Live music bounces back in France in 2H 2016

While Prodiss has yet to publish its annual attendance figures for 2016, the president of the French promoters’ association has said the concert market returned to health in the second half of the year after a difficult first six months.

Using data gleaned from France’s tax on concert tickets – which increased to a record €33 million last year, helped in no small part by the reopening of Paris’s 20,300-cap. AccorHotels Arena (pictured) – Luc Gaurichon says the live music sector bounced back from July, after losing an estimated €100–130m in value from January to June.

“The impact of the attacks [on the Bataclan and Stade de France] was felt very violently on concert attendance until June 2016,” Gaurihcon told delegates at a Prodiss conference earlier this month, reports Le Monde, “[but concertgoers] returned in the second half of the year.”

“The impact of the attacks was felt very violently on concert attendance until June 2016”

IQ previously reported that music festival attendance remained throughout 2016, with the 30 biggest French festivals recording their highest ticket sales for five years. Live Nation France’s head of festivals, Armel Campagna, suggested last June that simply going to shows has become an act of ‘cultural resistance’: “If we stop, they [the terrorists] win,” he said. “Sometimes I think we don’t realise how important these events are.”

Despite the reassuring figures, there are lingering concerns as to the status of the ~€7m Emergency Fund for Live Entertainment, introduced after the attacks last year and praised by culture minister Audrey Azoulay as being a key factor in the strength of the festival market.

“There is no guarantee of its renewal in 2017,” commented Rock en Seine founder François Missonier. An Emergency Fund committee will meet to discuss its future on 27 April.

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