was probably not the case to the same degree 10 years ago.”

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Organisers of legendary German heavy metal festival Wacken Open Air (W:O:A) say they are “overwhelmed” that next year’s edition is already close to a sellout.

Machine Head, Saltatio Mortis, Papa Roach, Gojira, Apocalyptica, Saxon, Within Temptation, Dimmu Borgir, Ministry, Michael Schenker, Peyton Parrish, Beyond The Black and Clawfinger have been confirmed for the 85,000-cap event, set for 30 July to 2 August 2025.

The first batch of 10,000 “Faster” tickets, which included a limited edition T-shirt, swiftly sold out, while all but a few of the remaining “Harder” tickets, priced €333, have also now been snapped up.

“We are overwhelmed that the 85,000 tickets for W:O:A 2025 are almost completely sold after such a short time,” co-founder and promoter Thomas Jensen tells IQ. “We do not take the metalheads’ trust for granted. On the contrary, our motivation is to organise the best possible metal festival – not to be able to announce a ‘sold out’ as quickly as possible.”

The 2024 festival, which took place last week in Wacken, Schleswig-Holstein, was headlined by Scorpions, Korn, Amon Amarth and Blind Guardian.

“We are very happy and thankful,” says Jensen. “It was a fantastic get together of the international metal community – our family, having a great time, amazing concerts and a very peaceful week with loads of new metal memories.”

“Fans could experience a whole week of W:O:A for the very first time”

He continues: “At the moment we are overjoyed that we can look back on a great week and are already counting down the days until we can meet fans, friends and family on the Holy Ground again next year – for that we are giving everything.”

It marked a return to full-strength for the Superstruct-backed, International Concert Service (ICS)-promoted metal institution, which went ahead at reduced capacity last year after the site was hit by rain and thunderstorms in the days leading up to it, leaving the camping areas “impassable”.

In an effort to help avoid similar scenes this time around, W:O:A introduced an extra arrival day and new arrival system with access passes for cars. For the first time, a limited number of access passes, priced €66.60 per vehicle, were made available for the Sunday before the festival – meaning areas of the campsite were open for a whole week.

“The fans fully accepted it, so everything went very smoothly and they were able to access the festival site without any delays and traffic jams,” reports Jensen. “Who doesn’t love having more time for a cold beer? It was a successful decision and implementation. Fans could experience a whole week of W:O:A for the very first time.

“In addition to arriving earlier, there were some special treats for them, like a very well received DJ set by my co-founder Holger Hübner aka ‘DJ Hüby’ and bands from the 1990 edition playing at the Landgasthof, where the idea of Wacken Open Air was originally born.”

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German metal festival Wacken Open Air (W:O:A) is set for a banner comeback after last year’s weather-related struggles.

The 2024 edition kicks off today in Wacken, Schleswig-Holstein, and features performances from the likes of Scorpions, Amon Amarth and In Extremo.

All 85,000 tickets to the festival were snapped up in just four-and-a-half hours in August, smashing the existing record of six hours set for 2023’s event.

With a historic on-sale behind them and a clear weather forecast ahead, organisers are excited to get back to business.

“The gates open and a flood of fans rush onto the Holy Ground,” W:O:A co-founder Thomas Jensen tells IQ. “Starting the W:O:A festivities on the main stages in the main area is always a very emotional moment for us, still, after all those years. We’re excited about this year’s festival and very much looking forward to it. The weather is great, the fans are celebrating, there are a lot of cool bands coming up… what’s not to like?”

“Starting the W:O:A festivities on the main stages in the main area is always a very emotional moment for us”

Last year, Superstruct-backed promoter International Concert Service was forced to run the 85,000-cap event at a reduced capacity after the festival site was hit by rain and thunderstorms in the days leading up to it, leaving the camping areas “impassable”.

Around 61,000 people entered the site before no further admissions were allowed, meaning close to 25,000 ticket-holders were denied entry. Jensen estimated that the capacity reduction caused a revenue shortfall of more than €7 million.

Ticket-holders denied entry in 2023 were given first refusal to buy Wacken 2024 tickets priced at €333.

This year, organisers have introduced an extra arrival day for campers with a limited number of access passes, priced €66.60 per vehicle for the Sunday before the festival – meaning that areas of the campsite are open for a whole week for the first time.

Wacken Open Air proper runs between 31 July and 3 August under the banner of Witches & Warlocks.

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How the industry can best cope with the increasing number of extreme weather events impacting festivals and open-air events was a major topic of conversation during this month’s ILMC in London.

Presented by GEI, The Heat Is On: Extreme Weather & Live Music session was chaired by veteran tour and production manager Jamal Chalabi of A Greener Future and included a presentation from Met Office meteorologist Prof Richard Betts on changing climate patterns.

The debate also featured May Ling of Australia’s Chugg Entertainment and freelance festival security and safety consultant Alexandra Von Samson, as well as Wacken Open Air co-founder Thomas Jensen.

“I do find it quite amazing in this industry that we still think we have a choice to deal with climate change, we clearly don’t have a choice,” said Chalabi, who gave a sample of events around the globe to have been hit by the elements over the past 12 months.

The list included Primavera Sound Madrid, Awakenings in the Netherlands, Slovenia’s MetalDays, the UK’s Kaleidoscope, shows by Louis Tomlinson show and Ed Sheeran in the US, Burning Man, Taylor Swift in Brazil, Elton John in New Zealand and Wacken Open Air in Germany.

“We’d had bad weather in the past, but last year was kind of different”

Jensen recalled Wacken’s near-catastrophic weather-related struggles last summer, which saw the festival proceed at reduced capacity after the site was hit by rain and thunderstorms in the days leading up to it, leaving the camping areas “impassable”.

“We’d had bad weather in the past, but last year was kind of different,” said Jensen. “There was a long dry period, leading up to the festival from mid June until early July, right when we started to set up the production. And then it started to rain, up to when the fans were arriving.

“The whole traffic system basically collapsed. It got really dramatic. Everything got stuck.”

Around 30,000 ticket-holders were subsequently denied entry after organisers allowed no further admission due to the adverse conditions.

“In over 30 years, it was the hardest decision I ever had to make,” said Jensen. “We’re in the music industry and timing is is crucial, and so we made the decision to have an ingress stop, which was very hard. At the end of the day, it’s debatable: could we have let a couple of more people in or not? Had we been strict enough? But I think, in principle, it was the right decision.”

“Thirty years ago, it was mostly the rain, but it’s now changed to raining one second and being 35 or 40°C suddenly after that”

He added: “We always say the ones that stayed home made the festival possible, at the end of the day, and they saved the insurance companies a lot of money. They made it possible for the other two-thirds to have a party. That’s why we’re extremely grateful.”

The Diplomat reported last week that more than 40 Australian music festivals have been cancelled, postponed, or evacuated due to heat, fires, rain or floods over the past decade, with more than 20 such incidents occurring in 2022 alone, amid record rainfall in the eastern states.

Ling told the session that extreme weather “has always been a part of what we have to deal with” in the region.

“Thirty years ago, it was mostly the rain, but it’s now changed to raining one second and being 35 or 40°C suddenly after that,” she said. “Even if we prepare for everything, you still can’t really control that.

“One thing we always did was have a meteorologist on site at our big outdoor shows. We also had the fire department in extreme heat conditions, and would have them hose the front of the crowd because those kids couldn’t get out to get water. You can give away as much free water as as you want, but those kids are not losing their spot before Guns N’ Roses comes on stage.”

“A 100% safe event is not existing in this world”

She continued: “Another huge safety concern that people forget about and it’s that everybody at the front of the stage can get electrocuted if a flash flood happens, and  you have to know when to pull the plug basically so that all these kids don’t get electrocuted.”

Von Samson recommended the business should learn from each other, adding that communication is crucial at all levels.

“It’s great if you have your plans, but it’s not so great if not everyone knows about them – and I’m including audience in that as well,” she said. “Make them aware they are part of the festival. I strongly believe in informing them as much as much as you can to keep them self-aware and empowered.

“You don’t want to be the festival or the promoter where something really bad happens. No one wants that, so you have to set up risk assessments. A 100% safe event is not existing in this world.”

Offering her final thoughts, Ling said battling the increasingly unpredictable conditions was a fact of life as an outdoor event organiser – but employing the right people behind the scenes is still paramount.

“We’re all about adaption – that’s why this industry can adapt quickly to this situation and be a leading light to change”

“As best you can prepare, when when an emergency happens, you just have to have good people that are safety conscious, know what they’re doing and act quickly, and they keep the crowd and the bands safe. Weather is a thing that is not going away, no matter what extremes it goes to. And as an outdoor event person, you have to deal with it.”

Betts called upon the music industry to lead the way in taking steps to help combat the climate crisis.

“The live music sector can play a really important role in setting an example about how to live with the weather we’ve made more extreme, but also stopping it getting more extreme, and stopping climate change by being more sustainable in the industry,” he said.

Chalabi brought proceedings to a close on a similarly positive note.

“Our community in the music industry, we’re the best,” he said. “We’re all about adaption – that’s why this industry can adapt quickly to this situation and be a leading light to change.”

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German heavy metal festival Wacken Open Air is offering a novel form of payment for its pre-festival showcase, encouraging fans to “pay with your blood”.

From next Monday (11 March), individuals who donate blood to Essen University Hospital will receive free admission to the festival’s warm-up show. The gig, set for one day after World Blood Donor Day, will take place at the Turock nightclub in Essen, Germany.

“The goal of the World Blood Donor Day campaign on June 14th is to fill the empty blood banks, recruit new donors and ultimately save lives,” organisers said in a press release.

‘Fill empty blood banks, recruit new donors, and ultimately save lives’

This preliminary gig will showcase three acts — Celeste, Downfall of Gaia and Friisk — in an evening ‘dedicated to the extreme varieties of metal’.

The four-day festival has encouraged blood donation for over a decade, offering a free t-shirt in exchange for six recorded donations on the official W:O:A blood donor passport.

The 33rd edition of the metal festival, set for 31 July through 4 August, will be led by Scorpions, Korn and Amon Amarth.

Additional performers include Blind Guardian, In Extremo and Axel Rudi Pell. This year’s instalment sold out in record time, with fans snagging all 85,000 tickets in four-and-a-half hours.

Fans looking to pay for the warm-up show the conventional way can find tickets at Eventim and Metaltix.

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European festival organisers came together at ILMC 36 to discuss the sector’s biggest challenges, including the lack of available headliners.

Cindy Castillo, Mad Cool (ES), Jim King, AEG Presents (UK), Jess Phillips, Untitled Group (AU), Jan Quiel, Wacken Open Air (DE) and Annika Hintz, Superbloom (DE) took the stage for Festival Forum: Headline Topics, moderated by UTA’s Jules De Lattre.

“The challenge across all my UK business has been the availability of headline talent,” said King. “When they’re prepared to confirm, how we can get that show announced and then the sales window that we’re dealing with. The shows we’re putting up are selling very strongly. The demand is there, it’s supply that’s an issue.”

Castillo added: “The most difficult thing this year has definitely been booking headliners and being able to deliver a good lineup. The time between sending our first offer and getting a headliner confirmed was the longest period ever. This is due to many circumstances: the cost, production, dates, not wanting to tour, saturation of the market.”

“The demand is there, it’s supply that’s an issue”

De Lattre suggested the lack of headliners was partly down to the boom in arena and stadium tours.

“Major artists have less of a financial incentive to play festivals since the headline touring business is more rewarding than ever,” he said. “You’ve got higher income on a headlining tour, you’ve got better routes and full control of your production.”

King added: “More acts need to tour festivals and that’s the most urgent issue we have to address.”

Phillips, from Australian promoter Untitled Group, added that it’s not just the availability of headliners that’s an issue but the “astronomical” cost of bringing them to her country. “The problem with that is our breakeven just skyrockets,” she said.

Phillips believes this is the reason why festival cancellations in Australia are mounting: “What we’ve seen recently is festivals putting all their money into securing a good headliner and then collapsing eight days after going on sale because they can tell from that they’re not going to get anywhere near that breakeven.”

“We worry too much about ticket price and not enough about the value of the ticket”

While rising costs are still an ongoing concern in the sector, panellists said they were determined to find solutions.

“There are bits and pieces to cover those costs,” said Jan Quiel. “We’ve been doing VIP packages and making a little extra on glamping, which we only started doing a couple of years ago.”

Castillo adds: “The only possible solution is to get creative about it and face new challenges with new solutions. We can’t control the situation because it’s a world thing, not a local thing.”

King argued that festival organisers should be “concentrating more on value than they do on cost”.

“We need to convince people that going to a festival will be just as much of an enriching experience as going on holiday”

“The first natural reaction when costs go up is to have less – less stages and smaller production,” he said. “If you reduce the value, you reduce the experience and then you’re on a downward spiral. I think if you look at the most successful festivals, they’re actually adding more value to the ticket. We worry too much about ticket price and not enough about the value of the ticket.”

“That doesn’t address the attrition rate, which is always going to be high. There will be more shows that fail because the barrier to entry, financially, is so high and the risk point is so high. I think it’s devastating. But that’s the direction of travel. I think it’s very difficult to change.”

Phillips agreed, adding that the value of a festival needs to match that of a holiday: “It can’t just be a stage and a hotdog stand, fans need to see an immersive experience. We need to convince people that going to a festival will be just as much of an enriching experience as going on holiday or spending your money on something else.

“We project the message that live music is just one element of our festivals and that there are many other activities. We want to deliver a whole other world, like a holiday destination. And that’s what we’re seeing is the most successful outcome.”

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The team behind Wacken Open Air are exporting their expertise to the Saxony region of Germany by launching a new three-day festival in May.

Chemnitz Metal Culture (CMC) was originally scheduled as a winter event, but the December 2023 event had to be shelved because of illness. However, Wacken, together with congress and event hall Kraftverkehr Chemnitz, have revealed plans for a 24-26 May festival, bringing metal fans to the former industrial venue.

With Chemnitz set to inherit the European City of Culture crown in 2025, the festival will be part of an impressive programme of events over the next couple of years, with festival organisers taking the opportunity to stage the semi-finals of the Wacken Metal Battle in the CMC line-up.

“Wacken and the Capital of Culture 2025: they fit together wonderfully. Especially in a hall that today shows all the technical refinements and that was once a real ‘metal’ hotspot as a historic bus repair facility,” comments Andreas Wöllenstein, owner of Kraftverkehr Chemnitz.

The final day of the event, the Wacken Foundation Family Day, will offer free admission to fans

The line-up for the warm-up show on Friday, 24 May, includes Destruction, Insanity Alert and, as openers, local act One Step Back, with organisers explaining that the event is intended to offer emerging artists from Chemnitz and Saxony an opportunity to showcase their talent.

The German semi-finals of the Wacken Metal Battle will take place on 25 May, pitting five bands against each other to secure a place at Wacken Open Air. The line-up includes Hamburg trio Messticator, death metal group Deserted Fear, and metalcore outfit Caliban. Early bird tickets for Chemnitz Metal Culture start at €50.

The final day of the event, the Wacken Foundation Family Day, will offer free admission to fans, who will be entertained by the likes of Mutz, Kool Katz, and Horst Adler Kapelle.

The 2024 edition of Wacken Open Air sold out within hours of going on sale, back in August. With an additional day announced for the festival, the 31 July to 3 August festival has confirmed acts such as Scorpions, Amon Amarth, Blind Guardian, In Extremo, Korn, and many more.

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