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We were really bored in Fredrickstad so we started a festival six years ago in an old ship yard. It was launched within 14 days – we had booked about 20 bands. Some of the most famous bands played. There were about 300-400 people there having a good time. It has grown since then. Last year there were about 4000 people – and it was very difficult, economically. All of us support in personally. This has always been the deal – we work for free. We pay our own expenses but this is something you have to do to make something good happen. We’ve enjoyed it very much but last year we lost nearly 1million pounds. So obviously we weren’t very happy! Due to that loss we actually decided to stop the festival, but people were very upset and told us that we can’t give up. It’s a loyalty to the people now – we couldn’t say no. We started organising the show again about 4 months ago. We moved from the old ship yard to this new venue. This is the first time something like this has happened here in Gamlyben – it’s a sleep city. We have jazz, classic, rock hip hop metal - everything. All that matters to us is that the music is high quality – and it is. The venue, the cinemography, the music and the food are all perfect. I don’t want it to become any bigger. It would not be able to have a cool setting like this – plus you would have to wait an hour at the bar for a beer and that’s not interesting. We have some very small sponsorship. But if we get about 3500 people then we are paid back more than enough money back. Today we had about 1000 people buying tickets before the festival and this is a break even for us – we’ve never been in this position before. We expect more people to buy tickets when the festival starts – which will be even better. |