— The biggest challenge has definitely been to find back to the right festival “mindset”, says Way Out West’s press officer Filip Hiltman.
He says that the pandemic break since 2019 has meant a lot of statements along the lines of: “that’s it, that’s how it was done”.
The last time Way Out West was staged in Slottsskogen, the festival announced that it would be difficult to grow due to the venue’s limited space, but in 2022 the audience record was still broken.
“It is always possible to make small adjustments here and there to increase capacity,” says Filip Hiltman.
— This year’s audience record is set for the number of unique visitors, and such is not as dependent on space.
Too many bands
TT: Has it been a challenge to accommodate all the bands and artists with previous and new bookings?
— It has rather been a challenge to sift through who we want to book. There’s so much great music out there, and during the pandemic years we’ve collected a bunch of acts that we’ve thought we’d like to have in Slottsskogen. In the end, of course, it comes down to who is available, but the list of intended acts has been perhaps three times as long as usual. A bunch that we didn’t get to this year, we can hopefully get to next time.
TT: Do you have any highlights during this year’s festival?
— Nick Cave was just as expected an experience out of the ordinary, Burna Boy really gave it his all and Fred again probably offered the festival’s absolute wildest performance. Among the smaller acts, Ty Segall, Sons of Kemet and Leila K were three gigs that have been talked about a lot. But the biggest highlight for us has to be the atmosphere. People have been so happy, it has been incredible to see, answers Filip Hiltman.
Quiet weekend
The organizer says that the weekend was quiet. The police announce that they had a lot to do because of the beautiful weather but that nothing remarkable happened in connection with the festival. After Saturday night, the police were able to report one arrest for drunkenness, two for drug possession and two reports of sexual assault inside the festival area. Additional registrations may come in later.