photo_cameraJan Mortelmans aka Yamo DJ
Festivals
Belgian Festival Rethinks Booking Strategy Amid Rising DJ Fees
Belgian electronic music festival Ostend Beach is rethinking its booking strategy for 2027 as rapidly rising DJ fees put increasing pressure on the economics of mid-sized festivals.
Jan Mortelmans, CEO and booker at Ostend Beach, has used a series of LinkedIn posts to highlight what he sees as a widening gap between artist fees and the commercial value some high-demand DJs can generate for festivals.
Mortelmans is also active as a DJ himself under the name DJ Yamo, giving him experience on both the booking and artist sides of the electronic music market.
In his latest post, Mortelmans said fees at the top end of the electronic music market are now reaching €200,000, €300,000 and in some cases even higher for DJs currently experiencing strong demand.
“For most festivals, those numbers simply don’t make sense anymore,” he wrote.
Mortelmans said he understands why the largest festivals continue to pay such fees, comparing the current position of top DJs with the headline rock acts that previously commanded the biggest festival budgets.
“They used to pay those fees for the biggest rock bands. Today, DJs are the new rockstars,” he said.
However, he argued that the situation creates a different challenge for mid-sized festivals such as Ostend Beach. In an earlier post, Mortelmans said promoters, stage hosts and audiences are increasingly focused on the same relatively small group of high-demand names, contributing to further pressure on fees.
He also questioned whether some of those bookings deliver enough additional ticket sales to justify their cost.
“Paying €100K, €150K or €200K for an artist who doesn’t generate anything close to that value in additional ticket sales is not a sustainable booking strategy,” Mortelmans wrote.
For its 2027 edition, Ostend Beach plans to put greater emphasis on curation, Belgian talent, emerging artists and acts the festival believes could develop into future headliners, while continuing to pursue selected established and high-profile names.
“The right artist, on the right stage, at the right moment,” Mortelmans said, adding that the aim is not to abandon headliners but to make individual bookings more commercially and artistically relevant.
He also argued that festival identity is becoming increasingly important as competition for the same group of artists intensifies.
“Having your own identity, your own crowd and your own musical DNA is probably worth more today than having the same 10 hype names as everybody else,” he wrote.
Ostend Beach was founded by Mortelmans and Kevin Beirens in 2010 and has developed into an established electronic music festival on the Belgian coast. In 2023, international live entertainment group All Things Live acquired a majority stake in the event, while Mortelmans and Beirens retained minority holdings and continued their involvement in the festival.
Mortelmans said the 2027 booking process would still include major and established artists, but with a stronger focus on balancing those names with emerging talent and bookings that fit the festival’s identity.
“No revolution. Just better choices,” he wrote.