Austria’s Nova Rock is the latest festival to report a record sell-out, as the sector embarks on its first full season since 2019.

The event’s promoter, Nova Music Entertainment, says a total of 225,000 visitors are expected to attend the four-day festival in Nickelsdorf this June, which marks a new attendance record.

“We are so happy and proud,” says Nova Music Entertainment, which is part of CTS Eventim’s Barracuda Music.

After two consecutive cancellations, the annual hard rock event will return to Pannonia Fields between 9–12 June with acts including Muse, Placebo, Volbeat and Five Finger Death Punch.

Meanwhile, Germany’s Rock am Ring recently announced that a record 90,000 weekend tickets had sold for its 2022 edition, while twin festival Rock im Park shifted more than 70,000 tickets.

Both of the eventimpresents/DreamHaus’s events took place last weekend with acts including Green Day, Muse, Volbeat, Placebo, Måneskin.

Elsewhere, events such as Rock Werchter and Rock in Rio have sold out their typical allocation of tickets, but in record time.

“EVENT-GOERS ARE NOW SPENDING UP TO THREE TIMES MORE ON THEIR EVENT TRIPS THAN EVEN PRE-COVID LEVELS”

Around 1 million people registered for the chance to buy tickets to Rock in Rio’s Brazil event, which runs over two weekends from 2–4 and 8–11 September and hosts 100,000 fans per day at the Cidade do Rock.

The 4 September date, starring Justin Bieber, was the fastest sell out at a record 12 minutes, followed by days headlined by Coldplay (27 minutes), Post Malone (59 minutes), Dua Lipa (64 minutes), Green Day (104 minutes) and Guns N’ Roses (285 minutes). The remaining 2 September date, topped by Iron Maiden, has also now sold out.

Rock Werchter, meanwhile, sold out months ahead of when it typically would, with 67,000 combi-tickets and four lots of 21,000 one-day tickets flying off the shelf by the beginning of February.

Elsewhere in LN Belgium’s stable of events, Graspop Metal Meeting in Dessel was expanded from 50,000 capacity to 52,000 after most tickets sold out in early November.

Top promoters and ticketing firms including DEAG, Dice, Event Genius and The Ticket Factory have all confirmed the pent-up demand for events, saying that current ticket sales are even higher than pre-pandemic levels.

“Such is the demand for events and experiences – both domestically and abroad – event-goers are now spending up to three times more on their domestic and international event trips than even pre-Covid levels,” Event Genius’s CEO Benjamin Leaver told IQ.

Further evidencing a bumper festival season to come, an unprecedented number of new festivals are launching this year.

Promoters including FKP Scorpio, Goodlive, AEG, Goldenvoice and Live Nation have all added to their stable of festivals, as most prepare for their busiest festival season on record.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.

‍