Simerock lures performers with a lavish backstage playground

Rovaniemi’s Simerock, the biggest rock festival in Lapland, has built an artist-only backstage area as large as the festival grounds, Yle reports.

A seaplane waits by the river for performers who want to take a flight. Nearby are a carousel from Tivoli Sariola, a circus tent with magicians, a complete water amusement park, free gourmet food, an ice hockey arena and a bumper car track where artists drive real cars.

Only selected performers can use the facilities. Regular paying customers are not allowed into the backstage area.

“It is in a class of its own. Backstages are usually really boring,” said this year’s headliner, Mr Lordi, the stage name of Tomi Putaansuu.

Stories about the spectacular northern backstage have spread among artists. Putaansuu said that was part of Simerock organiser Sime Yliaska’s strategy.

“That is Sime’s trick. The stories spread and artists want to come here,” Putaansuu said.

In previous years, the most popular way for artists to relieve performance pressure was to destroy cars. Yliaska had obtained scrap cars from a scrapyard, allowing performers to demolish them with an excavator.

This year, artists can instead drive on a bumper car track and crash into other wrecked cars. The vehicles are protected with padding made from car tyres.

Yliaska had originally planned to build a real snow slalom slope in the backstage area, but the plan proved impractical because it would have required storing a huge amount of snow, much of which could have melted in the rain.

The backstage area has grown year after year and has become increasingly expensive, although Yliaska said the expansion was not a deliberate choice.

“Once you have started, it is quite difficult to begin making it smaller. Artists expect there to be all kinds of things here,” Yliaska said.

Yliaska has not calculated the exact cost of the entertainment, but estimated it at tens of thousands of euros, possibly as much as 100,000 euros.

“When it concerns something that would not have to be organised at all, there is no real financial sense in it,” he said.

However, Yliaska said artists’ enjoyment can also be reflected in their performances. He said booking agents occasionally call to say that an artist has mentioned wanting to perform at Simerock.

The festival also attracts large crowds. Yliaska said the audience creates an atmosphere in which people shout and sing along loudly, making visitors want to return.