Production titans line up for IPM’s 15th anniversary
Phay Mac Mahon, Bonnie May, Okan Tombulca, Padraic Boran and Lina Ugrinovska are among the production titans slated for the 15th-anniversary edition of the ILMC Production Meeting (IPM).
Taking place the day before ILMC (International Live Music Conference), IPM will return to an in-person format in 2022 with its biggest and best programme yet.
This year’s edition will feature a series of key production group and trade association partnerships, as well as a second programming tranche by the Event Safety & Security Summit (E3S).
“We are very excited to see our international delegates making time in their busy schedule to come back together in person,” says IPM & E3S producer Sytske Kamstra. “It’s an important day for everyone, filled with very relevant and urgent topics, a wealth of expertise on the panels and in the rooms. We can’t wait.”
IPM’s speaker line-up is led by Phay Mac Mahon, one of the go-to production managers in the international touring business and the recipient of IQ Magazine’s 2022 Gaffer Award.
“It’s an important day for everyone, filled with relevant and urgent topics, a wealth of expertise on the panels and in the rooms”
Since launching his career in the 70s, Phay has worked with household names including Bob Geldof and The Boomtown Rats, Def Leppard, The Pretenders, Adam Ant, Paul Young, Moody Blues, Whitesnake, Aerosmith and many more. He was also a sought-after lighting designer until the 1990s, working with the likes of Shakira, West Life, Meat Loaf, Janet Jackson, Ricky Martin and Nicki Minaj.
Also joining IPM is Bonnie May, CEO of Global Infusion Group, which delivers world-class events and brand logistic support to lavish private events, royal weddings, governmental summits, international automotive roadshows, world expos and major sporting events worldwide, including the Olympics since 2012.
She’ll be speaking with veteran show director and stage manager Asthie Wendra, about the industry’s response to the perfect storm created by Covid and Brexit in part one of this year’s Mega Panel.
Okan Tombulca is CEO of eps holding gmbh – a globally respected event infrastructure powerhouse, which now operates in 10 subsidiaries across Europe, Australia, and North and South America.
Tombulca will be joined by Phay Mac Mahon to continue the discussion around Covid and Brexit in part two of the Perfect Storm Mega Panel.
IPM’s speaker line-up is led by Phay Mac Mahon, one of the go-to production managers in the international touring business
Lina Ugrinovska is founder and CEO of Banana & Salt and one of the best-known booking agents in the Balkans. Considered among the new generation of highly influential people in the industry, she’ll be joined by NoNonsense Group director Liz Madden and Britannia Row Productions director Bryan Grant for a panel exploring the relationship between the live industry’s old guard and its young, up and coming executive talent.
MCD Productions’ Padraic Boran is well-known in the event industry, with over 30 years’ experience as a project manager, site co-ordinator and event controller for major entertainment, sporting and public events in both Ireland and abroad.
He’ll be hosting a panel on The Power Of Energy, which will consider what energy will look like in the future and how it will affect events. It will look at renewable power and immediate problems around availability, practicality and expense.
Meanwhile, E3S sessions will run throughout the day, including a Crowd Management Tabletop created and delivered by the Yourope Event Safety Group (YES) & Mind Over Matter Consultancy (MOM), a ‘Crowd Communication and Behaviours’ panel, and a discussion around ‘Rethinking Risk And Building Resilience in Event Operations’ – both in association with EAA, UKCMA and the Global Crowd Management Alliance.
This year’s E3S programme will bring together leaders in the sector from all over the world such as Žalgirio Arena event manager Mantas Vedrickas, select security & stewarding at UKCMA & GCMA Anne Marie Chebib and head of arena experience at The SSE Arena, Belfast, Claire Cosgrave.
Also joining is chief inspector & specialist tactical firearms commander at MOM, Pete Dalton at head of production festivals at Gadget abc Entertainment Group AG Andy Mestka and venue manager at Forest National, Coralie Berael.
More information can be found at https://ipm.live/.
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Kharkiv Music Fest takes place in bomb shelter
A string quintet performed to hundreds of residents taking shelter in an underground train station to mark what would have been the first day of Kharkiv Music Fest.
Despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the organisers of the annual international classical music festival were determined to bring a slice of the festival to Ukraine’s second-largest city.
The five musicians delivered a ‘concert between explosions’ – as it was dubbed on social media – opening with the Ukrainian national anthem, then playing works by Bach and Dvořák, alongside arrangements of Ukrainian folk songs.
The conductor and artistic director of the Kharkiv festival, Vitali Alekseenok, explained that the chosen music was programmed to highlight the connections between Ukrainian and Western European culture.
“Music can unite,” Alekseenok told The Washington Post. “It’s important now for those who stay in Kharkiv to be united.”
“Music can unite”
Music teacher and violinist Olha Pyshchyta said that performing in the subway sparked a range of emotions, after a month of war.
She said she was angry and tired “but at the concert … we felt unity”. “I, like all Ukrainians, are waiting for victory,” Pyshchyta said.
Fellow violinist Stanislav Kucherenko told The Post that the concert was unlike any other he’d played: “There was at no stage the excitement that usually happens when performing for people but I knew that I was where I should be.”
Kucherenko said music can have a “strong influence on the psycho-emotional state of a person and in the conditions of war it can inspire faith and optimism”.
Kharkiv Music Fest would’ve taken place in the grand hall of the Kharkiv Philharmonic on Saturday 26 March.
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Moscow’s Park Live festival decimated by cancellations
Moscow’s Park Live festival has been called off following a raft of cancellations from international acts.
Placebo, My Chemical Romance, Slipknot, Biffy Clyro, Iggy Pop, Deftones, Royal Blood and The Killers have all pulled out of the festival in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
With only a handful of acts left on the bill, the annual international music festival will no longer take place at Luzhniki Olympic Complex in June and July.
“Y’all already understood that Park Live festival won’t be happening this year,” reads a statement from the organisers, posted on Facebook. “The picture of current circumstances does not provide the opportunity to fit our [festival] into it for legal, logistic, or for simple human reasons.”
“The picture of current circumstances does not provide the opportunity to fit our [festival] into it”
Park Live was launched in 2013 by Moscow-headquartered promoter Melnitsa Concert Agency, with the aim of bringing international artists to Russia.
The promoter, which also has offices in Kyiv, Minsk and Tbilisi, is considered one of the leading live music organisers of international and domestic acts in the ex-USSR territory.
Alongside Park Live, the company’s stable of festivals includes UPark in Kyiv, Ukraine, which has also been called off due to the conflict.
As more events are called off in Russia, the country’s live music association is proposing a moratorium on ticket refunds to prevent “the collapse of the industry”.
Other acts that have cancelled performances in Russia include Green Day, Imagine Dragons, Louis Tomlinson, Yungblud, Franz Ferdinand, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and Bring Me the Horizon.
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Russians Against War concert raises £50k
A benefit concert spearheaded by Russia’s most popular rapper has raised £50,000 for Ukrainian refugees impacted by the war.
The Russians Against War show, led by Oxxxymiron, took place last Thursday (24 March) at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London with a sold-out crowd.
The concert saw the Paradigm-repped artist deliver his first London show in six years, as well as a surprise appearance from Russian rock icon Boris Grebenshikov.
Oxxxymiron’s rare UK performance comes after he cancelled six sold-out arena shows in Moscow in protest of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The rapper initially launched the Russians Against War concert in Istanbul, Turkey, in mid-March. Both charity shows were livestreamed on Twitch, YouTube and Instagram in the hope that people in Russia would watch and donate.
“It is times like these that remind me why I and many of us got into music and the power it holds”
Mike Malak, Oxxxymiron’s agent at Paradigm Talent, says: “It was vital to both myself and [Live Nation promoter James Ponnusamy] to put this show on and unify people against war and allow an incredible artist to use his platform. It is times like these that remind me why I and many of us got into music and the power it holds.
“To see so many people of different ages and backgrounds come together and raise an incredible amount of money for an important cause makes it all worth it. Combining the live experience with livestreaming meant we could not only raise money but also an awareness that this is a war nobody wants to see nor supports.”
Ponnusamy adds: “Nights like last Thursday are an incredible reminder of the strength of music and how it brings people together for the greater good. Thank you to ticket holders and the livestream audience who helped raise awareness and show their generosity and support. All donations received will help those in Ukraine impacted by the war.”
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OVG plans $3bn ents district in Las Vegas
Oak View Group (OVG) is planning a 25-acre entertainment district in Las Vegas, costing an estimated US$3 billion.
According to the global sports and entertainment company, the district will feature a 20,000-seat arena for live music and sports, a casino, a hotel, and an additional entertainment venue amphitheatre.
The 25 acres is located on 66.5 acres of land near the intersection of two major freeways, I-15 and I-215, adjacent to the planned Brightline high-speed rail station.
The site will boast direct and easy access to and from I-15 and Las Vegas Boulevard and streets such as Blue Diamond, Warm Springs, and Dean Martin. The Las Vegas Strip resorts and the airport are a 10-minute drive.
With a focus on the prioritisation of technology, sustainability, and green initiative, the groundbreaking and construction for the district and arena will commence in 2023.
“South of the Las Vegas strip represents one of the few areas of potential future growth of the gaming and entertainment corridor,” says Tim Leiweke, CEO of Oak View Group.
“We will usher in the evolution of Las Vegas as the new entertainment and sports capital of the world”
“This unprecedented project is an industry game-changer, and we will usher in the evolution of Las Vegas as the new entertainment and sports capital of the world. As the largest arena developer in the world, we look forward to driving good paying job creation to Clark County as well as creating the most innovative and environmentally sustainable live entertainment point of destination in the world.”
Irving Azoff, co-founder of OVG, adds: “It doesn’t get much bigger or better than Las Vegas. From the world-class Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle to UBS Arena in New York, and Moody Center in Austin, Las Vegas will be the next jewel in the OVG crown.”
Veteran sports industry executive and former president of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders, Marc Badain, has partnered with OVG to spearhead and consult on the new project along with the president of business development, Francesca Bodie, who will oversee business transactions and operations.
Badain comments: “In the time I have spent in Las Vegas, I have been overwhelmed by both the entrepreneurial spirit and the willingness of its residents and leaders to embrace the innovation and vision that guides its future. This project represents the next step in that exciting evolution. It is an honour to be a part of it and to help deliver on the vision provided by Oak View Group.”
Designed by global industry-leading architecture firms Gensler and Populous, the state-of-the-art privately financed sports and entertainment arena will set a new global standard for events in Las Vegas and represent OVG’s biggest project to date. In addition to Gensler and Populous, the project development will be led by Steve Collins, OVG’s president of global venue development and special projects.
OVG oversees the operations of Climate Pledge Arena at Seattle Center and UBS Arena in Belmont Park, NY. The company’s arena development projects include Moody Center in Austin (Texas), Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs (California) and Co-op Live in Manchester (UK) among others.
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Love Supreme team details new UK festival
The team behind Love Supreme, the biggest outdoor jazz festival in Europe, has detailed the inaugural edition of its festival, Kite.
The three-day live music and ideas event is scheduled to take place on the grounds of a stately home near Oxford, UK, this summer.
Grace Jones, Tom Misch, TLC, Mavis Staples, Self Esteem, and Black Country, New Road are slated to headline the music programme.
The idea programme features the likes of Ai Weiwei, Russell Tovey, Jon Ronson, David Miliband, Bimini, Armando Iannucci, David Olusoga, Delia Smith and Jarvis Cocker.
The festival will host a combination of live music, comedy and educational talks and workshops, with a main stage featuring headline artists and a second stage showcasing more experimental acts. The Big Top Tent and the Bookshop stages will see pop-up performances, with emerging artists performing on the Bandstand. The ThinkIn Village area will provide a space for discussion.
Grace Jones, Tom Misch, TLC, Mavis Staples, Self Esteem and Black Country, New Road are slated to headline
Kite is a joint venture between U-Live – in which Chinese entertainment giant recently acquired a stake – and Neapolitan Music, who together promote Love Supreme, as well as Tortoise Media, the brainchild of former BBC new director James Jarding and ex-Wall Street Journal and Down Jones president Katie Vanneck-Smith.
The festival is launching off the back of a 2020 Kickstarter campaign, which saw 238 backers pledge a total of £38,386 to bring the event to life.
The backers (aka ‘festival founders’) will gain access to the best ticket prices for all future Kite festivals, as well as special experiences and exclusive goodies.
The inaugural festival was due to launch last year but was postponed due to the pandemic.
Kite Festival is taking place from 10 to 12 June in Kirtlington Park, Oxford, in the south east of the UK. More information can be found on the festival website.
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Pukkelpop launches new festival for indie lovers
Pukkelpop, one of Belgium’s marquee festivals, has planned a new one-day event for fans of indie and alternative music.
Hear Hear! festival will take place in the Kiewit festival arena in Hasselt, Belgium, on Sunday 14 August.
Editors, Pixies, Liam Gallagher, Future Islands, Wolf Alice and Anna Calvi are among the acts booked for the inaugural event.
“Pukkelpop focuses on what is going on among young people, and in recent years that has mainly been hip-hop,” says spokesperson, Frederik Luyten. “As a result, rock and indie have faded into the background. We’ve been thinking about giving those genres a little more attention for a few years now. Now is the perfect time for that, especially because you see young bands reviving the guitar.”
Squid, Porridge Radio, Balthazar, Battles and Bill Nomates are also due to perform on one of the festival’s four stages.
“We’ve been thinking about giving those genres a little more attention for a few years now”
Hear Hear! is scheduled for the week before Pukkelpop, which also takes place in the Kiewit festival arena.
The 66,000-cap. flagship festival is due to take place for the first time in two years due to pandemic-related cancellations.
Arctic Monkeys, Tame Impala, Slipknot and Bring Me The Horizon are slated to perform across the four-day event, running between 18–21 August.
In the past, Pukkelpop has tried several times to start an extra festival in addition to its flagship event.
Previous events run by Pukkelpop include Polsslag, Rimpelrock and the Summer Swing family festival.
Since 2018, Pukkelpop has also been organising techno and house festival Garnizoen.
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The new wave of marketing innovation
As a new wave of privacy regulations makes consumer targeting much less efficient than before, here, Berlin-based events and digital services solution Future Demand explains why interest-centric marketing is the future – and promoters can take full advantage…
The last 10 years in digital marketing were driven by ever-improving targeting options. Lookalike audiences and retargeting enabled a super-fast, convenient, and easy way of making sure ads were seen by the right people. On the other hand, the data-driven ad-tech industry did very little to help marketeers create better copy and content.
Driven by a new wave of privacy regulations (from GDPR to Apple’s ATT) promoters now see a substantial decrease in the effectiveness of their targeting options. Now, they’re starting to regret spending 10 years improving only 50% of what drives campaign efficacy (user targeting) and ignoring the other 50% (content).
It’s time to have a look at why content is more important than ever before.
Content is the future
Marketing used to be essentially people-focused. The ad-tech industry measured and tracked individuals and tried to understand them. For many industries this worked great, much better than anything before. It worked so well, in fact, that whole industries were built on it. The D2C trend around companies like Dollar Shave Club or Casper was fuelled by direct response ads on Facebook through lookalike audiences and retargeting campaigns.
Against the backdrop of expanding privacy regulations, the future now points to the centralisation of a few big platforms. Platforms big enough to own enough in-platform user data (think Amazon, or gaming giants like Epic Games) will be able to serve ads and convert users directly within their platforms. Eric Seufert summarised the development by the term “content fortresses”.
However, the way the industry is currently set up, this isn’t a tenable solution for promoters (and many other companies) as they lack the content usage of users to gain enough insights into people’s interests and serve targeted ads.
So, what about promoters?
For promoters, targeting has always been more difficult because taste in music is much harder to grasp and describe. A concert is in most cases a one-time happening, making it near impossible to have enough time, iteration cycles and budget to get into the sweet spot of the advertising feedback loop. Promoters, therefore, reverted to traditional segmentation methods, relying on socio-demographic data to cluster audiences and fans. Unfortunately, this works even less.
Note the famous example of Prince Charles and Ozzy Osbourne. Both are born in the same year, have a comparable income, can be located to London, and have the same gender. But their music tastes may be completely different indeed. Traditional segmentation features like age, gender, postcode etc. do little to help you decide who to target for a specific show or event.
What’s next?
Netflix was one of the first to focus only on people’s interests to better describe the diversity in their user base. Like Netflix users, concert-goers can be interested in a symphony concert with a famous French female violinist but also in the next upcoming metal wunderkind playing his or her first gig in the small club next door. The obvious answer for promoters is to design systems that only focus on interest and to cluster based on fans’ interests. The powerful ad networks of today enable targeting those interests.
Knowing why people buy tickets gives promoters an edge over big platforms. As they get more independent from ticketing and ad platforms, switching between them becomes easier. If you know why people are interested and what message they need to see to purchase a ticket or subscribe to an offer, you can decide on which platform to focus on.
What to do about it?
Marketeers must shift their focus towards understanding interests. It enables better targeting and the possibility to match creative content to targeting criteria – all automatically. It increases independence and enhances the speed at which promoters can adopt new and upcoming platforms.
Interest centric marketing will be one of the most important strategic levers for marketeers who do not own a content fortress. Many industries need to speed up their efforts to catch up and rework their whole ad-tech stack. Promoters can now finally leverage their past disadvantage (very, very diverse content) into a powerful advantage. The more diverse the content, the better the understanding of fans tastes and interests.
Learn more about interest-centric marketing here.
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Concert for Ukraine raises £12m+ for war relief
Last night’s (29 March) Concert For Ukraine fundraiser in Birmingham raised £12.2 million for the humanitarian relief effort in the country.
Stars including Ed Sheeran, Camila Cabello and Emeli Sande took to the stage at Birmingham’s Resorts World Arena for the televised event.
Anne Marie, Snow Patrol, Manic Street Preachers, Nile Rodgers and Chic and Gregory Porter also performed and, elsewhere, Ukrainian singer Jamala delivered a rendition of her Eurovision-winning track, 1944.
The two-hour show, held to raise money for the Disasters Emergency Committee’s (DEC) Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal, was expected to raise over £3m.
However, according to ITV, which broadcast the show, over £12m has been raised so far, with the number expected to increase.
As well as millions of pounds of public donations, the broadcasters donated an estimated £3m of advertising revenue
As well as millions of pounds of public donations, the broadcasters donated an estimated £3m of advertising revenue. Another £250,000 was generated by ticket sales.
Alongside ITV, Concert for Ukraine was organised by STV, Livewire Pictures, DEC and media and entertainment group Global.
Elsewhere, a spate of benefit concerts held in Europe over the past week together raised around €20 million for related causes. Sound of Peace, a televised live concert that took place on 20 March in Berlin and raised more than €12m, according to the organisers.
Together with Ukraine, a televised live concert held at the Atlas Arena (cap. 13,000) in Łódź, Poland, organised by promoter Follow the Step, reportedly raised more than €6m.
A pair of events spearheaded by Dutch promoter Alda also raised upwards of €1m for the Romanian Red Cross. We Are One took place at the National Arena in Bucharest, Romania, while Dance For Ukraine was staged at Poland’s Tauron Arena.
Jamala hitting the high notes and showing the love for Ukraine 💙 💛 #ConcertForUkraine
To donate, head to https://t.co/O6jz1ICo8e pic.twitter.com/imKS7OiXYT
— ITV (@ITV) March 29, 2022
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Rotterdam Ahoy’s RTM Stage up and running at last
Rotterdam Ahoy’s 7,819-cap music and entertainment venue RTM Stage is finally up and running after construction was completed during the 2020 lockdown.
The Dutch government announced in March that it was lifting all remaining restrictions on live events following tireless lobbying from the Netherlands’ live music sector.
RTM Stage can also be utilised as a mid-sized 4,000-cap arena in its ‘XL’ variant or as a 2,500-seater, making the venue is the largest theatre-sized venue in the Netherlands. The new concert hall forms part of a new development at the Ahoy that also includes the Rotterdam Ahoy Convention Centre (RACC).
After hosting Miss Montreal, RTM Stage has upcoming concerts by artists including Ghost, 5 Seconds of Summer, Keith Urban, Five Finger Death Punch with special guests Megadeth.
“It was a special time to open a new concert hall, but we are extremely proud of our complete expansion”
“It was a special time to open a new concert hall, but we are extremely proud of our complete expansion,” says Rotterdam Ahoy director Jolanda Jansen. “Everyone who enters RTM Stage is enthusiastic. You notice that people are happy with a new music stage in Rotterdam and in the Netherlands.
“With its different settings, RTM Stage is a unique mid-size arena in the Netherlands where concerts as well as events in theatre setting can take place. This is a concert hall with national and even international reach.
“Ahoy will always remain the sender of RTM Stage’s communications, but we have opted for a special appearance. Everyone should know that we have opened a new, trendy, state-of-the-art music hall and theatre!”
The existing Ahoy Arena (formerly the Sportpaleis), which dates from 1971, has a seated capacity of 16,426.
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