years before was no longer inside a tent but became the third open-air stage instead. The festival sold out at the beginning of May. 2013 saw a record in the sale of tickets during the first stages of release as all 73.000 tickets were already sold by the end of March. Since 2013 Spanish artist Dani Blázquez has created each year a new design for Hurricane. In 2013 it was a pink owl, 2014 a blue wolf, 2015 a green boar, 2016 a red fox, 2017 a green bear, 2018 a purple lynx and in 2019 a green racoon. The stylish animal's eye colour differs from the eye colour used in the designs at Hurricane's sister festival Southside. The design is used: to display on the stage screen when no acts are performing; as the wallpaper for the Hurricane-App and on the internet; as well as in many places around the festival grounds on banners. After the 2014 festival also sold out before the weekend, selling 73.000 Combitickets, 2015 was the first non sell-out in several years with around 65.000 attendees. According to the organisers this was due to the strong competition from other festivals that year and the subsequent weaker headliner line-up (Placebo, Florence + the Machine, Materia). In addition in the same year an elaborate contactless payment system was used on site rather than cash. On 23 February 2016, the event organisers announced that all 73.000 Combitickets for that year's festival had sold out. On the very first day of the festival there was a two-hour disruption due to a thunder storm warning. The event organisers were particularly aware after a lightning strike injured 21 people at the festival Rock am Ring, which was then terminated early. On the second day of the festival the opening of the festival grounds was initially delayed and then later in the evening completely cancelled. During the night of 25 June 2016 along with specialist groups from the THW, Technisches Hilfswerk (a German governmental civil protection group), the fire service and some staff, the organisers of the event drained the land, they pumped water away and distributed straw and gravel. The site was then able to be open as normal on the Sunday. Facts and figures Past lineups (lineups partly differ from Southside) See also List of historic rock festivals References External links The Hurricane Festival's homepage (German) The Hurricane Festival's homepage