Finland’s Fullsteam Agency has announced that Sideways Festival will not take place in its current form after 2024.
The festival, which launched in 2018, will take place at Helsinki Ice Hall (also known as Nordis) for the last time between 13 and 15 June.
Bat For Lashes, Jungle and Peggy Gou are due to headline the final edition, with acts including Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Fontaines DC and Ladytron filling out the bill.
In a statement released today (28 May), organisers said that “making a festival that is ambitious in terms of content and service offering and larger in size is rewarding but challenging”.
“In particular, the general economic situation of recent years and the rise in cost levels have significantly affected the possibilities of making the organisation of the event in its current form profitable,” it reads.
“We have decided that now is the right time to turn the page and look to the future with an open mind”
The statement continues: “In addition, the long-term planning of the event has been complicated by various uncertainty factors, such as the giant Garden arena, which has been planned for years on the site of the Sideways festival area. Other development projects in the vicinity of Nordis, surrounding construction sites and other events organized in and around the ice rink have also made the development of Sideways challenging in the long term. For example, multi-year lease agreements for the event area, which are typical for the industry, have not been possible for us, which has made planning the continuity of the festival significantly more difficult.
“From the beginning, Sideways’ ideology has included innovation, pioneering, surprise and continuous development. So that there is no need to compromise on these values, we have decided that now is the right time to turn the page and look to the future with an open mind. So we don’t yet know what Sideways will look like in the future or where and when we will gather in the coming years. We will ask our customers for their wishes and thoughts about the future, because the warm and communal atmosphere fostered at the heart of Sideways is thanks to them. We are grateful for the kind of summer weekends we have experienced first at Teurastamo and now during the last seven years at Nordis.”
Fullsteam Agency represents around a hundred domestic acts such as JVG, KUUMAA, Joalin and Stam1na, and organises festivals including Provinssi and Knotfest Finland. Since 2015, the firm has been part of FKP Scorpio.
Fullsteam founder Rauha Kyyrö was recently appointed to FKP’s international board as president touring & artist development.
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