Festivals | Sideways is changing – the Ice Hall area is being abandoned, foreign performers have become more expensive

Sideways-festival is this summer for the last time in the area of ​​the Helsinki Ice Hall. Fullsteam, which organizes the festival, has announced that they are currently looking for a new location and format for the event.

The reason for the move is partly the increased costs, but the uncertainty about the possibility of using the ice rink and the surrounding area has also grown.

Sideways will take place this summer for the eighth time. In the first years, the location was the Tukkutori and Teurastamo area in Hermann, Helsinki, but since 2018 the event has been organized in and around the Nordenskiöldinkatu ice rink. The biggest outdoor stages of the festival have been in the parking area of ​​the ice rink, where the future Garden Helsinki large hall is now being planned.

Originally, Fullsteam got an agreement with the Ice Rink Foundation that the festival can continue in the ice rink’s surroundings, i.e. Nordis, as the area is called, for three years. Since then, Sideways has been made every year.

“A couple of years ago, we only heard the week before the festival that we would be able to be here next year as well”, Fullsteam’s operational manager Johannes Kinnunen says.

“Because of the Garden project, we have known that at some point there will be a departure.”

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“The money that a few years ago would have been used to get the main performer of a big festival is today the price of a medium-sized artist.”

Full steam now decided to leave the area himself, because planning the festival in the long term became too difficult.

“We have received very interim information about both the Garden project and the ice rink, but since the future is uncertain for them as well, it is impossible to say for sure when the hoe will hit the ground”, CEO of Fullsteam Tuomo Tähtinen says.

More pressure on the festival’s future has been brought by the general increase in cost levels, especially in performer fees. Although Sideways has not built its repertoire on the most popular pop stars, even more alternative foreign performers have become expensive.

Over the course of three days, Sideways has had a total of 50–80 performers, among whom there are more foreign artists than at many Finnish festivals of the same size.

“The money that a few years ago would have been used to get the main performer of a big festival is today the price of a medium-sized artist,” says Kinnunen.

Sideways audience numbers have remained more or less unchanged. At most, there have been around 10,000 people at one time, and the total audience for three days has been around 25,000.

Compared to the biggest festivals, it has been easier to move around in Sideways, because the area located in a built-up urban environment is not crowded with people.

According to the organizers, it is more difficult to maintain the corresponding level of service and comfort as the costs rise so that the operation is profitable.

Kinnunen and Tähtinen assure, however, that this is not news of the end of Sideways, even if the current area is abandoned. Fullsteam has been looking for a suitable new place for some time and has been thinking about how the event will be organized in the future. Discussions have also taken place with the City of Helsinki.

The organizers plan to also involve the audience of the event, who are expected to give their opinions on the future of Sideways. About 80 percent of the festival’s audience is from the capital region, and it is likely that Sideways will not move very far from its previous locations.

The future of rock and pop festivals in Sweden and Britain, for example, has looked difficult this spring. Tähtinen knows the situation, even though the music markets of Finland and Sweden are somewhat different from each other, and in his opinion, the situation of the neighboring countries cannot be directly compared.

Festival organizers the challenge is not only the cost of organizing the event itself, but also the choices of potential customers as the economy tightens.

“Festivals and large concerts are in their own category simply because the entrance ticket is quite a big investment, and on top of that there may be travel costs. As a summer event, it’s on the same level as a trip with the family to Särkänniemi or a holiday in the south,” says Tuomo Tähtinen.

Presenting many different music genres, Sideways does not have many competitors in the same size category. Tähtinen has not counted concerts and festivals organized in Helsinki on the same weekend as competitors either.

Today in the summer, there is even one next door to Sideways: the Helsinki City Festival organized at the Töölö football stadium, which is particularly attractive with 90s pop nostalgia and Nylon Beat’s comeback gig. That’s why the last Sideways organized at Nordis does not have the Sahara stage, which was located in the south corner of the ice rink in previous years.

Otherwise, the Sideways organizers are not concerned about the overlap.

“Until now, there have been no competitive events with a similar program profile organized at the same time as us,” says Johannes Kinnunen.

Sideways will take place in the area of ​​the Helsinki ice hall from the 13th to the 15th. June. The main foreign performers of the festival include Bat for Lashes, Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes, Jungle, L7, Peggy GouLadytron and Ane Brun. Domestic artists will be seen at the festival, among other things Ismo Alanko, Lauri HaavHot, Curry DogParis Spring and Plush.