Promoters toast first K-pop arena show in Switzerland

TAKK ab Entertainment and AEG Presents promoted Switzerland’s first-ever K-pop arena show last night with boy band ATEEZ.

The South Korean eight-piece, formed by KQ Entertainment, performed a sold-out show at the 15,000-capacity Hallenstadion in Zurich. The market first comes after ATEEZ made history as the first male Korean group to play Coachella last year.

TAKK’s vice president of booking, Théo Quiblier, told IQ that it’s “a huge challenge to bring A-list K-Pop acts to new markets due to the gigantic nature of their production”.

“Switzerland owes its very first arena show to the incredible vision and guts of the whole AEG team who took a BIG leap of faith in Zurich and Switzerland as a market and trusted us to deliver the vision they had for ATEEZ,” he continues. And of course, thank you to ATEEZ who gave Switzerland and their fans a chance.

“This show was a very special one as usually promoters love to rely on history and sales before committing. For this show, it was a white page. It was a proper jump into outer space with one of the biggest productions to play Hallenstadion in recent years so needless to say Simon [Jones, AEG Presents’ SVP of international touring] and I spent a certain amount of time on the phone on this one.

“But the result speaks for itself – the fans had one of the best nights of their lives with their favourite artist and that will always be the ultimate reward for us promoters.”

Jones tells IQ: “We are always very keen to open up new arena markets for K-pop and we felt the perfect time to do this was on ATEEZ’s biggest-ever tour of Europe, and introduce Zurich and Milan which have both been resounding sold-out successes.

“The appetite for the genre shows no signs of slowing up, and we’re pleased to go on the journey with our Swiss partners TAKK, whom believed in this great show with us. Thanks to them and all of team ATEEZ for bringing such a gigantic show to their Swiss fans – they are a huge force to be reckoned with!”

In recent years, AEG Presents has dialled in on the K-pop market. The multinational firm is getting ready to open the 20,000-capacity CJ LiveCity Arena in Seoul as part of a larger K-pop entertainment district.

“The appetite for the genre shows no signs of slowing up”

In 2022, AEG Presents formally partnered with K-pop touring and marketing firm Powerhouse, which has worked with some of K-pop’s biggest stars such as BTS and Blackpink and is a partner of the world’s biggest K-pop festival CJ ENM’s KCON.

The firm also promoted BLACKPINK’s latest trek, the 2022-23 Born Pink world tour, which became the most-attended concert tour by a K-pop girl group with 1.8 million attendees. BLACKPINK went on to headline the AEG-backed BST Hyde Park in London last summer, a milestone for the summer series:

AEG and TAKK aren’t the only promoters bringing K-pop to Europe, with concerts and festivals on an upward trajectory in the last couple of years.

In 2022, Germany hosted Europe’s first K-pop festival, Kpop.Flex festival, which sold more than 70,000 tickets in 84 countries. That year, TEG MJR promoted the UK’s first-ever K-pop festival, HallyuPopFest, at OVO Arena Wembley.

Elsewhere, the 19th edition of renowned K-pop tour, the Music Bank World Tour, took place in Spain, at Madrid’s 80,000-cap Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.

Earlier this year, an application was submitted to stage a two-day K-pop festival in North West London. Magic Sound is bidding to hold the 15,000-cap Made in Korea (MIK) 2025 at Northwick Park, Brent, from 7-8 June.

Meanwhile, a new report has projected the global K-pop events market – valued at US$8.1 billion (€7.9bn) in 2021 – will reach $20bn (€19bn) by 2031.

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News|02 Jan 2025

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