Norway’s Piknik i Parken (Picnic in the Park) is on course to sell out this year after promoter Peer Osmundsvaag’s ticket price gamble paid off.

Better known as PiPFest, the 12,000-cap event returns to Oslo’s Sofienberg Park from 12-14 June, headlined by Faithless and Aurora.

Osmundsvaag, who launched the inner-city festival in 2014, cut ticket prices by 20% for this year’s edition. A full festival pass costs 1,765 kroner (€149), with day tickets available from 895 kroner (€76). The rates will be in place until a price increase on 1 May.

“It’s selling better than ever, so it seems like the price recalibration, as I call it, has really worked out,” the Atomic Soul Booking founder tells IQ. “People have responded well, which has led to sales almost doubling and also enabled me to take my foot off the throttle when it comes to [booking] massive international headliners.”

Osmundsvaag, who was a founding partner of Nordics powerhouse All Things Live and now heads up AEG Presents’ new Oslo office, says he settled on the ticket price after consulting pricing optimisation and market intelligence specialist PriceAgent.

“I was thinking, ‘Hang on a minute, I’m setting these prices because I’m taking what I charged last year and increasing it a little bit. But is that the right policy? Am I actually speaking to my audience here? What can they afford?'” he explains. “So I went to PriceAgent, which came back to me and said, ‘If you keep your ticket price under [a certain price], you are going to make the most amount of money.

“I feel it’s important to set the right price in the first place – not too high – and to not have any discounts at all as it isn’t good for people to think they can get tickets cheaper later on.”

“I’m probably 20 years older than my core audience, so it was good to recalibrate”

A 50/50 gender balance has been achieved on the 2025 lineup, which features the likes of Susanne Sundfor, Maribou State, Leftfield, Marstein, Ary, ULD and Casiokids. The festival is also adding a new stage at an old decommissioned church on the site.

“I’ve actually doubled the sales, which brings in F&B, so if you’re lowering the price by 20%, it’s really only 10%,” says Osmundsvaag. “And because the sales are storming along, I don’t need that headliner from the States; I’ve got Leftfield and Maribou State, plus a lot more domestic acts, and that seems to have connected well.”

He adds: “I think it was a healthy thing to do: to have the courage to budget the other way around and go, ‘Who is my audience and what can they afford? What will persuade them to make an impulse purchase instead of having to wait until their wages come in, or have a chat with their partner, or any of the other processes you have to go through if you feel it’s a little bit expensive?

“I’m probably 20 years older than my core audience so it was good to recalibrate, and it’s good to see the plan coming together and PiPFest selling out.”

PiPFest 2024 was headed by Stormzy, Massive Attack, Tom Odell and L’Impératrice. Past acts have included The 1975, Alt-J, Jamie xx, Jungle, New Order, Grace Jones, The Specials and Solange.

The festival team was also recently honoured with the Golden Pencil award for best design profile by Norway’s Kreativ Forum. The award celebrates the Norwegian advertising industry.

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AEG Presents is expanding to Norway with a new Oslo office led by Friction and Atomic Soul Booking founder Peer Osmundsvaag.

Osmundsvaag, who brings 35 years of live entertainment and event promotion experience to the company, was a founding partner of All Things Live, serving a five-year-stint with the Nordic live entertainment giant prior to returning to independence in 2024.

He will take on his new role from 1 March and will report to AEG president and CEO of Europe and Asia-Pacific Adam Wilkes.

“Having been lucky enough to work as AEG’s partner since 2006, I’ve come to see them as family—an inspirational and like-minded partner who have played a pivotal role in my career,” says Osmundsvaag, “After nearly two decades it feels both natural and exhilarating to engage on this new chapter together. I look forward to assembling the very best team of people I’ve encountered in my 25 years in promoting, blending seasoned expertise with fresh energy to create a dynamic, experienced and energetic team to take on the future together.”

“Peer brings a wealth of unparalleled experience to this new position and regional office”

Osmundsvaag began his career in 1989 as a DJ and party promoter, before switching to concert promotion and founding Atomic Soul in Norway in 2001. While at Atomic Soul, he worked with international acts as Eminem, Prince, Robbie Williams, Justin Bieber, Rammstein, Lana Del Rey, Jerry Seinfeld, 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, David Guetta, Swedish House Mafia, Aviici, Sam Smith and Jamie XX, among others.

“Peer brings a wealth of unparalleled experience to this new position and regional office,” adds Wilkes. “As AEG Presents continues to focus on global expansion at such an exciting time for live music and events, this marks an important next step for our European business. Having Peer on board to further build our company presence in Scandinavia enables us to better serve artists and audiences across the region. I’m excited for what’s to come.”

In 2007, Osmundsvaag co-founded and co-booked Norway’s Hove Festival in addition to booking club Quart in the late 90s. He also founded Oslo’s inner-city festival Piknik i Parken (PiPFest) in 2014, and in 2017 was awarded Oslo’s Culture Prize by the city’s mayor for contributions in establishing Oslo as one of the world’s leading concert cities.

He oversaw the two largest ticketed live music events in Norway’s history – Eminem at Oslo’s Voldslokka, which drew 55,000 people in 2018, and Rammstein, who pulled 60,000 fans to Bjerke Travbane horse track in 2022.

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Friction and Atomic Soul Booking founder Peer Osmundsvaag has gone solo following a five-year stint with Nordic live entertainment giant All Things Live (ATL).

The Norway-based promoter’s businesses were among six Scandinavian companies united by Netherlands-based multinational investment firm Waterland Private Equity to form ATL, which launched in 2019. ATL also acquired one of Norway’s largest independent festival organisers, HES, last year.

“I’ve had a great five years with the fantastic team at All Things Live and have many fond memories, but the restless soul in me felt it was time for new adventures,” Osmundsvaag tells IQ.

Osmundsvaag has brought acts such as Eminem, Bon Jovi, Prince, Robbie Williams, Leonard Cohen, Andrea Bocelli, Justin Bieber, Michael Buble, Bruno Mars, Rammstein, Green Day, Lana Del Rey and Ellie Goulding to Norway.

In the wake of his departure from ATL, he plans to focus on his own festival, Oslo’s Piknik i Parken (Picnic in the Park) – aka PiPFest – which he founded in 2014. PipFest’s most recent edition took place last month, headed by Stormzy, Massive Attack, Tom Odell and L’Impératrice.

“I’m looking forward to getting my hands dirty, getting back in the trenches and focusing on developing the festival,” says Osmundsvaag. “It’s an inner-city event based on the total experience rather than being purely headliner-driven and we’ve seen lovely, organic growth, which took us by surprise.

“We had a 30% increase from 2023 to this year and a record turnout. It’s 8,000-cap at the moment, but we’re going to expand to a third stage for next year, which will bring it up to 12,000.”

“AURORA has been on our wish list for many years, so we’re very happy to finally got that locked in early”

PiPFest has announced Norwegian superstar AURORA as its first headliner for 2025, which will be held at Sofienbergparken from 12-14 June. Early bird three-day passes priced NOK1,560 (€136) have already sold out. Full price admission will cost NOK2,600, with day tickets available for NOK1,300.

“AURORA has been on our wish list for many years, so we’re very happy to finally got that locked in early,” says Osmundsvaag. “The only show she will be doing in eastern Norway next year will be with us. We only have eight or nine artists per day, which makes it fun but harder to programme as every act has to count.”

The veteran promoter, who was also booker and co-founder of Norway’s Hove Festival, oversaw the two largest ticketed live music events in Norway’s history – Eminem at Oslo’s Voldslokka, which drew 55,000 people in 2018, and Rammstein, who pulled 60,000 fans to Bjerke Travbane horse track in 2022. In 2017, he was awarded the culture prize by the Major of Oslo for “helping to put Oslo on the map as one of the world’s best concert cities”.

Osmundsvaag moved into clubs and ticketed events after starting out as a DJ and free party organiser in Cheltenham, UK in the 80s. Working with rave music promoter Fantazia, he sold 120,000 copies of Fantazia Club Classics as ‘DJ Peer’.

He later toured with British pop group D-Ream as their DJ in 1993/94 before moving back to his native Norway. Following spells as booker for Quart Festival and running clubs in Oslo in the late 90s, he switched to concert promotion and started Atomic Soul in 2001.

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Oslo’s new city council has revealed it plans to invest millions to upgrade an outdoor concert venue in a bid to entice leading international touring artists to Norway.

The Norwegian capital’s Bjerke Travbane racetrack welcomed a 60,000-cap show by Rammstein in July 2022, and the authority is setting aside NOK 5.3 million (€449,400) in next month’s revised budget for improvements to the site, with a target completion date of summer 2025.

VG reports that politicians were compelled to act after Stockholm’s Friends Arena in neighbouring Sweden was selected to host the three Scandinavian dates on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, and decided that enhancing an existing venue would provide a fast and cost-effective option.

“For us, it has been important to get this in place, and quickly, because the city needs it,” says Hallstein Bjerck, city councillor for finance. “We will not stand by and watch Taylor Swift go to Stockholm, and not to Oslo.”

Bjerke Travbane general manager Hilde Apneseth says it would also be possible to stage concerts on a smaller scale at the outdoor venue, perhaps of around 30,000-capacity.

“We hope that there will be concerts several times during the year, especially in the period from mid-June to mid-August,” she adds.

“It will still be a big challenge to get Coldplay, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and so on to say ‘yes’ even though we have Bjerke”

The move has been backed by All Things Live Norway‘s Peer Osmundsvaag, who says: “This will avoid many one-off costs, so you can lower the threshold. There are several Norwegian bands that can sell 20,000 tickets here. If you manage to do this, you can perhaps get between six and 10 concerts during a season.”

However, Live Nation Norway general manager Martin Nielsen sounds a note of caution, warning that many of the biggest acts will still prefer to play stadiums, both for financial and production reasons.

“It will still be a big challenge to get Coldplay, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and so on to say ‘yes’ even though we have Bjerke,” he tells VG. “In a stadium, you can operate with several price ranges, preferably seven or eight different ones, and then sell the best seats at a higher price.

“In a flat area like Bjerke, you can at best have one slightly more expensive ‘golden circle’ near the stage, while the other tens of thousands become standing room with the same price for everyone. If you only have two ticket price levels, it will obviously be much more difficult to maximise income.”

Despite bringing Bruce Springsteen to Oslo for two nights last summer to 50,000-cap greenfield site Voldslokka, Nielsen warned in IQ‘s 2023 Global Promoters Report that a dearth of suitable venues for the largest productions was a major obstacle.

“A key issue is that we don’t have a big stadium in Norway,” he said. “A lot of the tours are built for stadiums, and they don’t want to play [in Norway] unless it’s a stadium.”

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