Emblematic Finnish music festival sold to Superstruct in crossborder deal

Flow Festival, the leading Nordic urban festival, sold a stake to Superstruct Entertainment, a portfolio company of Providence Equity Partners.

Flow Festival, established in 2004, was attended by 84,000 concert-goers in 2018. The festival is held annually on the second weekend August on the unique post-industrial Suvilahti site in central Helsinki.

Superstruct Entertainment, led by CEO James Barton, is a live entertainment platform that owns and operates festivals and live music events including Sziget, Sónar, Elrow, Øya, and various others. The company is backed by US private equity firm Providence Equity Partners, which has USD 58 billion in assets under management. The acquisition will ensure that Flow is able to further improve the existing event and simultaneously collaborate with a chain of quality events.

With this transaction, Clairfield becomes the leading financial advisor in live music festival M&A in the Nordic region. Earlier in 2018, Clairfield advised Øyafestivalen in Norway on its sale, also to Superstruct.

Clairfield International acted as exclusive financial advisor to the owners of Flow Festival.

Deal team: Niko Piiparinen