Music Festivals in - An Analysis of the Ten Largest Commercial Festivals 2000 - 2013

Daniel Johansson Linnaeus University, Sweden Department of Computer Science & Department of Economics [email protected]

Abstract

This study examines the development for commercial music festivals in Sweden during the time period 2000 - 2013. Although it is clear that some legendary Swedish music festivals have disappeared during the latest years, this study indicates that the number of paying visitors of the largest festivals continues to increase. In fact, 2013 was the record year during the studied time frame regarding the number of paying visitors to the ten largest commercial festivals, with official visitor figures validated through STIM data. Nevertheless, the Swedish market has changed considerably. The purpose of the paper is to describe some of these changes as well as provide a quantitative foundation for further research questions to be dealt with in the future.

1. Introduction

In 2013, the term "festivaldöden" (festival death) was widely used in Swedish media to describe the development of the Swedish music festival market.1 Both the Siesta! festival in Hässleholm and the Peace & Love festival in Borlänge were forced to cancel their programs during 2013, and Tivolirock in Kristianstad as well as Sundsvalls Gatufest filed for bankruptcy after conducted festivals. In 2011 the legendary Arvika festival went bankrupt. In 2010, the mother of all Swedish music festivals, the Hultsfred festival, had to shut down although the festival reappeared in 2011 by another arranger, just to be declared dead in the end of 2013. During the latest years many other music festivals have witnessed on tough economic situations as a result of the changing market for music festivals in Sweden.

1 See f.e. articles (in Swedish): Festivaldöden kom över Ålands hav (Nya Åland, 08/07/2013), Festivaldöden har nått Holmsjö (Karlskronakanalen, 30/05/2013), Sweden Rockabilly trotsar festivaldöden (Skövde Nyheter 10/06/2013), Festivaldöden rår inte på Dreamhack (Jnytt, 16/06/2013), Festivaldöden har inte kommit hit (Östra Göinge, Kristianstadsbladet, 02/09/2013), Festivaldöden kan bli en seglivad historia (Dagens Media 28/05/2013), Storsjöyran kämpar mot festivaldöden (Dagens Nyheter, 23/07/2013), Festivaldöden slår till igen (Katrineholmskuriren, 28/05/2013), Här är festivaldödens senaste offer (Nyheter 24, 17/07/2013), Festivaldöden orsakas av dåligt affärsmannaskap (Driva-Eget.se, 28/05/2013), Festivaldöden skördar ytterligare offer (Gaffa, 17/06/2013), Festivaldöden är de trötta rockgubbarnas fel (SVT Debatt, 18/06/2013), Vaccin mot festivaldöden (Press Release ETOUR, 17/12/2013).

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Hence, it seems valid to talk about a festival "death", simply because many festivals have disappeared. At the same time though, new festivals have started, replacing the old ones. Way Out West started in 2007, Getaway started in 2011, Music & Arts in 2012, Summerburst in 2012 and the Bråvalla festival in 2013. The question is whether these new festivals weighs up to the older festivals, and most of all, if Swedish music fans are still interested in visiting music festivals? Also, are there any trends to be seen when analyzing visitor statistics for a longer period of time, trends that might give us a perspective on how the future music festival market in Sweden might look like? The Swedish music festival market has been in a state of flux since 2008/2009, if compared to the situation during the fifteen preceding years. The Hultsfred festival was the dominating festival for many years and for a long time no other music festival could compete with Hultsfred regarding the amount of paying visitors. But since the year 2005, something happened to the market. Although Hultsfred set the, up until then, official record for the amount of visitors with 31 800 visitors in the year 2005, other festivals, such as Sweden Rock, Arvika Festival and Peace & Love could see a continuous increase of visitors at the same time. When Hultsfred had to cancel the festival in 2010, the music festival market in Sweden had changed drastically after just a few years. Today, a middle sized music festival (among the top ten) in Sweden has the same amount of paying visitors as Hultsfred had in the years 2000 - 2004, when it was solely dominating the market. The largest festivals in Sweden has become much larger during the latest years and when Peace & Love crossed the 50 000 visitor mark in 2011, one could argue that Sweden entered a new music festival paradigm, which will be explained later on in the report. There is no question that Sweden has a vibrant music life, not only considering the festival market. For a long time Sweden has been one of the largest music export per capita nation in the world and during the latest years the country has become well known for entrepreneurship related to digitized music. The live scene is in general dynamic, with venues and clubs in most cities. Although the live scene has had its ups and downs over the years, mostly related to specific venues having to close, the overall description is that live music, festivals included, is a natural ingredient in the life of Swedes, regardless of age and gender. Some of the festivals that have been analyzed on a yearly basis are: Arvikafestivalen, Augustibuller, Bergslagsrocken, Bråvalla Festival, Emmabodafestivalen, Getaway Festival, Hultsfredsfestivalen, Karlskoga Stranddagar, Kirunafestivalen, Kristianstadsdagarna, Luleåkalaset, Malmöfestivalen, Metaltown, Musik vid Siljan, Peace & Love, Pier Pressure, Piteå Dansar och Ler, Popaganda, Rockstad Falun, Siesta!, Sonisphere, Stockholm Jazz Festival, Stockholm Music & Arts, Stockholm Pride, Storsjöyran, Summerburst, Sundsvalls Gatufest, Sweden Rock, Tivolirock, Trästockfestivalen, Umeå Open, Urkult Musik & Kulturfestival, Way Out West, West Coast Riot and Where the Action Is. In addition to these festivals, other festivals have also been analyzed, earlier festivals such as Lollipop and Stockholm Water Festival, as well as other smaller festivals conducted during the studied time period. These are not a core part of the study though, rather complementary for understanding the changes in the festival market as a whole.

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1.1 Definitions and Delimitations

A number of terms and expressions are used throughout the paper that need explanation. I have chosen to focus on data and statistics for music festivals that sell entrance tickets to visitors. I call these festivals commercial festivals. Festivals that are totally free to the visitors is not a main part of the study, although a few have been included when these festivals have had an important impact on the festival market as a whole during the specific year. For each year, the ten largest commercial music festivals have been identified, based on the amount of visitors that has been officially reported, combined with data from STIM2. The purpose of limiting the study to ten festivals for each year is mainly because these ten festivals represent a large portion of the Swedish festival market, especially when considering commercial music festivals. More than 200 individual festivals have been a part of the empirical background, and I suggest that analyzing the ten largest commercial music festivals in Sweden for each year is enough to understand the trend and development over a longer timeframe, mainly because Sweden is comparably a small market. As already mentioned though, smaller festivals has also been identified and analyzed, although these smaller festivals (usually with no more than 3 000 - 4 000 visitors) are not quantatively included. The study is not focused on explaining the economic development as such around music festivals in Sweden. In conversations with stakeholders from the live industry in Sweden, it has become clear that the preriquisites are quite different today from how they were only five years ago, it seems to be more difficult to arrange festivals that will result in good profit today, for different reasons. Of course, this can be seen in the "deaths" of individual music festivals during the later part of the studied period, as well as in break-even levels that sometimes by neccessity have to be much larger today than for just five or six years ago. It is important though to make a distinction between two possible perspectives on this development. On one hand, the term "festival death" could be used to describe the development of many festivals "dying". On the other hand, one could use the term as a description for a potential decrease in the interest for music festivals as such, that is, the amount of visitors is shrinking over time. I am first and foremost focused on the later perspective, quantatively examining whether the first perspective leads to the second perspective, and whether there are any trends towards Swedish music fans losing their interest in attending music festivals. In 2013 the term "festival death" had become so established that one research firm even developed a method, or model, that they labelled "A Vaccine for the Festival Death"3, comparing the phenomena to a disease that swept over the country. Many well- known music journalists expressed strong feelings for the development, using the term as a fact more than as a perspective, hence one of the purposes of this study is to evaluate whether the numbers really support the term as such.

2 STIM is the collective society that represents composers and music publishers in Sweden. They collect payment based on the amount of visitors of the festivals. In 2010 the model changed, which is described later on in the paper. 3 http://www.mynewsdesk.com/se/mssp/pressreleases/etour-testar-vaccin-mot-festivaldoeden-942306

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2. Methodology and Data Collection

First of all, official figures have been collected from music festivals for each year. This data has derived from the festivals own web pages, Wikipedia, media articles as well as festival focused web sites such as Festivalinfo.se and Festivalrykten.se. I have tried to validate these official figures from different sources, to get as reliable data as possible. In addition to this, the visitor figures have been compared to STIM data for the time period. Since this data is confidential, it is not possible to include data on an individual festival level, that is, aggregated numbers have been used. The STIM data has mainly been used to validate the overall trend, in correlation with the collected official figures presented by the festivals themselves. When reviewing each festival´s official figure on paying visitors, it becomes obvious that there is a discrepancy in how different festivals report their statistics. This was also one of the main reason why I wanted to compare the aggregated figures with STIM data, to validate that a particular festival indeed was one of the ten largest for the specific year. Some of the festivals sell day tickets and reports the accumulated amount of sold tickets. This accumulated figure is not comparable to those festivals that sell two or three day festival passes. In the case of festivals that are officially reporting an accumulation of sold tickets per day, I have chosen to make an estimation of the total amount of unique paying visitors in total to that festival. If a festival have 10 000 sold tickets during Day 1, 12 000 tickets sold during Day 2 and 20 000 tickets sold during Day 3, the total would be 42 000 tickets / 3 days = 14 000 visitors. For some such festivals though, I have chosen to make the estimation of total unique paying visitors based on a little more fine-tuned algorithm, where the day that has constituted for the most sold tickets, in the above example Day 3, is the basis reference point for the calculation, while the other days, if not exceding in total the amount of tickets sold on Day 3, is considered to be mostly the same visitors. The choice of the first or the second method has been based on an analysis of the official reports, articles and other documents, as well as a review of the target group for the specific festival, the difference in programming as well as other information on the constitution of the specific festival. It is a problem that all Swedish music festivals do not report their ticket sales in the same manner though, as it leads to confusion. It is of course related to the above presented fact that some festivals sell day tickets rather than festival passes. Another possible reason for presenting the above example as being 42 000 tickets, rather than presenting the amount of unique visitors, might be a matter of marketing strategies by some festivals. If a festival such as Sweden Rock or the Way Out West festival would report in the same manner, they would have had 80 000 - 100 000 sold one day tickets respectively. Also, in some cases, festivals are selling individual tickets for different events on the festival, or even for individual . It makes it even harder to estimate the total amount of unique paying visitors for the festival and compare it to festivals that sell two or three day tickets. Here I have had good help from STIM in finding the correct festivals to become a part of the top ten largest festivals for each year.

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3. Statistics and Analysis

Since Sweden is a geographically large country with a comparably small population, different parts of the country have somewhat developed different music festival "traditions". The geography of the country creates difficulties for music fans to travel to distant parts of the country. Between the northest festival and the southest festival identified, the distance is almost 2 000 kilometers. In the north there has been a development of "city festivals" (stadsfestivaler), in Östersund, Luleå, Umeå, Skelleftå, Piteå, Kiruna and other cities. These festivals mainly have visitors from the northern part of the country. At the same time, in the southern parts of Sweden, there is an evident trend that the largest festivals are arranged closer to major cities. When analyzing the official visitor figures on music festivals, and so identifiying the largest festival for each year of the time period, it becomes evident that there was one dominant actor for many years until the market started to shift and other actors took the role of being the largest festival in the country:

Year Festival Visitors 2000 Hultsfred Festival 26 000 2001 Hultsfred Festival 29 000 2002 Hultsfred Festival 27 000 2003 Hultsfred Festival 25 000 2004 Hultsfred Festival 23 000 2005 Hultsfred Festival 32 000 2006 Hultsfred Festival 30 000 2007 Sweden Rock 29 000 2008 Sweden Rock 33 000 2009 Peace & Love 42 000 2010 Sonisphere 47 000 2011 Peace & Love 50 000 2012 Peace & Love 49 000 2013 Bråvalla Festival 52 000

The above table shows that the size of the largest festival for each year has increased since 2008. Peace & Love was the first festival to break 40 000 visitors, as well as 50 000, and the trend with festivals with over 50 000 visitors seems to continue with the Bråvalla festival in 2013. From its humble beginnings in the nineties, the Sweden became the largest commercial music festival in Sweden during 2007 and 2008. The festival is a niched metal festival and has continued to have roughly the same amount of visitors, 33 000, since the decision in 2010 to set a maximum limit for sold tickets. After that, the Peace & Love festival in Borlänge became the largest festival in Sweden for several years, until surpassed by the AEG arranged event Sonisphere in 2010. In 2013 the Bråvalla festival could be said to have directly replaced the Peace & Love festival. Both Bråvalla and Peace & Love were planned for the last weekend in June 2013, though it was not possible to run two festivals of the same magnitude at the same time on a limited market such as Sweden. Of course, there might be other reasons as

5 well to why Peace & Love went bankrupt, but such an analysis is outside the scope of this study. What is the overall development for the ten largest commercial festivals in Sweden since 2000? The below graph is based on the official figures for each of the top ten festivals during each specific year. Hence, the graph shows per year aggregated numbers for 140 individual festivals in total:

Visitors to the Ten Largest Commercial Festivals 2000 - 2013

300000

250000

200000

150000

100000

50000

0 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

The increase in visitors for the ten largest commercial music festivals combined for each year, was 144% from 2000 to 2013. This increase has happened gradually, with a dip in the years 2010 and 2011. This is also the time when the term "festivaldöden" was introduced to a larger extent, partly as a result of the Hultsfred festival going bankrupt. In 2012 and 2013 the increase started again and in 2013, the average festival on the top ten list had 26 800 visitors, while in the year 2000, the average festival on the list had 10 900 visitors. This is regardless of ticket prices, the above figures are only focused on the amount of paying visitors of each festival. Despite the fact that several large festivals have disappeared, it is obvious that music fans in Sweden are still interested in attending music festivals. New born festivals have replaced old ones, and the overall trend is that in total, over a longer period of time, more and more Swedes are attending music festivals. Important to note is that the above data has nothing to do with the profitability of each festival, or for the profitability of the Swedish festival market as a whole. Although there is a clear increase in the amount of visitors, the above data does not give any direct hints to whether the festivals themselves are showing good economic results. This data only shows that the term "festival death" is not valid from a visitor point of view, that is, music fans in Sweden still have a large interest in festivals, although the exposure of that interest has changed according to how the market has changed.

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When validating the above figures with STIM data, the trend is confirmed:

Performance Rights Revenues to STIM from the Ten Largest Commercial Festivals 2000-2013 (SEK)

8000000

7000000

6000000

5000000

4000000

3000000

2000000

1000000

0 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

According to the STIM data, 170 festivals were conducted in the year 2000, while it was nearly 500 in the year 2013. The increase in revenues mainly relates to an increase in the amount of visitors and higher ticket prices. The peak in number of festivals was during the years 2007 - 2009, which somewhat correlates with the number of festivals stored in the Festivalinfo.se database, that also shows that specifically 2007 and 2008 had a larger amount of festivals than other years:

2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 133 189 145 186 188 219 234 185 167 122

Many of these festivals do not fit into the categorization of commercial music festivals that I am focusing on in this paper. Some of them are free festivals, others are festivals also with other focuses, and the most part of these festivals are rather small events. It is possible to argue that the increase in visitors of the ten largest festivals in Sweden correlates with the "death" of smaller festivals, that is, since the local festival might have disappeared, music fans decides to buy a ticket to one of the larger festivals in another city. Still though, 2013 was the year when the ten largest commercial music festivals in Sweden set an all time high in the amount of visitors, and the year when STIM saw the largest amount of payment, confirming the trend. In 2010 STIM changed the model for payment from music festivals. Before the shift, in general 5.5 percent of gross revenue from each sold ticket was paid to STIM up to a maximum limit. In the new model 5.5 percent up to 1.5 Million SEK from gross revenue is paid, and 2.5 percent above.

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In the below tables, the top ten festivals for each year are presented based on available official figures compared with STIM data. Identifying the ten largest commercial music festivals for each year has been one of the main tasks in this study, and somewhat difficult for the earlier years. The order of the festivals might not be perfect during these early years, since there are some uncertianties regarding the figures for some of the smaller festivals. Also some of the official figures had to be recalculated to suit the overall method, as described before. Still though, the order is not the most important thing, what is important is that the festivals that are outside the top ten list are much smaller than the ones identified, and it is the analysis of the ten largest commercial music festivals for each year that is the main objective of the study. As an example, the largest festival to not qualify in on the top ten list in the year 2000 had 3 000 visitors, while in 2013, the largest festival that did not qualify had 11 000 visitors.

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 1. Hultsfred 1. Hultsfred 1. Hultsfred 1. Hultsfred 1. Hultsfred 2. Storsjöyran 2. Storsjöyran 2. Stockholm Jazz 2. Arvikafestivalen 2. Sweden Rock 3. Stockholm Jazz 3. Stockholm Jazz 3. Storsjöyran 3. Sweden Rock 3. Storsjöyran 4. Stockholm Pride 4. Stockholm Pride 4. Arvikafestivalen 4. Sundsvalls Gatufest 4. Stockholm Jazz 5. Trästockfestivalen 5. Trästockfestivalen 5. Sweden Rock 5. Storsjöyran 5. Trästockfestivalen 6. Arvikafestivalen 6. Arvikafestivalen 6. Trästockfestivalen 6. Trästockfestivalen 6. Arvikafestivalen 7. Musik vid Siljan 7. Sweden Rock 7. Stockholm Pride 7. Stockholm Jazz 7. Stockholm Pride 8. Sweden Rock 8. Umeå Open 8. Kirunafestivalen 8. Stockholm Pride 8. Peace & Love 9. Tivolirock 9. Tivolirock 9. Karlskoga Strandd. 9. Luleåkalaset 9. Luleåkalaset 10. Emmaboda 10. Emmaboda 10. Musik vid Siljan 10. Karlskoga Strandd. 10. Popaganda

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 1. Hultsfred 1. Hultsfred 1. Sweden Rock 1. Sweden Rock 1. Peace & Love 2. Sweden Rock 2. Sweden Rock 2. Way Out West 2. Way Out West 2. Sweden Rock 3. Arvikafestivalen 3. Arvikafestivalen 3. Peace & Love 3. Peace & Love 3. Sonisphere 4. Stockholm Jazz 4. Trästockfestivalen 4. Hultsfred 4. Hultsfred 4. Way Out West 5. Trästockfestivalen 5. Peace & Love 5. Arvikafestivalen 5. Where The Action Is 5. Hultsfred 6. Storsjöyran 6. Stockholm Jazz 6. Metaltown 6. Arvikafestivalen 6. Arvikafestivalen 7. Peace & Love 7. Storsjöyran 7. Storsjöyran 7. Storsjöyran 7. Metaltown 8. Luleåkalaset 8. Stockholm Pride 8. Stockholm Pride 8. Stockholm Pride 8. Storsjöyran 9. Stockholm Pride 9. Metaltown 9. Piteå Dansar & Ler 9. Piteå Dansar & Ler 9. Stockholm Pride 10. Urkult 10. Luleåkalaset 10. Luleåkalaset 10. Luleåkalaset 10. Piteå Dansar & Ler

2010 2011 2012 2013 1. Sonisphere 1. Peace & Love 1. Peace & Love 1. Bråvalla 2. Peace & Love 2. Sweden Rock 2. Sweden Rock 2. Summerburst Gbg 3. Sweden Rock 3. Way Out West 3. Summerburst 3. Sweden Rock 4. Way Out West 4. Metaltown 4. Way Out West 4. Summerburst Sthlm 5. Metaltown 5. Where The Acion Is 5. Metaltown 5. Way Out West 6. Arvikafestivalen 6. Storsjöyran 6. Sthlm Music & Arts 6. Metaltown 7. Storsjöyran 7. Getaway 7. Hultsfred 7. Sthlm Music & Arts 8. Piteå Dansar & Ler 8. Sonisphere 8. Storsjöyran 8. Storsjöyran 9. Emmaboda 9. Siesta! 9. Getaway 9. Getaway 10. Stockholm Jazz 10. Emmaboda 10. Emmaboda 10. Popaganda

As explained earlier, the above lists are based on official figures from the arrangers of the festivals, compared to STIM data. Of course, the official figures from festivals might sometimes be washed to better fit into the public communication of the festival. Since I myself was involved in the Swedish festival business during the years 2002 - 2007, I know that this sometimes happens. Nevertheless, by using the STIM data it has been much easier to identify which festivals that indeed qualify to be a part of the top ten list.

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In the below table, the largest as well as the three largest festivals combined for each year are compared to the total amount of visitors for the top ten festivals. The purpose is to identify how important the largest festivals have been historically on the overall total amount of visitors:

Year Top 1 Top 3 2000 24% 48% 2001 26% 52% 2002 22% 45% 2003 19% 42% 2004 17% 43% 2005 21% 46% 2006 18% 43% 2007 16% 41% 2008 16% 40% 2009 17% 45% 2010 20% 52% 2011 23% 49% 2012 21% 46% 2013 19% 33%

As the table shows, the impact from the largest festivals on the overall figure has not differed very much from year to year. It is interesting though, that in 2013, the year that had the most visitors of the ten largest music festivals in Sweden, the impact from the three largest festivals on the overall figure is lower than any other year during the studied time period, despite the fact that Bråvalla Festival became the largest commercial music festival in the history of music festivals in Sweden. The figure proposes that the other festivals on the top ten list, such as Way Out West, Popaganda, Sthlm Music & Arts (all arranged by Live Nation/Luger), Summerburst, Metaltown etc., simply also are bigger than their equivalents during preceding years. Metaltown communicated at the end of 2013 that they will not arrange a festival in 2014. Both Bråvalla Festival and Getaway Rock Festival are arranged by FKP Scorpio, which means that seven of the ten largest commercial music festivals in Sweden in 2013 were arranged by Live Nation, FKP Scorpio and Stureplansgruppen. As mentioned earlier in the paper, a middle-sized music festival today is often larger than the largest festival, Hultsfred, was during the first five years of the studied time period. In 2004, the fifth largest festival had only 50 % of the amount of visitors that the fifth ranked festival had in 2013. In general the middle sized festivals, as well as the largest festivals, have become larger in terms of the amount of paying visitors. There is also an obvious trend towards festival arrangers that are more "professional" or "commercial", although it is somewhat difficult to exactly define those terms in this context. Non-profit organizations are not as common among the ten largest music festivals during the later years as they were during the first years of the studied time period. This of course has an effect on the festival market as a whole. In 2011 the European festival arranger FKP Scorpio began operations in Sweden, as the new owner of the Hultsfred festival. Hultsfred was also arranged in 2012, and then

9 moved to Stockholm in 2013. In 2013 FKP Scorpio also arranged the largest festival of the year, the Bråvalla festival, as well as the Getaway festival. There is no question that the introduction of FKP Scorpio as a festival arranger on the Swedish market is changing the scene, and most probably we will continue to see a volatile festival market during the coming 2-3 years. Since the interest from music fans to pay for music festivals has not decreased, but rather increased, we will most probably see a trend with larger festivals, around 50 000 visitors, also in the near future.

4. Conclusions and Future Research

Although the festival market has changed considerably in Sweden during the latest years, the collected data suggests that the term "festival death" is more about certain brands disappearing, rather than a death of the music festival phenomenon as such. It could be argued though that the contemporary development might have a negative impact on the amount of paying visitors in the long run. Usually a music festival wants to sell as many tickets as possible as early as possible. Many festival visitors buy their tickets well in advance before a festival is conducted, but, the uncertainty and volatility on the market presumably leads to ticket buyers waiting as long as possible, to be sure that the festival will really commence. Also, it might be possible that festival visitors, because of the uncertainty on the market simply grow tired of cancelled festivals, and instead decide to put their money on individual concerts. There is a risk that we indeed will see a decrease in the interest of festivals among music fans as a result of this. Such a development is not the case for the studied time period though, 2000 - 2013, and the main findings of the study are:

1) The number of paying visitors of the ten largest commercial music festivals in Sweden set an all time high record in 2013, with 268 000 paying visitors,

2) After a downward trend in total visitors during 2010 and 2011, the increase that was seen during the ten years before that continued during 2012 and 2013,

3) There are two perspectives on the concept of a "festival death": a) Individual festivals disappearing, b) Festival visitors losing interest in visiting festivals. The figures in this study validate to some extent the first statement, but not the second statement, the general public is still interested in going to music festivals in Sweden,

4) The largest festival in Sweden has become much larger during the latest five years compared to the years before,

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5) The size of each of the top ten music festivals has also increased simultanously, leading to a much larger average,

6) Revenues to STIM from the ten largest music festivals in Sweden have increased and validate the official figures from the festivals,

7) The Swedish festival market has changed during the latest years, larger corporations are arranging the largest festivals while non-profit organizations are arranging smaller festivals. The competition is tough, specifically so after FKP Scorpio started to arrange festivals in Sweden in 2011,

8) Overall, the "festival death" seems to be exaggerated and is mainly a result of certain well-known festival brands disappearing, as well as media using the term as a fact.

In the future, a number of related questions might be interesting to answer:

• How has the economic results for each of the ten largest festivals developed during this time frame, such as break-even, percentage of budget that is earmarked for artists fees, ticket pricing etc. • How is the development on the Swedish festival market correlating with neighbouring countries, such as Norway, Finland and Denmark? • Is the change from non-profit organizations to commercial companies as the arrangers of the largest festivals influencing cultural expressions, equality issues and diversity, and if so, how?

Although it is sad to see music festivals disappear, especially such festivals that you might have visited many times, all forms of markets changes over time. The festival market is influenced by many factors, not the least in the shift from sales of tangible music goods to digital distribution, like streaming. Since artists increased their fees when revenues from recorded music dropped, festivals had to adjust their budgets and ticket prices. In the end, such changes have an impact on the whole ecosystem, all the way down to the individual festival visitor. At the moment though, the statistics seems to propose that the festival market is strong in Sweden, after some turbulence during the latest years. But, just because we have not experienced a "true" festival death, that is, the festival phenomena as such going extinct, does not mean that it will never happen in the future.

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Daniel Johansson is a researcher in Computer Science and Music and Cultural Studies at Linnaeus University in Sweden. His research is focused on explaining contemporary changes in the Swedish music industrial system, specifically changes emanating from the digitization of music.

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