After twenty editions this year, Eurosonic goer Rob de Kam feels poorly treated by the festival organization in Groningen. That has to change, he argues. “Edition 2024 was a stain on Eurosonic’s reputation.”
For more than twenty years I have been a loyal and satisfied visitor to Eurosonic, the European music festival that puts Groningen on the map every year as a hotspot. In the first few years I did that as a journalist, with one of those coveted wristbands that gives you first access everywhere. The last ten years as a ‘regular’ visitor.
The festival has given me many fond memories. Intimate performances by once modest acts that are now world stars. Surprises that I might never have gotten to know without Eurosonic. I think of the concert of the French Christine and the Queens for 100 men/women in the hall of Minerva. Benjamin Clementine’s performance in that always special setup in the Stadsschouwburg, where the audience stands backstage during Eurosonic and the highlighted chairs are just decor. But also concerts by ‘small’ artists such as the Swiss Pascal Gamboni, who sings in Romansh, who gave me a CD after his ‘gig’ without wanting a cent for it, he was so happy with all the attention.
That was never actually a problem
Eurosonic is a so-called showcase festival, primarily intended for professionals. Starting bands play for journalists and bookers of pop venues and festivals in the hope of attention and performances. That has always been the case, as a paying visitor you are by definition in the second rank. That was never actually a problem. With some experience you knew that good planning was half the battle. If you wanted to see a hyped act whose name was already buzzing around before the festival, you had to be in the hall well before the start of the performance. At the expense of another concert that you might also have wanted to see. You could live with that. And if you came across a line somewhere, there was always a room nearby that you could enter. Only to sometimes be surprised again. As it goes at a festival full of unknown names.
I’m talking in the past tense because everything was different this year. This was already evident on the traditionally quiet Wednesday evening. Well before the start of concerts, there were long lines at many halls. On Thursday evening it was even worse. An hour of bluebills was no exception. In the queue for Huize Maas, a fellow sufferer joked with some sense of exaggeration that the Red Cross might have to be called to provide hot drinks and blankets.
At the end of an hour’s wait at the Vismarkt, I stood at the front of the line for the last ten minutes, where the security guard comforted me that it would definitely be my turn and that he had already texted his boss that such long lines as this year really were. were not right. It was also fortunate that for every twenty professionals wearing a special wristband, ten ‘ordinary’ guests were also allowed in. So that after more than an hour I was finally inside.
Significantly fewer locations
Of course, I had already noticed that the festival used significantly fewer locations this year. City blog Sikkom has calculated that there were still more than 30 halls in 2019, compared to 18 now. I wasn’t too worried about that beforehand, they would have sold fewer tickets, I naively thought. That turned out not to be the case. So that on some evenings, if you were unlucky, you spent longer outside in the cold than inside with the music. This was also because the shortage of rooms had a self-reinforcing effect. Because anyone who entered somewhere feeling chilled felt the strong urge to stay there, even though the next act in that room might not have been their first choice. The alternative of having to catch up elsewhere with the risk of not even getting in on time was worse.
Eurosonic marketing manager Corné Bos tells Sikkom that this year “it was indeed a bit busier in some places”. That is the understatement of the year and gives rise to the fear that the management has not yet realized that this year’s edition was a stain on the good name of the festival. Fortunately, festival manager Peter Sikkema shows more understanding in the Dagblad.
Are we still going next year?
Of course Eurosonic is primarily there for the professionals, but it cannot do it without the paying regular visitors. And they have the right to be treated not only as additional, clammy cattle. If there is insufficient money to deploy enough halls, the festival will have to sell fewer tickets. Otherwise you run the serious risk that loyal visitors will also wonder whether they still want to be there next year.
Rob de Kam is a music lover and former editor of Dagblad van het Noorden.