SPRING | COVER FEATURE
G ! Festival
Jaton says he is fortunate that due to the nature of his event , the festival has been unaffected by the relative scarcity of available acts : “ We ’ re in a good place . Most artists accept that they will get a different fee when they come to Montreux , because the setup is outstanding , very coordinated , and intimate . We knew if we wanted artists to come to the festival , when we don ’ t have the Congress Centre , we had to create something exceptional . Montreux has a beautiful lake and mountains , so we set out to make the most of that .”
Solid ground Another long running Swiss festival that is in robust shape is the Paléo Festival Nyon , which started in a village hall in 1976 and has since grown to become the country ’ s biggest outdoor music festival with a capacity of 50,000 .
Set to take place from 23-28 July , the festival has long proven popular , with it typically selling out within one hour of tickets going on sale .
With that level of demand all but assured , the festival ’ s organisers are not as exposed to risk as some of their counterparts , but its head of safety , security and services Pascal Viot says the impact of rising costs is inescapable .
“ It ’ s a clear trend for all festivals , especially when it comes to
infrastructure and artists costs . We really try to keep the price of tickets as low as possible , with the focus on providing the best experience for the best price ,” he says . “ So that means we have had to make choices , we really want to provide an overall experience that is way more than just concerts , and so we focus on the festival ’ s presentation , and we have more than 130 food stalls with food coming from all over the world . We prefer not to run after artists , because if your festival ’ s value is based heavily on the line-up , its success is really reliant on that .”
Staunchly independent from the outset , Paléo Festival has around 1,600 people working on it , with 6,000 being volunteers . The event ’ s scale means that it is far from cheap to create but Viot says it has the advantage of being well established and having creating strong relationships with suppliers and partners .
“ We have long term contracts and try to establish a level of trust and work collaboratively with them ,” he
“ Denmark is in a good place because it seems to be one of the few countries in Europe controlling inflation .”
– Roskilde ’ s Lars Liliengren
says . “ There is an increasing number of festivals across Switzerland , so the price of infrastructure is climbing due to rising demand . We are lucky to have solid relationships with all providers , and we are well established , but as a whole the festival sector is very vulnerable .”
Paléo may be approaching its 50th anniversary , but among its team there is an ongoing focus on remaining relevant to young audiences , with an EDM stage inspired by Tomorrowland added in 2022 , and the creation of flexible ticketing options .
Says Viot , “ We have developed
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