CTS Eventim launches new concert business

Marc Oßwald, until recently the sole remaining director of troubled German promoter Koko & DTK Entertainment, has jumped ship for CTS Eventim, where he will head up new subsidiary Vaddi Concerts.

The hiring of Oßwald by Eventim brings to an end the story of Koko, which closed its Constance headquarters in November following the departure of co-founders Dieter Bös and Armin Nissel. At the time, Oßwald was optimistic for the future of Koko, saying it would soon announce the “first top acts” for the 2018 festival season, but confirmed to MusikWoche yesterday the company will soon go into liquidation.

Bremen-based CTS Eventim has started 2017 with a bang, bolstering its presence in Sweden with the hiring of veteran promoter Jay Sietsema to manage its Venuepoint JV with Egmont and establishing a new sponsorship division headed by Live Nation’s former president of Europe, Simon Lewis.

CTS Eventim grew turnover from ticketing 11.6% in quarters one to three of 2016 – its most recently available financial results – but live entertainment revenues fell slightly compared to 2015 (due to what it called a “lower number of major tours” last year). It will be hoping the launch of Vaddi Concerts goes some way to reversing that trend.

“Marc Oßwald’s experience and network will help us to quickly develop Vaddi Concerts into a major force in the south-west German live event scene”

Joining Oßwald as co-managing director of Vaddi will be Frithjof Pils, Eventim’s director of new business. The pair will, says, the company, oversee a “wide-ranging event programme in Baden-Wuerttemberg and the surrounding regions in Bavaria, Austria, Switzerland and France.”

Vaddi Concerts is headquartered in Freiburg and will open a second office in the university town of Tuebingen in September.

“I’m looking forward to the new challenge as a part of the CTS Eventim group,” comments Oßwald. “We will build a strong team which will ultimately benefit the whole region.”

Pils adds: “We are happy to have won, with Marc Oßwald, another outstanding promoter for our activities. His experience and network will help us to quickly develop Vaddi Concerts into a major force in the south-west German live event scene.”

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.