Summer music festivals attracts 72,000 visitors

Drop in Arab festival goers partially
offset by Lebanese and foreigners

The annual music festival season was able to defy all the odds this year, achieving acceptable results despite instabilities. The festivals managed to sell 72,000 tickets in total this year.

The Beiteddine Festival sold 27,000 tickets so far. The committee running the events expects to sell 4,000 more tickets. “The festival was a success, especially with grand shows like Caracalla and the anticipated Opera La Boheme on July 26,” said Hala Chahine, director of the Beiteddine Festivals. Caracalla alone attracted 16,000 spectators. She said 4,000 tickets were sold for the Cranberries' concert, which was later cancelled. “The Opera La Boheme performance, scheduled for July 26, will be attended by some 4,000 people,” she said.

Last year Beiteddine received around 28,000 visitors, down from 40,000 visitors for each of 2008, 2009, and 2010.

According to Chahine, the number of festival goers from Arab countries saw a drop this year: “We usually receive 70 percent Lebanese visitors, 20 percent Arab, and 10 percent foreign visitors. This year we only had ten percent Arab visitors.”

According to data gathered by the committee about the impact of the Beiteddine Festivals on the local services sector, the festival made $2 million-worth of payments to different sectors, including government taxes, insurance, hotels and restaurants, and paying performers.

Latifee Lakkis, president of the Byblos Festivals Committee, said Byblos had 21,000 visitors this year. She said the festivals received some Iraqi, Syrian, and a few foreign visitors. But the number of visitors from the Gulf was significantly down. “Though not as good as previous years, the festival was successful,” she said.

Baalbeck festivals received around 9,500 visitors. “We did very well this year despite the bad situation and despite the fact all festivals were held in one month and some of them overlapped,” said Elga Trad, communications director and member of the Baalbeck Festival's Executive Committee. According to Trad, the program for this year managed to attract the young too. She said Mashrou’ Leila attracted around 1,500 visitors with ages from 12 and above. “This was a difficult year, but we made it with the support of Lebanese and foreign visitors,” she said.

The Jounieh Festival attracted around 11,000 visitors, offering two concerts one for Charles Aznavour and another for Chris de Burgh, said Fady Fayad, general manager of Phellipolis, the organizers of the festival. Fayad said the festival this year was a great success: “All restaurants in Jounieh were fully-booked during the festival days.”

Fayad said the Jounieh Festival is of great value to the city’s economy. “Shops here wait for the festival to see a boost in their turnover,” he said.

Reported by Hanadi Chami