Organisers of Gurten rock festival expect a profit

The British girl band All Saints was one of the highlights at Berne's Gurten Festival Keystone

Despite cold and wet weather dominating this year's Gurten rock festival in Berne, the organisers are optimistic about their revenue. Tens of thousands saw artists like Iggy Pop and the finale with All Saints.

The organisers of this year’s Gurten festival said that all three days, including the final day, were a sell-out.

Music fans were not put off by the mudbath after days of continuous heavy rain.

The organisers said that an average number of 15,000 people had attended each day of the festival.

A spokesman explained: “Without some 7,500 square metres of plastic mats which we laid down on the turf, the festival would have been called off. There so much water here, there’s even a small stream flowing under the main stage.”

It is not yet clear just how badly the grass verges on the Gurten hill outside Berne have been damaged. However, on Monday a landscape architect will be visiting the site to assess the situation.

The three festival days saw such bands such as Moby, the Pet Shop Boys and Iggy Pop strut their stuff.

However, there was also plenty of homegrown talent on view. Michael von der Heide, Florian Ast and Mich Gerber showed Switzerland has plenty of talented artists.

On Sunday, people gathered on the Gurten for the finale to see the British all- girl band All Saints sing some of their repertoire. They were accompanied by another British band, Moloko.

No problems with security were reported.

swissinfo with agencies