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Live Nation loses court case over Oslo park slot

The promoter brought a civil case against Oslo Municipality for awarding All Things Live the concert allocation for Voldsløkka sports park

By IQ on 17 Mar 2022

Oslo Sommertid at Voldsløkka

Oslo Sommertid at Voldsløkka


image © Facebook/Oslo Sommertid

Live Nation Norway has lost the civil case it brought against Oslo Municipality for awarding All Things Live the concert allocation for Voldsløkka sports park.

The Urban Environment Agency’s guidelines, which apply from 2022 onwards, state that the area – mainly used for sports – can only be used for one large music event annually, with a maximum of two concert dates.

In addition, there is a requirement that the main artist must have the potential to sell 40,000 tickets or more.

According to Live Nation Norway, it had presented confirmation documents for renting Voldsløkka in the summer of 2022. But All Things Live, a private equity-backed live entertainment group, was awarded the allocation to stage Norway’s largest festival, Oslo Summer Time (cap. 55,000), on 24 June.

Oslo Summer Time has taken place at Voldsløkka since it was founded in 2017 and has drawn artists including Eminem, Pusha T and Marcus & Martinus.

Live Nation claimed that the allocation was contrary to the municipality’s own guidelines, according to Aftenposten. The live entertainment giant felt discriminated against and says that the municipality gave the competitor All Things Live advantages.

“It is quite obvious that the arena situation is critically bad in Oslo”

“It is quite obvious that the arena situation is critically bad in Oslo,” general manager of Live Nation Norway, Morten Valestrand, previously told Dagbladet.

“As the capital, one should be able to expect the municipality to facilitate such large concerts, but we feel this is not the case now. What we are asking for is simply that they follow their own guidelines and ensure equal treatment of the organisers. We believe that one must be able to expect this.”

The municipality agreed that access to large arenas for concerts in Oslo is a scarce commodity, but that the guidelines for the use of Voldsløkka had been prepared following input from the industry.

 


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