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[Fredde]

Hultsfred, swedens largest festival (at least up until this summer) has recorded very low attendance this year.
The last two years has been sold out, 30000 tickets, but this year todays newspapers just estimate the number to be 20000. The festival is to release an official number during the weekend.

This festival has seemingly spent all their bucks on a few big headliners and raised their ticketprice by 25% from last year.
Top billings: Ozzy, Korn, 50Cent, Pet Shop Boys, Velvet Revolver, Evanescence and Amy Winehouse. The rest of the program is abt 60% swedish acts.

So will this be the case for Roskilde as well if tickets are raised enormously just to please the crowd with huge crowdpleasers?

I'd say no since the age difference is a big factor, people going to Hultsfred is to a great extent umemployed teens still in school.

[varve]

It depends a LOT on the "big names" invested in. Those on Hultsfred are crap... Only one name is NEW, Amy Winehouse.

The Hultsfred line-up is... weird.. It seems they're trying to reach everybody with it:
Ozzy, old rock legend
Korn, metal
50cent, Rap
Pet Shop Boys, old rock, but not the same category as ozzy
Velvet Revolver, new but established rock act... (members known from old rock acts)
Evanescence, semi-new rock act in the mainstream end.
Amy winehouse, r'n'b mainstream

they're all in different "leagues" and taste of music.
I mean, COME ON,... I'd personally love to see velvet revolver, but I wouldn't buy an expensive ticket for that alone - they'd have to come up with a few more names to attract me.

I'd hate it if Roskilde did the same thing

[Fredde]

I think people still go to Hultsfred just for the bands and not so much for the whole package of a festival. It's just not the same mood when you're put in cages, literally, to get your beer in the festival area. Overfed security persons walking around looking mean all day.

Roskilde sells out because many people really don't care that much about the bands, "we" know it's going to be excellent the next year as well. Sure, great bands is a great bonus.
I don't think a raised ticket price would scare that many people away since most people know the extra cash is being invested in making the festival a more organized and secure place to be.

[luddewho]

It's kinda sick that the hultsfred tickets costs about as much as RF tickets..

It's a MUCH smaller festival with 3 days of music and activities..

[särah]

I think the reason why Hultsfred didn't sell out is a combination of things people already mentioned, the ticket prices are waaay too high and the bands are too bad. They booked 50 Cent and Ozzy Osbourne as biggest headliners, and for a festival in Sweden with mostly 16-25-yearolds, I think that's a really bad choice. It costs nearly as much as RF, and when you're in the south parts of Sweden, it isn't that far away from Roskilde. And Roskilde is not just a festival with a better lineup, it's so much more. The people working with Hultsfred might think that they're as "safe" as RF on that part, but honestly, people don't go to Hultsfred just because it's Hultsfred. It did sell out the past two years, but I think that was mainly because of the bands and the hype around the 20th anniversary in 2005.
Compare Hultsfred's lineup to the other big festivals in Europe - it's shit. Nobody travels from other countries to see mainly swedish acts and, öh, 50 Cent?
And you can't raise the ticket prices that much without giving the audience anything special. Is it possible to skate, go to the cinema or go fishing at Hultsfred? No. There's nothing special about that festival. I mean, I could go to Roskilde just to stand there and watch the audience and all funny flags and the Orange Stage. The stages at Hultsfred isn't even pretty!

[luddewho]

According to the swedish newspaper expressen it's quite empty both at the festival and in the small town of Hultsfred..

quotation: "För övrigt är det helt dött i Hultsfred City. Inte en kotte på gatorna. Även det skillnad mot hur det brukar vara.
Hur mycket folk är här egentligen? 18 000? Det brukar vara 30 000."

Just look at this picture of the Velvet Revolver concert. I think it was last night:

http://content.expressen.se/blog/35/26/69/anders/images/DSC02396.jpg

Where's the crowd? Where's the atmosphere? Thats the biggest stage btw..

[varve]

I'm amazed... no, SHOCKED 

[särah]

That's supposed to be the biggest festival in Sweden! I'm ashamed.

I'm soooo happy that I decided to go to Roskilde....

[luddewho]

Rockparty's official ticket sales nr is 23000 tickets sold.. That's just lame..

[luddewho]

Miljonförlust för Hultsfred

http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/noje/story/0,2789,1096880,00.html

[Yoshime]

Miljonförlust för Hultsfred

http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/noje/story/0,2789,1096880,00.html

That'll teach em to book something decent for next year. Or atleast more than 2-3 interesting acts spread out over 3 days. Gör om, gör rätt.

[luddewho]

Yeah!

I think alot of people choose RF over Hultsfred now that Hultsfred almost costs as much as RF. The big differece is that Hultsfred is 3 days of music and RF 8 days och activities and music!

[mna]

I was at Hultsfred this year and I have to say the camping area was pretty empty. But still I got what I wanted out of it. To see Roky Erickson play live. That was Such a great show.. Damn
And to see him at Roskilde to will be so great. I will stand in the very front once again at that show and can only recomend it to everyone else to.

[underallkritik]

I really like hultsfred as a festival since its a bit smaller and more "cozy" than roskilde but hultsfreds main problem is the way too young crowd, I felt old there when I was 20!

[confronta]

I visited Hultsfrfred 2 times, but also LIVED in hultsfred for a year and had the chane to talk to JP Bordahl and other Hultsfred staff cause we had to write something like an international marketing plan. The main problems at that time (2005) were
1. too expensive
2. blurry scope (is it a rock festival, a mainstream festival?)
3. too much of a young crowd
4. no international scope

in a nutshell we suggested to try to lower ticket prices, find more good rockacts, create a more international atmosphere by actually letting people in other countries know  that the festival exists (look for instance at the 'english' section of the website). Besides expensive ticketprices everything on the festival is expensive for non-swedes that don't have a swedish salary. Unfortunately they sold ou the 2 years after (2005 & 2006) so they probably thought they owned the world.
It's a waste cause if you saw the great weather both years that has delivered them a lot of attendants as well.
The reason I didn't go this year myself was the ridiculous price for the tickets. Somewhere I draw a line and that was last years ticketprice.

Also check fieldsofrock.nl , this was the same weekend with HUGE bands (motorhead, slayer, iron maiden, heaven and hell) , so weird they seemed to have totally missed some kind of collaboration.

PS i have to say personally i really liked the line up, but that had to do with booking smaller bands like as i lay dying, converge, gorilla biscuits (cancelled), lamb of god, strike anywhere, hatebreed, suicidal, blood brothers.