Michal Thomes, head of Rock for People: We don’t want to do a one-genre festival

How many generations of spectators have already changed at your festival?

I think the third generation has arrived on it in recent years. Visitors my children’s age are starting to bring their children with them.

Do you take this into account when preparing the program?

We keep this in mind all the time. It is absolutely clear to me that I myself can no longer invent a program for someone who is two generations younger. That’s why I surrounded myself with young people who are closer to the current music scene. I take into account their musical opinions and tips. At the same time, I basically do not use the right of veto, which I basically have during the preparation of the program.

Interestingly, Rock for People did not succumb to the new mainstream, which is hip hop. Is it intentional?

It’s not, we don’t oppose hip hop in the program. But we don’t want to do a one-genre festival. For me personally, last year, for example, the performance of the Czech rapper MC Gay was one of the best at the festival. He represents a genre that I have reservations about because of the poses or the repetition, yet he was a revelation for me in the best sense of the word. I like it when there’s an overlap or a shift in one style, and he lived up to that.

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American Machine Gun Kelly, who was one of the main stars of the festival last year, is also in hip hop. But many visitors criticized him for his alleged arrogance that accompanied his set. How do you react to such things?

The Rock for People audience is generally very tolerant. However, it is true that it split into two halves after the Machine Gun Kelly concert. One was excited, the other slightly disappointed. I saw the concert and became one of the few representatives of the neutral zone.

He didn’t offend me, I didn’t really notice the arrogance, and once I registered it, I understood it as part of the show. The whole thing remained on social networks and in discussions among the participants of the festival.

In 2000, the American Bloodhound Gang played at Rock for People. At that time they were snarling, they were the main star of the year, but they were incredibly arrogant on and off stage. I saw it as contempt for our audience, they behaved as if they had arrived somewhere in the forest. At the time, it bothered me that we took them to the festival. If they did a reunion today, I probably wouldn’t want them anymore. On the other hand, I’ll gladly take Machine Gun Kelly again.

Years ago, there was a poll at Rock for People about who the visitors would like to see. American bands from the 1990s won. Would a new poll turn out the same?

We ask our fans in a survey every year, because we care about their opinion. Generally speaking, today’s biggest rock stars have their roots in the nineties.

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On the contrary, there is a great lack of modern stars, because many of them have not yet grown into that form. However, we have a modern star in this year’s program. It is the British band Bring Me The Horizon, which is a recent winner of the Brit Awards. I am sure that he is among the global stars in terms of his importance, production and creation.

This year’s Rock for People will last four days, which meant you could get at least four world-class program draws. Wouldn’t it be easier to pull off the event within two days and have it full of big names?

A classic of the last years of Rock for People is that we start planning a three-day festival and end up with four days. Along the way, we usually have the opportunity to have someone interesting, but who has a free date outside of the three days we have planned. And so we simply add one to the program.

For me personally, visiting another four-day festival would probably be too long. I admit that three days is optimal, although I am no longer a typical visitor to my festival. However, we do not encounter resentment from our fans, on the contrary. Four days of great music is more interesting than three.

Who caused the extension of the program to four days this year?

We wanted to make the first day more modest, actually only half a day. But once the opportunity came to have The Prodigy, Bad Omens and Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor with a solo project, a fourth regular festival day was born.

Last year was a successful year. It was sold out, people praised the program. Was it hard not to disappoint them this year?

Yes it was. After covid, absolutely everyone wanted to play concerts, and in 2022, summer festivals all over the world were packed with big and interesting names. It worked everywhere and everyone followed it up in 2023 in euphoria.

But the year 2024 came and it turned out that not so many big names will go to festivals, because many artists started to realize their other plans, including recording records or resting. As a result, there was a battle between the organizers for program draws.

I already heard that we have a savings program this year. But I reject that with great vehemence, because the budget is the same as it was last year. We don’t just have two very expensive bands, which were Slipknot and Muse last year, but a larger number of quite expensive artists. I have in mind The Prodigy, Parkway Drive, Sum 41, Avril Lavigne, Yungbluda or Pendulum.

This year, according to the sales trends, we again aspire to the biggest year, some categories or Friday tickets are already sold out.

What will surprise the audience at the festival?

The second big scene. The company T-Servis purchased the largest stage in the Czech Republic and it will premiere at Rock for People. It will be a B stage and many big bands will be there. It happened to us that in past years some did not want to play on the B stage precisely because of its smaller dimensions.

We are again borrowing the main stage from Germany. Her name is Fat Lady and she is truly monstrous. It is one of the biggest scenes that can be found in Europe. At the same time, only three are available. I dare to say that no other Czech festival has such a big stage.

Last year, food prices were heavily criticized. Sometimes a portion cost more than two hundred crowns. Will it be the same this year?

At the festival, every product that one buys is more expensive simply because the ingredients have to be brought to it and the food is prepared in unusual conditions. The labor force that takes care of the food is also expensive. They are paid extra for, for example, sleeping in a tent, not having the usual hygienic facilities, etc. All of this increases prices.

But we try to keep them within normal limits. We even recommend them to the stallholders, because we don’t want to be a festival where the food prices go beyond the unbearable limit. We don’t want them to be like in a better Prague restaurant. However, despite our recommendations, the final prices of refreshments are up to the sellers themselves.

Is there a performer you would like to see at the festival someday?

It would be my pleasure if we could welcome Red Hot Chili Peppers or System of A Down. These are two big goals for me. If you asked me the same question in 2015, I would have given the same answer, but I would have considered it almost science fiction.

After we had Green Day, Slipknot or Muse at Rock for People, which carried a demanding organization with many trucks, dozens of buses and teams of more than a hundred people, it is no longer so unrealistic.

But the second thing is their availability. We are a festival in a small country, and the financial offers these bands receive from organizers from economically stronger countries are difficult for us to match. Maybe one day it will work out.

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