EUROPEAN FESTIVALS – SUPERBLOOM
THE RISE OF SUPERBLOOM
In a festival landscape reshaped by the pandemic, Munich’ s Superbloom sprung forth and established itself as one of the European festival industry’ s most dynamic newcomers. The event, which launched with a 50,0000 capacity, has sold out every year since and was increased to 60,000 last year. Festival director Fruzsina Szép discusses how the event continues to carve out a distinct identity in a challenging market.
You launched Superbloom in Munich’ s Olympic Park right after the pandemic. It was a difficult time to launch a festival. Did the debut go as planned?
We had intended to launch in 2020. Everything was set; all the artists were confirmed and we were ready to go but then the pandemic hit and everything changed. We postponed to 2021, and by April of that year it was clear that large gatherings still couldn’ t happen. So, 2022 became our first edition. I’ ll always remember it. It wasn’ t just about being able to hug people again, or the world opening back up, it was that we all had to relearn everything. People who had been working on festivals for decades were suddenly unsure of themselves. We saw that not just within our team, but across the industry.
The behaviour of festivalgoers had also changed. Did you experience that at Superbloom?
We were prepared for everything; logistics, safety, production but we totally underestimated one thing: first-time festival goers. There were people who, having missed out on two years of social life, came to the event and acted as if a ticket entitled them to everything on site for free. Some didn’ t even bring money, while others refused to drink water from the taps. They didn’ t look at a site map. They didn’ t understand basic festival infrastructure. It was astonishing.
Inflation may have steadied but staging a festival is still far more expensive than it was four years ago. Has that impacted Superbloom?
We had budgets set in 2020 and 2021 that became irrelevant by 2022. Costs had increased in some areas by 40 %, and it wasn’ t always clear why. We had to rethink every aspect of the festival, including the ticket categories. VIP is not for every pocket, and that was particularly apparent after the pandemic, so we developed something new called the comfort ticket, which lies between standard tickets and VIP. It sells really well, not least because of its name. Since the pandemic
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