Ilosaari Summit
On Friday morning the most obstinate festival guerillas crawled out of their tents and the newly arrived folk made their way towards the festival area in sun’s warm embrace. At the same time in the bowels of Joensuu Science Park an influential international squad discussed the sides of festival organising and music business usually invisible to the ordinary festival goer. The special event was Ilosaari Summit, organised now for the first time. Under discussion were the challenges of festival organising in addition to other topical issues. It can only be hoped this kind of important event receives the attention and continuity it deserves.
Ilosaari Summit combined high profile faces from different domains, from management to journalism. Finnish point of view was represented for instance by Juha Kyyrö of Fullsteam and Ilkka Mattila, the music journalist of Helsingin Sanomat. An artist insight was delivered by Michael Monroe of Hanoi Rocks, with Ilosaarirock’s own Janne “Rysky” Riiheläinen bringing in local colour. Summit was hosted by Stuart Worthington, a British manager who works with Happy Mondays among others. Knowing of the undertakings of the Manchester group, the unexpected sides and surprises of touring are likely to be very familiar to Worthington.
Branding of festivals, growing commercial sponsorships and “productization” of the festival mood were central questions, which were discussed during the summit. Even Finland is beginning to receive its share of music festivals paid by cellphone, alcohol and skateboard companies, and the effect of commercialization on the spirit of a festival was wondered by the panelists. The American way of selling the possibility of hanging around in soundcheck to fans for the price of thousands of dollars was mentioned as an extreme example.
- Makes me wonder how much a fan can be abused, ponders Andy Farrow
John Gammon of Pollstar had similar thoughts on future of livebusiness.
- If this progresses further, festivals begin to resemble supermarkets.
During a discussion about the special features of Ilosaarirock, Italian Corrado Giao emphasized the importance of a safe and peaceful atmosphere as a feature which should be marketed to the festival audience. A story from the wild Italian 1980’s helps to understand this.
- Santana had to dodge flying Molotov cocktails on one festival.
The issue that galls the festival guests more every year is the price increases, to which no simple solutions or remedies can be found. The gradual branding and commercialisation were seen in a little more positive light than is usual. If the great wheel of the world sets certain inevitable realities, one just has to learn to live with them and see the new potential within - while not sacrificing the fair festival atmosphere.
Text: Jukka-Pekka Ronkainen
Pic: Jukka-Pekka Flander
Translation: Hanna Laaksonen, Juha Ekholm and Jari Rytkönen