In January 2020, they sold out and headlined Green Day for the first time, the biggest band they’d ever caught up to that point. But then covid-19 came and interrupted everything for two years. Now the Rock for People festival in Hradec Králové awaits another strongest year yet. It starts next Thursday, June 8, and features Muse, Slipknot, Machine Gun Kelly or The 1975.
“We decided that in difficult times, we need to do something big and significant. Something that people will notice,” festival director Michal Thomes explains of the program full of sets that have the potential to attract tens of thousands of Czechs. Adequately, the budget has doubled to almost 200 million, an amount close to what Colors from Ostrava manages.
Already the first post-pandemic year Rock for People was groundbreaking in more ways than one. Around 35,000 people visited the area of the Hradec airport, where the event takes place, every day. Due to the postponement of Green Day’s performance due to the coronavirus, the organizers ordered a special stage from abroad. There was no one in the Czech Republic that would suit the show of American pop-punks.
This year, our team will not stop, says Michal Thomes, director of Rock for People. | Photo: CTK
At first, Thomes found the management’s reaction to be rather cold. “There was such a standard thank you. Then when I met their agent at a conference, she said that it was a great result. They say they don’t send compliments. They only call when something is wrong. That calmed me down a bit,” he recounts.
Now he has even higher ambitions than last year. “People used to go to several festivals a year, but this year they might choose only one,” the director alludes to the change in audience behavior after the pandemic, at a time of high inflation. “I openly say that we want it to be Rock for People. I apologize to my colleagues in the industry for this. We like each other, but at some point it’s to each his own,” he laughs.
This year, the organizers managed to arrange two even more demanding bands. “Green Day arrived with a crew of 90 people, fifteen buses and twenty trucks, but Slipknot will arrive with 110 people. The same applies to Muse and on a different level,” he says of the line-up that first performed with them in 2010.
By “another level” Michal Thomes means the reconstruction of the stage for a spectacular show, which is typical for the progressive rock English trio awarded with two Grammys. “As soon as the Saturday program ends at two in the morning, the reconstruction will begin and will run until the opening of the complex on Sunday. For example, a so-called catwalk will be added, i.e. a long catwalk, which will change the layout of the stage and the boiler room,” he mentions.
The stage that will be built at Rock for People is called Fat Lady, and the organizers tried out its construction last year. “That stage goes on tour with, for example, Iron Maiden, it is built by two 200-kilo cranes for about ten days. It was a big challenge for us, and this year we are richer for this experience,” says Thomes.
The structure measures 27 meters wide, rises 21 meters high, contains reinforced suspension points and meets the most demanding safety limits and standards of the entertainment industry. “But it makes a big difference if you have one or two bands of this size. This year, our team will not stop. They will be dealing with management requests, dozens of emails and phone calls a day. If we only had one such group, it would mean a few extra hours of sleep for everyone ,” Thomes illustrates.
Other formulas
He does not dare to guess whether they will sell out again with a more generous program. The two-year hiatus forced by the pandemic changed audience behavior.
The formulas used to estimate the development of ticket sales are no longer valid. Visitors postpone buying tickets until the last minute. “But I have to knock, we’ve got a good start on pre-sales,” Thomes taps his finger on the table. So far they have sold about 85 percent of the tickets.
This year, they leased another 20 hectares of land at the former military airport in Hradec Králové. Mainly because of the facilities and parking, they will probably not use them fully until next year. Nevertheless, they are already ready to welcome 40,000 people a day, which Rock for People ranks as one of the biggest summer shows in the country.
It is close in size to the Beats for Love shows in Ostrava, where 43,000 people came last year, and perhaps even bigger Colors there. They have not published attendance since 2016, before that it hovered around a similar limit.
One of the highlights of last year’s Rock for People was the performance of the band Green Day. Photo: Petr Klapper Video: Filip Adamek
Breakthrough years
The growth is all the more extraordinary because Rock for People’s roots go back to the early 1990s. Michal Thomes, his colleague Petr Forte and a bunch of friends from basketball started inviting their favorite bands to pubs in Český Brod, where they both come from. “We discovered that we have similar musical tastes and we enjoy live music. There wasn’t much going on in Brod,” recalls Thomas.
At first, they chose bands like Mňága and Žďorp or Tři sestry, later even the British The Tiger Lillies. They started building one of the most important Czech festivals out of enthusiasm, organically and without a vision. “We calculated that a few hundred people would come, but about 1,100 paid people arrived. It was a success,” he recalls of August 1995, when on one stage of Rock for People alternated 18 bands. Among them were the Czech Support Lesbiens and Narvan, a veteran of the punk scene Phil Shöenfelt came from England. “That’s when it grabbed us and wouldn’t let go,” notes Michal Thomes.
Before he started devoting himself fully to Rock for People, Michal Thomes worked in a food inspection. | Photo: Pavla Hartmanová
He graduated from the University of Chemistry and Technology in the metropolis and joined the food inspection. Coincidentally, at that time he was working near the current offices of Rock for People in Těšnov, Prague. “I used to go down here to the people’s dining room for lunch,” he points under the windows. “We had labs across from the Hilton. I did food analysis and worked on a liquid chromatograph.”
Sometime around the fourth year in 1999, most of his working time was taken up by calling bands and suppliers. “It was no longer possible to manage both. I had to decide whether to stay in the laboratory or go in a slightly uncertain direction,” he says. He chose the latter and he really wasn’t sure.
He experienced his first major adventure in 2003, when he overestimated the ability of the hip-hop group Cypress Hill to attract their fans to a rock festival. The loss of 1.5 million crowns slowed down the festival, but thanks to good relations with suppliers, the situation was stabilized.
Three years later, on the other hand, the weather was nice, the French singer of Spanish origin Manu Chao attracted an unexpectedly large audience and queues stretched in front of the venue. Rock for People exceeded the capacity of 7,000 people in Český Brod and the decision was made to move to Hradec Králové.
There came another twist in 2012 when they struck storm. At the same time, the festival was close to being sold out for the first time, and the organizers had to step up to raise it to the next level. However, within a few minutes, the prospects were over, the American rockers Faith No More left the mud pit without a concert, the organizers counted losses in the millions, and the development of the event stalled for a few years.
Even later, Rock for People found a way to draw attention to itself. The very next year, alongside the rockers Thirty Seconds to Mars or Queens of the Stone Age, the singer Karel Gott was among the stars. The most successful Czech performer has never sung at such an event. However, judging by the reactions, the uncertain bet on a generational clash paid off.
Cut from Karel Gott’s performance at the Rock for People festival in 2013. Photo: Rock for People archive. | Video: Ondřej Wolf
The planet is taking a beating
The year 2020 was also supposed to be groundbreaking. It was sold out for the first time in history, even almost six months in advance. However, due to the pandemic, it was not played, just like in the following year 2021. “In the end, we sold out twice. During the pandemic, we returned some tickets, increased the capacity a little and then sold it again,” summarizes the organizer.
At that time, he and his colleagues also received a subsidy from the Ministry of Culture for the first time, which this year will contribute 5.6 million crowns. It will help offset rising costs.
The festival emerged stronger from the crisis. In two years, Rock for People will celebrate 30 years, and growth is one way for Michal Thomes to avoid routine. At the same time, it brings responsibility.
“When you’ve been in this business for a long time, you realize that although you’ve dreamed something, invented it and realized it, you’re giving the planet a total blow. Bands and audiences come to us from far and wide, they produce tons of waste. You start to think, how to minimize the impacts,” he says about the topic of sustainability, which they have been working with since the beginning.
They already bought beer mugs during the second year in 1996, perhaps as the first festival in the Czech Republic. About ten years ago, they switched to washable ones, now they separate 17 types of waste, including metals or tetra packs.
The band Crossfaith also performed at last year’s Rock for People. Photo: Petr Klapper Video: Veronika Krejčiříková
Accumulation of energy
Since last year, they have been managing the entire area of the Hradec Kralove airport, which they named Park 360. The long-term lease made it easier for them not only to produce, but also to experiment with energy alternatives. Years ago, they let the smaller stage be powered by electricity from the bicycles pedaled by the visitors. Last year, as the first festival in the world, they built a stage powered by hydrogen.
“This year we will have a stage that will run purely on photovoltaics,” Thomes introduces the news. About ten days before the start, they built an area with solar panels that accumulates electricity into a battery. It is supposed to power the so-called Solar Stage for the entire four festival days, from Thursday to Sunday, where the Czech John Wolfhooker or the duo Bookie Baker will play. Then the panels are disassembled again and stored.
In difficult times, you need to do something big and significant, says Michal Thomes. | Photo: CTK
“We have to solve the accumulation. Electricity from renewable sources can be produced all year round, but the festival only lasts for four days. That is why we are experimenting with hydrogen. Storing energy from renewable sources in it is a more realistic solution,” Thomes thinks.
In this way, they are testing principles on a small scale that they could eventually apply on a larger and long-term scale. “We have made a commitment that Park 360 will be a climate-neutral and energy self-sufficient area by 2030. We will not influence the bands’ travel, but we can influence many things,” he declares.
As another joy, he keeps the opportunity to discover names unknown to Czechs. Hip hop is marginally represented in the Rock for People program, but Michal Thomes is looking forward to a band from this genre this year.
“They contacted me themselves and I really enjoy it to this day. I call it orchestral hip hop, they have brass, it’s not aggressive or macho, I understand the lyrics,” he says of the British group Lazy Habits.
“When a band sends me an email, I usually pass it on to my colleagues. But this really interested me. It’s a joy to discover a line-up that no one knows much about. Another reason that reminds me that doing Rock for People is not just work, but fun,” he concludes.
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