HONG KONG: Back in 2012, Ultra Worldwide, producers of the award-winning Ultra Music Festival in Miami, launched a new event concept appropriately named ‘Road to Ultra’. Incorporating cutting-edge production values, the journey unfolded through Thailand, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Colombia, Paraguay and Chile. But the most recent addition to the portfolio — the Hong Kong edition, scheduled to take place in the noise sensitive new urban development area of West Kowloon Cultural District’s Nursery Park — was to be the most challenging. The electronic music extravaganza set out to unite fellow EDM lovers, and attract tourism from neighbouring cities across Asia…
Author: Festival Insights
USA: Festival producer Danny Wimmer Presents was forced to cancel the second day of the Houston Open Air festival at NRG Park in Houston on September 25 due to dangerous storm systems in the area. On the advice of Weather Decision Technologies, some of the top meteorologists in the country, Danny Wimmer Presents cancelled the Sunday event soon after the show began. Festival producer Danny Wimmer said: “The last thing we want to do is cancel a show, but we will not risk people getting hurt. It takes nearly an hour to safely evacuate a site — including consumers, staff,…
Festival live streaming is a relatively new market but one that has exploded in recent times. Out of the industry leading services that stream electronic music festivals from around the globe to people’s iPhones, tablets and desktop devices, an increasingly eminent player in the field is BE-AT.TV. BE-AT.TV launched in 2009 and has since streamed millions of minutes of live events from around the world. It broadcasts live from festivals such as BPM, Ultra, ADE and Awakenings, and has also streamed all 15 of Carl Cox’s Revolutions parties in Ibiza this summer. The streaming service also broadcasted the last ever…
The following is an extract from Ray Foulk’s memoir The Last Great Event, which tells the story of the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival – featuring stars such as Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and The Who. Ray Foulk and his brothers Ronnie and Bill founded the festival in 1968, overcoming island opposition and coaxing Bob Dylan out of hiding to perform at the 1969 festival (the subject of the first volume of When the World Came to the Isle of Wight, entitled ‘Stealing Dylan From Woodstock’). The 1970 festival was their final endeavour and this extract records the performance of…
UK: Prepaid Financial Services, a UK e-money issuer and financial technology specialist, has announced the results of its prepaid solutions developed specifically for events and festivals. Acting as the issuer and programme manager for Festipay, the largest cashless payment service provider to the Hungarian festival market, PFS launched an open-loop contactless prepaid MasterCard solution for Sziget Festival, contributing in more than three million cashless transactions being made. Festipay predicts that it will process more than seven million transactions by the end of this year’s festival season; up 27% from 5.5 million in 2015. Sziget introduced cashless payments via closed-loop festival…
As reported by pretty much everyone, Islington Council made the contentious and widely decried decision in the early hours of September 7 to revoke the license of legendary London nightclub, Fabric. As a result, 250 staff will lose their jobs, the local ecosystem of small businesses previously supported by the venue’s patrons will suffer, a new generation of emerging artists now have one less platform to facilitate their ascent, and the city’s de-facto claim as the UK’s cultural epicentre will continue to wane. Perhaps more disconcerting is that amidst a climate in which half of the capital’s clubs and 40%…
HUNGARY: A key component of Capital Sound’s busy summer festival schedule is its annual visits to Hungary, providing technical infrastructure for the Sziget Organisation at three major gatherings. For several years it has serviced the back-to-back four-day Volt rock festival in Sopron, before trucking the equipment two and a half hours south east from the Austrian border to Balaton Sound, which takes place on the beach of Zamárdi over five days. Having established Martin Audio’s flagship MLA system at these two festivals, in 2014 the organisers were keen to try the system out on their own flagship event: the Sziget…
GERMANY: Taking place in Karlsruhe at the end of July, Das Fest is one of the largest open-air events in Germany with more than 250,000 visitors. Since 1985, renowned artists such as The BossHoss, Silbermond and Die Fantastischen Vier have performed on the ‘Mount Klotz’ site. This year, musicians and bands such as Rea Garvey, Moop Mama, Wanda, Max Giesinger, Milky Chance and Fettes Brot helped set the music festival alight. Karlsruhe based company Crystal Sound was responsible for the technical equipment on the main stage. The service provider covered all areas of the event’s technology and added GLP’s GT-1…
UK: The inaugural Sound Development conference, presented by U+I and Sound Diplomacy, took place on September 6. The conference was reportedly a huge success, with over 150 attendees. All proceeds went to charity, with £2790 raised for Shelter. Panellists from the music, development and property sectors came together to discuss nighttime economy and regeneration for cities, focusing on the integral role music plays in aiding development. The event heard presentations from Paul Callaghan (Leighton Group), Jaanus Juus (Telliskivi Creative City), Andrew Russell (Greater London Authority) and Paul Broadhurst (Greater London Authority), focusing on the built environment. Here are a couple…
UK: Ticketing outlet DICE has confirmed exclusive partnerships with some of the UK’s most renowned independent venues, including The Dome and Boston Music Room in Tufnell Park. DICE invests in new talent, and these are the stages where young artists, DJs, and promoters cut their teeth. In an era where venues are constantly under threat of closing, DICE’s support is a long term one, with the ambition to protect and preserve these critical venues and secure the lifeblood of the live music scene. DICE CEO, Phil Hutcheon, said: “DICE is the fastest growing platform in the UK for fans to…