Posted recently on the Time To Rock Festival Facebook page was this little window into the event from the organizers. Time to Rock was one of the best festivals of 2023 that CGCM‘s Rich “The Meister” Dillon attended. His coverage is here on CGCM Rock Radio/Website and he will definitely return in 2024.
Here’s the post below (with minor edits):
A little history and a little present
We thought with these lines to try to explain, straight to the point, who we are and what we want. In addition, we give you some of our thoughts for the future. An open dialogue with our wonderful audience.
This is how it started
The festival started in 2006 as a friends thing and because something fun would happen in little Knislinge. It evolved over the years into something a little bigger than that and then it rolled on year after year. We have always consistently had around 3500 people who have come to the festival. Sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less.
Important then and important now
Our goal has always been to maintain the cozy atmosphere and to have plenty of space and short queues. We simply wanted people to feel good with us. We should never give up on that. We also try to be out among our audience during most of the festival, so there is a great chance that you bumped into someone in the crowd.
The past 2 years!
Everyone has probably noticed that we have been trying to raise the quality of our artists with an extended band budget. To a certain extent, it has caused a few more people to come than before, while we, unfortunately, lived in the aftermath of the pandemic and now a quite difficult situation for Swedish economy with high-interest rates, high inflation and a crown rate that makes it very much more expensive to book foreign act. We have over the years gotten very many ambassadors out in the country who help spread our message both locally and via social media. There is also an important point, as the more shares of our posts, the better. It’s not cheap to advertise. It’s hard to reach out to everyone.
Important things to run a Festival
What is also important for smaller festivals like Time To Rock, is that the audience chooses to buy their tickets in advance. It makes everything much easier for us and it also gives us an opportunity to book a little better and more expensive acts. Here we have seen in recent years that tickets are sold very shortly at the festival (applies to most events), which is then a little negative.
So we hope that you who know that you are going to the festival, buy your ticket as early as you can. It makes our job much easier. A stable economy is the foundation for festival-building, and our economy has always been solid and still is. At the same time, we see that we would have to sell a few thousand tickets every year in order to get a good and sustainable economy in order to develop in the future.
So what does it look like for 2024 and beyond?
Yes, our goal is to become a festival that can sell 5,000 tickets every year. We have looked at our area and what opportunities are available to expand so that, even if more people come, this will not affect the comfort. You should always feel that at Time To Rock there is plenty of space, short queues and close to everything.
No increase in prices
Despite inflation and rising prices, we’ll remain at the same prices as in 2023.
Improve service in the area
We will also put even more efforts into making the festival experience a good one. It should be clean and neat, good selection of food and drinks, plenty of toilets, yes you get it. We see this part as incredibly important, so our audience will long here year after year.
Unique Lineup
As a slightly smaller festival, you obviously do not have the opportunity to book really large bands. There is no economy for. Every year we have tried to get a hold of some slightly more expensive pieces that should be headliners, but then you should know that these take a big part of the cake and obviously affect the other range. So for 2024, our goal is to try to present as large and even a starting field as we can. We want to invest our money on having many good names that most people like, instead of spending the biggest part of the budget on a few big names.
We will also more or less abandon more brutal metal and instead try to work around classic hard rock, blues, AOR, punk, rock and heavy metal that we then want to mix up with some artists who get people out of their cabins. We really want to become a ROCK FESTIVAL where our audience will be able to get really good music every day, all hours of the day (yes, as long as we are open). That is our goal. Of course, we will also work for some surprises. Put your trust in that.
So – Let’s go!
Big thanks for taking the time to read about our journey with you! We are now investing in ticket release and first band release at the end of September. More info about our improvements is coming soon, and we hope you’ll continue to join us on our journey towards becoming an even better festival.
And you – feel free to bring some more boys.
Follow along with all of my coverage here: Time To Rock Festival 2023 Full Coverage page.
