Gadget abc delivers pro-vaccination concert series
Swiss powerhouse Gadget abc Entertainment Group AG has been enlisted by the federal government to organise and produce an ‘information and concert series’ to encourage the unvaccinated to get their jabs.
The ‘Back on Tour’ series comprises five open-air concerts, taking place during national vaccination week (8–13 November) in cantons with low vaccination rates.
Swiss artists Dabu, Danitsa, Kunz, Stefanie Heinzmann and Stress, as well as the special guests Anna Rossinelli, Baschi and Sophie Hunger, will perform in Thun, Lausanne, Sion, St. Gallen and Lucerne.
Each concert will admit 500 people, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, who snapped up one of the 2,500 free tickets. Vaccination buses will be parked at each site.
The concerts are subject to the current coronavirus regulations which say that outdoor events without a certificate or seat requirement can take place with a maximum of 500 people. The organisers hope such restrictions will help to ‘arouse the audience’s longing for normalcy’.
“[This] will remind us of how we all went to concerts two years ago without any reservations or limits”
“[The ‘Back on Tour’ concert series] will remind us of how we all went to concerts two years ago without any reservations or limits and enjoyed our social and cultural life without any restrictions,” says Marco Meroni, member of the management team at Rod Kommunikation, the agency that implemented the entire vaccination campaign on behalf of the Federal Office of Public Health.
Oliver Rosa, managing partner and director artists and brands at Gadget, added: “In this varied and challenging project, we were able to benefit from the experience and our network as the largest organiser and leading management agency in Switzerland.”
The company says it was given a lead time of just four weeks to put together the ‘Back on Tour’ concert series.
“The pandemic has been paralysing our industry for almost two years. We want to get involved and show our colours to get out of there as quickly as possible. The informative component of the vaccination week with a wide variety of concerts combining Swiss artists made sense to us,” added Rosa.
Last year, CTS Eventim acquired a majority stake in Gadget, uniting André Béchir’s abc Production with the wepromote consortium of companies.
The wepromote joint venture was formed four years ago by a group of Swiss promoters including Gadget Entertainment, Incognito Productions, wildpony, OpenAir St Gallen, SummerDays Festival, Seaside Festival and wepromote Live.
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Festival Fever: what’s in store for summer 2020
Continuing the series of 2020 line-up announcements, IQ has a look at what organisers of Parklife, OpenAir St Gallen, Rock in Rio Lisbon, Colours of Ostrava, Download Japan, Wireless Festival and Roskilde have up their sleeves for 2020.
(See the previous edition of Festival Fever here.)
Parklife
When: 13 to 15 June
Where: Heaton Park, Manchester, UK
How many: 80,000
The line-up for Manchester’s Parklife festival was announced earlier this week, with a mixture of major hip-hop, electronic and pop acts topping the bill.
Tyler the creator, Carl Cox, Jorja Smith, Hot Chip, Giggs, Bicep, Four Tet and Roisin Murphy are among artists performing on the Saturday, with Khalid, Skepta, Lewis Capaldi, Anderson Paak, Robyn, Peggy Gou, Eric Prydz and Nina Kraviz leading the charge on Sunday.
Co-founded by Sacha Lord and Sam Kandel, who also started the Manchester-based Warehouse Project club nights, Parklife is majority controlled by LN-Gaiety, following a 2016 deal.
Tickets for Parklife 2020 are available here, priced at £125 for a weekend ticket and £95 for a day pass.
A mixture of major hip-hop, electronic and pop acts top the Parklife 2020 bill
OpenAir St Gallen
When: 25 to 28 June
Where: River Sitter valley, Saint Gallen, Switzerland
How many: 30,000
Switzerland’s OpenAir St Gallen is entering its 44th year in 2020 and its first as part of the newly formed powerhouse Gadget abc Entertainment Group AG, in which CTS Eventim acquired a majority stake last week.
This year’s festival will see performances from Twenty One Pilots, the Lumineers, Alan Walker and Of Monsters and Men, as well as German acts AnnenMayKantereit, Kontra K and Deichkind.
OpenAir St Gallen received the green operations award at the 2019 European Festival Awards, with Wepromote – the joint venture between OpenAir St Gallen, Gadget Entertainment, Incognito Productions, wildpony, SummerDays Festival, Seaside Festival and Wepromote Live – taking home promoter of the year.
Tickets for OpenAir St Gallen 2020 are available here, priced at CHF 239 (£188) for a four-day ticket and CHF 77 (£61) for a single day.
Switzerland’s OpenAir St Gallen is entering its 44th year in 2020
Wireless Festival
When: 3 to 5 July
Where: Finsbury Park, London, UK
How many: 50,000
Festival Republic’s Wireless Festival is returning to London’s Finsbury Park this summer for three days of urban music, headlined by ASAP Rocky, Skepta and Meek Mill.
Within a day of announcing the line-up, all weekend tickets and single Friday and Saturday tickets had sold out.
Other artists performing at the event include Quality Control Takeover, DaBaby, Roddy Ricch, AJ Tracey, Aitch, Burna Boy and Young Thug.
The line-up announcement for Wireless’ flagship UK event came days after the billing for its German edition was revealed. ASAP Rocky will also head up the 40,000-capacity Frankfurt festival, alongside Kendrick Lamar.
Sunday tickets for Wireless London are available here for £72.50, with joint Friday and Sunday passes also still available for £137.50.
Tickets for Wireless Germany can be found here, with a weekend ticket costing €149 (£125) and a day pass priced at €79 (£67).
Within a day of announcing the line-up, all weekend tickets and single Friday and Saturday tickets had sold out
Colours of Ostrava
When: 15 to 18 July
Where: Dolní Vítkovice, Ostrava, Czech Republic
How many: 45,000
Czech Republic’s Colours of Ostrava festival is this year featuring acts including the Killers, Twenty One Pilots, Martin Garrix, the Lumineers, Sigrid, LP and Youssou N’Dour.
The festival, which takes place in the industrial area of a former mining site in the Czech city, hosts acts over two dozen outdoor and indoor stages, as well as providing a programme of cinema, theatre, literature and art.
The Colours of Ostrava team also organises the free Festival v ulicích (Street Festival) in the centre of Ostrava, and the Czech Music Crossroads, a music showcase conference
Four-day tickets for Colours of Ostrava 2020 are available here for €125.
Colours of Ostrava is this year featuring the Killers, Twenty One Pilots and Martin Garrix
Rock in Rio Lisbon
When: 20 to 28 June
Where: Bela Vista Park, Lisbon, Portugal
How many: 80,000
The Lisbon edition of Brazilian mega festival Rock in Rio added two more acts to its 2020 line-up this week, with singers Ivete Sangalo and Anitta joining artists including Foo Fighters, the Black Eyed Peas, Camila Cabello, the National, Liam Gallagher and Post Malone.
Promoted by Rock City, in which Live Nation recently upped its shareholding to a majority stake, the festival’s flagship Rio de Janeiro event hosted the likes of Drake, Red Hit Chili Peppers, Bon Jovi, Iron Maiden, Pink and Muse across two four-day festival in September and October 2019.
Last year, Rock in Rio founder Roberto Medina hinted at the possibility of launching a Chilean edition of the festival, in what would be the first expansion of the festival brand within the Latin American region.
Tickets for Rock in Rio Lisboa are available here. Day tickets cost €69 (£58) and weekend passes are priced at €112 (£94).
The Lisbon edition of Brazilian mega festival Rock in Rio added two more acts to its 2020 line-up this week
Download Japan
When: 29 March
Where: Makuhari Messe Event Hall, Chiba, Japan
How many: 9,000
The Japanese edition of Live Nation’s Download festival franchise is returning for its second outing this March, with a headline performance from My Chemical Romance.
Other artists playing at the festival include Evanescence, the Offspring, Jimmy East World, Ministry and In Flames.
The flagship UK edition of Download Festival is celebrating its 18th year in 2020, with performances from Kiss, Iron Maiden and System of a Down.
Download is also returning to Australia this year, with festivals in Melbourne and Sydney on 20 and 21 March respectively. My Chemical Romance will also head up Download down under, alongside Ministry, Jimmy Eat World and Lacuna Coil, as well as domestic acts Dead Letter Circus, Hellions and Orpheus Omega.
Spanish and French editions of the festival will not be returning in 2020.
Tickets for Download Japan are available here for ¥16,500 (£115). Camping tickets for Download UK can be found here for £250 and tickets for the Australian Download events are available here for AU$194.93 (£99).
The Japanese edition of Live Nation’s Download festival franchise is returning for its second outing this March
Roskilde
When: 27 June to 4 July
Where: Roskilde, Denmark
How many: 85,000
Roskilde Festival’s 50th anniversary edition is shaping up to be a big, with 32 more acts added to the line-up this week.
Faith No More, FKA Twigs, Anderson Paak and Kacey Musgraves are among artists joining previously announced acts Taylor Swift, Tyler the Creator, Thom Yorke Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes, Deftones and more.
“What is unique about this generation of artists is how fast they make their mark – both artistically and when it comes to drawing attention,” comments Anders Wahrén, head of programming at the Danish non-profit festival.
“Artists like FKA Twigs, Anderson Paak and Kacey Musgraves are important to music, but are also important voices for the young people too.”
Tickets for the full eight-day festival experience plus camping are available here for DDK2250 (£257).
Roskilde Festival’s 50th anniversary edition is shaping up to be a big, with 32 more acts added to the line-up this week
Summer Nights at the Bandstand
When: 30 July to 15 August
Where: Kelvingrove bandstand, Glasgow, Scotland
How many: 2,500
Regular Music’s annual concert series is returning to Glasgow’s Kelvingrove bandstand this summer for 13 nights of live music.
This year’s line-up includes performances from Rufus Wainwright, Yusuf/Cat Stevens, KT Tunstall, Van Morrison and Rick Astely, as well as a two-night run by Primal Scream.
All twelve shows sold out last year, which featured acts including Bloc Party, the National, Burt Bacharach, Father John Misty and Patti Smith. Tickets for this year’s Summer Nights went on sale last week, with the Van Morrison, Yusuf/Cat Stevens and Rick Astley shows already selling out.
“Kelvingrove Bandstand has such a fantastic atmosphere and the feedback we have had from both artists and audiences is that they have a great time just being there,” comments Regular Music director Mark Mackie. “They really are unique and special nights under the stars.”
Tickets for Summer Nights at the Bandstand 2020 are available here.
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107,000 for wet but “euphoric” OpenAir 2017
A total of 107,000 people attended last weekend’s OpenAir St Gallen, with organisers praising the festival’s “euphoric and peaceful experience” in spite of the challenges posed by wet weather.
Festivalgoers took the muddy conditions in their stride – the hashtag #schlammgallen (#mudgallen) was trending through the weekend – with 20,000 people visiting the Swiss festival on Thursday 29 June and 29,000 each day on Friday, Saturday and Saturday.
It is the first year since 2011 OpenAir has failed to reach capacity, although Swiss newspaper 20 Minuten attributes the slight drop in attendance (there were reportedly about 1,000 tickets unsold) to rumours the festival was already sold out.
Festival promoter Christof Huber says he “takes off [his] hat to our incredible audience, who made the festival a real highlight despite the rain and cold temperatures”.
“Despite cold and rainy weather conditions, the event was an euphoric but peaceful experience”
New for 2017 was the Campfire stage – which, true to its name, hosted local artists including Silas Kutschmann, Emanuel Reiter and Turtur in a small (~150-cap.) campfire setting – an expanded Plaza area featuring “food, design and street culture” and several new other food and drink options.
For the second year running, the festival also partnered with Zurich-based nonprofit myclimate to minimise the environmental impact of its food offering. Other eco-friendly achievements included 91% of reusable cups being recycled and 89% of tents taken home, underlining what OpenAir calls its “[well] known efforts in sustainability”.
Headliners were Biffy Clyro, Bastille, Justice, alt-J and German punks Die Toten Hosen, with other performers including Lorde, Glass Animals, Cage the Elephant and Confidence Man.
OpenAir St Gallen will return on 28 June–1 July 2018.
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