The densification of festivals in French-speaking Switzerland is increasingly saturating the market

Claire Micallef

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New music festivals are springing up every year in French-speaking Switzerland, adding to an already dense offer. The future is increasingly uncertain for some of them, especially in the face of rising artist fees or shrinking subsidies.

A few weeks after the announcement of the 2nd edition of the Vibiscum Festival, which is gaining momentum in Vevey, a new event was unveiled on Tuesday in the region of Lausanne: Hyper Ouest. These two events, barely 30 kilometers apart, are a reflection of an increasingly tense market.

New offers have been appearing regularly for the last ten years. And this season, this will also be the case in the Jura with the Festi'live in Porrentruy and the Dritchino in Courgenay.

And this market could become even tighter in the future. "There is a good chance that there will be more festivals, because we don't have any big international players in French-speaking Switzerland yet," explained artistic agent Sébastien Vuiginier on Thursday in La Matinale on RTS.

At the same time, it is possible that some festivals will disappear. Medium-sized events (under 10,000 people) have to fight with ever higher fees. "I think it's going to be tough in the next few years for the smaller festivals," the concert organiser said.

>> Interview of Sébastien Vuignier in La Matinale:

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Petzi, the Swiss umbrella organisation for non-profit music venues and festivals, welcomes the current boom but wonders about the reaction of the public.

"After two years of pandemic, there will potentially be a change in habits," said the coordinator of the French-speaking part of Switzerland on Thursday in La matinale. "Now we are back to a kind of normality, but this year will be a bit of a test year for the festivals," said Anja Della Croce. "I don't worry about the big events, but I do worry about the smaller ones."

>> Anya Della Croce's interview in La Matinale:

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And the dynamics of the music supply, which is increasing year by year, also puts pressure on the large donors, who react accordingly. A new festival in the canton of Vaud wishing to obtain support from the Loterie romande, for example, will have to wait until its 4th edition to benefit from it. This has been the rule in the township since 2013, a change that came after an increase in requests for assistance.

More recently, the State of Vaud, the State of Valais and the City of Geneva have also reviewed their subsidy policy, without reducing the amounts but targeting the projects and therefore supporting fewer events.

In the post-pandemic era, the tendency is to limit the scattering of resources in order to better support important regional actors that are likely to last. Another challenge for the coffers of festivals in Switzerland is the inflation of artists' fees. This is the result of strong national and international competition, which has become even stronger after the pandemic.

Saturated festival market

New festival "Luzern Live" rocks off in record time

The new festival was set up within a short time and focuses on local music and sustainability.

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It was an integral part of summer in Lucerne. In July, the Lucerne lake basin was transformed into a music mile. The Blue Balls Festival attracted about 100,000 people. Big names were heard in the KKL: Ed Sheeran, Joss Stone, Iggy Pop or Rita Ora.

And then it suddenly went quiet: for four years. First the Blue Balls was cancelled because of Corona, then because of the festival director Urs Leierer's illness. The definitive end came in September 2022.

Almost at the same time, a music-loving group from Lucerne started working on a concept for a new festival, at the same location, with new people. The goal was ambitious: Their "Lucerne Live" festival was to take place for the first time as early as summer 2023

In October 2022, the city of Lucerne gave the green light. "At that time most festivals had already communicated their line-ups," recalls Piero Achermann, president of the "Luzern Live" association.

Support from the City of Lucerne for "Luzern Live"

The city of Lucerne is pleased that there is once again a music festival in July. This is important in terms of cultural policy and tourism. The city provides the public ground. The right of use for the KKL also comes into play, which provides more favourable conditions for event organisers. The city's financial contribution to the festival amounts to CHF 60,000 francs. That's just under half of what the Blue Balls received. "This has to do with the fact that the "Luzern Live" festival is not the size of a Blue Ball," was the reason given by city president Beat Züsli.

How do you get such a big festival going in such a short time? "With a lot of heart and soul," says Piero Achermann. And with good networking. For the music programme, the Lucerne booking agency "Orange Peel" was consulted, who had half a year to hire bands, musicians and songwriters.

With the big international acts, we actually had little time.

It's been a challenge, says Mike Walker of Orange Peel. However, he said, a distinction must be made between national and international artists: "If you're interested in bands or newcomers on a national level, the lead times aren't that long. With the big international acts, on the other hand, we really didn't have much time." They had to rely on help: on partner agencies or on the people who did the booking for the bands.

Despite everything, a respectable programme has been put together. From Thursday, around 60 music acts will be performing on various stages along the Lucerne lake basin at "Luzern Live": in the KKL, for example, the well-known British band "The Kooks".

Already sold out are the concerts of "Hermanos Gutiérrez" and "Black Sea Dahu". Overall, however, there are significantly fewer concerts taking place in the KKL than there were in Blue Balls days.

The festival puts a deliberate focus on Swiss music, on a large stage in front of the KKL. Relying on locals is important, the organisers say. Not only regarding music.

And that brings us to the topic of sustainability. Even if it's not easy, says Mirco Meyer, head of construction at "Luzern Live": "If you want to run a sustainable festival, you can't actually run one, we're well aware of that." But you can pay attention to a few points.

If you want to run a sustainable festival, you can't actually run one, we're well aware of that.

A company from the neighbouring town of Emmen is responsible for the technology. For the food mile along the lake promenade - which was already an important part of the festival at the Blue Balls - regional cooperation was sought, both with the suppliers and with the gastronomy.

"This allows us to save on travel distances. And that is sustainable," says Mirco Meyer.

You can tell that the people in charge here are firmly anchored in the region This local colour is also expressed in the food stands: the wooden huts are all painted in the Lucerne colours of blue and white. They are to be set up anew every year.

"Luzern live" launched in record time

Ticket prices and artist fees are a concern for the industry

The issue has been occupying the music industry since the collapse of record sales some twenty years ago. The steady rise in artists' fees and the accompanying increase in ticket prices is a cause of concern for the industry. The pandemic has created a new outbreak. An overview.

Since the end of the covid pandemic that brought the world and culture to a standstill, a new rise in fees for big names and productions now worries and threatens the industry.

For certain Anglo-Saxon stars who would not perform for less than CHF700,000 to CHF750,000, astronomical figures are now articulated, while other international artists would start at CHF300,000 to CHF400,000.

Some young superstars, such as Billie Eilish, are even breaking the million-franc barrier more regularly. Prices for French-speaking headliners have also soared, often reaching between CHF150,000 and CHF200,000, compared with CHF80,000 francs in the past.

Of course, all the festivals and concert promoters in the US and Europe bemoan these staggering increases. Les Vieilles Charrues, France's biggest festival in Carhaix in Brittany, is a kind of Paléo, but with 70,000 people per evening (twice as many as in Nyon).

Its director, Jérome Trehorel, had hoped to see the end of these recurring fee explosions after the brief post-Covid truce in 2021, "when artists made financial efforts to get back on stage. Unfortunately, this creates even greater disparities between medium-sized festivals, which can no longer access certain artists. And even for the biggest festivals, depending on their business model or legal structure, they can no longer take the risk of programming certain artists, because they don't have the guaranteed ticket sales needed to balance their books".

The live market could be worth $38 billion by 2030

The concert market has certainly gained in economic weight in recent years. According to investment bank Goldman Sachs, the live market will be worth nearly $30 billion (29.1) in 2023, but could grow to over $38 billion by 2030. For a touring band, concerts represent between 33% and 75% of their income.

The current inflationary context is very special because it is also fuelled by an impressive rise in the costs of all service providers: transport (bus hire, semi-trailers), accommodation, security, technical equipment, sound and lighting, and the video devices that artists love. These costs have doubled or even tripled on certain items.

At Opus One, one of the two main producers of concerts and shows in French-speaking Switzerland, director Vincent Sager admits unequivocally to the strong impact of rising fees and production costs on ticket prices: "We have had to face up to necessary increases in ticket prices to compensate for increases in charges or fees, which in fact often conceal increases in charges. We have raised prices by 10 to 20% depending on the artistic projects".

Adapting the artistic budgets of certain festivals

Faced with these increases, some festivals have had to make artistic sacrifices or, on the contrary, increase their programming budget. This is particularly true for the Paléo Festival. In order not to raise ticket prices this year and to offer the same range of concerts as before, programme manager Jacques Monnier points out that Paléo has agreed to increase its artistic budget by around 12.5%, to CHF4.5 million (i.e. around one-sixth of the overall budget). The arrival of acclaimed Spanish singer Rosalía, among others, is no doubt a factor.

Les Vieilles Charrues have the same pricing policy and don't want to raise ticket prices, although this year they're offering an extra evening with a slightly more expensive Red Hot Chili Peppers concert and some notable headliners (Blur, Robbie Williams and Rosalía), which led them to exceptionally increase their artistic framework to 6 million euros, as opposed to the usual 4.5 to 5 million.

At the Montreux Jazz Festival, on the other hand, the artistic budget was not increased this year. Director Mathieu Jaton admits, however, that hotel and accommodation costs have risen by some CHF200,000. This situation is partly due to the fact that artists also wish to stay for several days on the Vaud Riviera. While the rise in fees was also felt there, it was the soaring production costs that Mathieu Jaton particularly emphasised. It also indicates a slight price increase of around 3% this summer on ticket prices, which per evening range from CHF88 to CHF455 for a Swiss-exclusive Bob Dylan concert with a reduced seating capacity of 1,500 at the Auditorium Stravinski.

Another aspect of the surge in fees is that some agents are said to be holding the knife by the handle, raising the stakes in Europe due to increased competition between festivals. Some artists even doubled their fees, according to Jacques Monnier of the Paléo Festival.

Sébastien Vuignier, director of Takk Production, a Swiss concert agency that brings groups such as Muse, Amy Macdonald, Radiohead, Nick Cave and Arctic Monkeys as well as many emerging Anglo-Saxon artists to the country, sees a general upward spiral in fees and ticket prices. "There is ever-increasing pressure on costs, which also concerns the costs of touring artists. This puts pressure on them to increase their revenues. This forces us to raise ticket prices, because we have to be able to make consistent budgets and cover both their rising costs and our local costs. But in the end, it's the audience who pays the bill. In our case, we make margins on big concerts that pay for our investments in developing artists.

Opus One's biggest concern in the short to medium term is the risk of overheating at current inflation levels, which would not be good for anyone. At least, that's what Vincent Sager thinks: "There's a real feeling of overheating in the artists' desire to tour. The requests to reserve and provide venues for 2024 are phenomenal, stronger than ever. There will be even more artists on the road than in 2023. For us, as for our colleagues, we have to be careful not to want to do everything and not to give in to over-enthusiasm. The danger is that we'll end up with a range of concerts and shows that the public can no longer absorb".

According to Jérome Trehorel of Les Vieilles Charrues festival, this overheating has also led to an unhealthy surge in ticket prices. "The fees should be based on an artist's ability to sell at a certain festival or in a certain area. Unfortunately, that's not how it works and we end up with financial demands that completely miss the mark. Given today's high ticket prices, concerts have become an unaffordable luxury good."

Increasing ticket prices and artist fees

Festival overdose?

More expensive tickets, more expensive beer: festival summer costs more

Music festivals fear that the public will not want to pay the higher ticket prices or will save on consumption at the open air.

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Will the audience take cheap canned beer from the supermarket to the concert or will they drink the more expensive beer at the bar? This is the question Elena Conradt, managing director of the Basel "Youth Culture Festival," asks herself before the festival summer.

She is one of many organisers who are very worried. Especially for a free festival aimed at young people, the situation this summer is "insanely difficult."

The background is inflation and the Corona pandemic. Not only will many goods, such as beer, become more expensive, but also services: "Setting up the stage will cost about 30 percent more this year," says Jeroen van Vulpen, president of Basel's "B-Scene" festival.

It was more expensive to set up because of the pandemic, which hit the event industry particularly hard, van Vulpen added. Many companies had to close down, which is why the construction of the festivals this summer did not go as smoothly as in previous years. "But stages are festival-relevant, we can't do without them." The festival "B-Scene" must therefore "make adjustments" in other places.

However, these "adjustments" could not compensate for the additional expenses, says Elena Conradt, who is also thinking about saving money. "I can save CHF200 in one place, and CHF500 in another. But I can't fill the big hole in the cash register that way."

The situation is different in St. Gallen, one of the big open airs with over 100,000 visitors each year. Although ticket prices for the festival, which takes place at the end of June, cost ten percent more than last year, they are all soon sold out, says festival director Christof Huber. "We're also putting up the two stages that were added last year."

The people in Bern are also relaxed - "even though our costs have risen massively, both in terms of material and staff", as Lena Fischer from the Gurtenfestival says. Ticket sales are well on track, despite higher prices.

The festival "Zermatt unplugged" has already taken place this year. For the 2023 edition, the aim was to attract as many visitors as before the pandemic. Expectations that were more than fulfilled, even though tickets became more expensive: "The number of ticket sales and the associated revenues were above the level before the pandemic, which made us very happy," said Managing Director Rolf Furrer.

Because expenses had risen, however, savings had to be made despite good ticket sales: "There was one less concert location and we did without one or two details - such as the chalets in the Taste Village."

Furrer assumes that guests' spending has also increased alongside festival life, especially as hotels and restaurants have gotten more expensive.

Despite the success in Zermatt, there are more and more voices in Basel, for example, hoping for help from the state - more precisely from the Swisslos fund. At least this does not fall on deaf ears.

"If someone can credibly prove that there are problems, for example because the stage construction has gotten more expensive, it may be possible to respond financially," says the spokesperson for the department responsible for Swisslos funds in Basel-Stadt. However, nothing has been decided in this regard yet.

Festival summer costs more

Summer is the time of festivals and large gatherings. Do crowds obey universal or cultural rules? Are they dangerous or intelligent? Answers from expert Mehdi Moussaïd in Point J.

"With 6 or 7 people per square metre, we are entering the world of physics. We will model pedestrian flows using tools like fluid mechanics. In the end, the purpose of the gathering, the consumption of alcohol or the quality of the referee no longer plays a role in a football match," emphasises the "foulologist".

At lower densities, the culture of the country plays a big role, for example in terms of social distance or the way one passes others.

What causes the recurring mass panics and tragedies, such as those seen in Mecca and at Halloween in Seoul? "These tragedies are often the result of a combination of risk factors: On the one hand, overcrowding, more people than expected, bottlenecks and push-offs that cause the crowd to flee in one direction.

How do you get through crowds? What about digital crowds? Are crowds good chess players?

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Further reading: Fouloscopie, Mehdi Moussaïd, Humensiences and J'ai Lu. www.mehdimoussaid.com

Foules, an exhibition at the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie until 7 January 2024, with an online escape game.

How does a crowd work?

Openair Chapella: Beautiful music, warmth and smiling faces

Since 1981, the Open Air Chapella has been celebrated every year. This makes the traditional event the oldest open-air event in Graubünden and also one of the smallest. The festival took place for the 41st time in a forest clearing, where the concerts can be enjoyed directly from one's tent. The atmosphere in Chapella is cozy, informal and neat. In addition to various concerts over three days, there is also an extensive programme for children. It’s an open-air event for the whole family. The Engadin open-air event attracted around 300 people this year, according to the organisers.

On Friday, the first day of this year's open-air, the focus was on Romansh music. The bands ZWEI, Ladunna and Free Bottle were performing on stage. On Saturday and Sunday, various Swiss bands followed, creating a festive atmosphere.

Visiting Openair Chappella

Balélec, the biggest student music festival in Europe

Among the stands at the Balélec student music festival in Lausanne, the one of the Ticinese cannot be missing

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One day a year, the EPF Lausanne campus opens its doors for Balélec, the largest student music festival in Europe. A festival that has welcomed 15,000 visitors for more than 40 years. The programme includes concerts and dance performances. Of course, the festival stand of the Ticino students cannot be missing, the most popular among Balélec visitors, as Thierry Fontana tells us in this episode of #Svizzerando.

#Svizzerando at Balélec

The biggest open air mud fights in Switzerland

The heavy metal festival in Wacken (DE) is currently sinking in the mud. In Switzerland, too, there have been muddy scenes at open airs over and over again in recent years. A look back in pictures.

Those who come here must have no fear of contact with mud: the St. Galler Open Air. Probably one of the most famous mud-slinging open-airs in Switzerland.

At the Greenfield Festival 2016 the bad weather turned the airfield in Interlaken into a muddy landscape.

The Paléo Festival in Nyon is one of the biggest and most beautiful festivals in Switzerland. But it was not always that beautiful.

At the Openair Frauenfeld, there were mud scenes again and again. This was also the case in 2008.

Often the Gurtenfestival is spared from bad weather. But in 2000, mud scenes occurred there as well.

It's muddy outside

Festivals are on the rise. More and more and better attended, often more expensive and bigger. Events are reinventing themselves, but at what price?

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