Pollstar (02/15/19) Gottfried, Gideon
Live Nation Finland has acquired the Blockfest festival in Tampere, Finland. Blockfest founder Kalle Kallonen will stay on as managing director and event shareholder, while the festival's employees will continue to operate out of their Tampere office. Blockfest bills itself as the largest Nordic hip-hop festival, and last year it saw record attendance with 75,000 visitors. The participation of many of the festival's top performers was secured via an agreement with Live Nation that has been in place since 2013. "Deepening our collaboration [with Live Nation] strengthens Blockfest's role in ensuring the presence of the hottest international artists in the festivals in the future," Kallonen noted. "We strengthen our team's expertise at an international level, enabling the festival to develop and, most importantly, produce the best possible festival experience for the public—we are absolutely excited to join the Live Nation gang." Chief Live Nation Finland promoter Zachris Sundell attested to his firm's long-term relationship with Blockfest, saying "it is great that we can further deepen our collaboration with Blockfest with strong artist fixes and partnerships to complement the festival experience. Blockfest is one of Finland's most interesting and innovative festivals, which we are excited about."
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