Market Report: Poland

While the war in neighbouring Ukraine and recent issues with high inflation have had an adverse effect on live events, the market has bounced back well in 2024.

“The market is thriving,” says Katarzyna Suska, MD of Ticketmaster Poland. “There’s always a buzz of excitement to see what’s next.”

“Truly booming” is how Bartek Troński, vice president of eBilet, puts it. “We had an incredible first half of 2024, with ticket sales increasing by 30%.”

Primary ticketing
EBilet remains the biggest ticketing company, enjoying a 36% market share of the live events landscape. Big news is the recent merger of kicket.com, Biletomat, and GoOut, funded and led by Estonia–based Piletilevi Group.

Big news is the recent merger of kicket.com, Biletomat, and GoOut, funded and led by Estonia–based Piletilevi Group.

“As a result of this merger, a strong vice-leader of the market emerged, well situated to challenge eBilet’s market position,” says Maciej Wartacz, Kicket’s CEO.

The other significant players are Ticketmaster, which mainly sells Live Nation events, Eventim, biletyna.pl, and KupBilecik.

Distribution of sales
Digital rules in Poland, with adoption accelerating year on year. For kicket.com, 99% of tickets sold are electronic, while Troński notes that “based on our 2024 data, 99.5% of sales are online, with 58% of buyers making their purchases on mobile devices. The most popular option is the print-at-home ticket – 96.5% vs. 94% in H1 2023.”

Digital rules in Poland, with adoption accelerating year on year.

“We’ve seen a huge increase in digital tickets, representing nearly 90% of sales,” adds Suska, while Bartek Kołakowski, founder of resale platform AleBilet, notes that “The majority of our sales, almost 90%, are e-tickets while the rest are posted tickets and mobile tickets on the Ticketmaster mobile app.”

Secondary ticketing
Resale above face value is still technically outlawed in Poland, which has fuelled a rise in legitimate, regulated fan-to-fan platforms (Viagogo still has a web presence, however).

“EVENTIM.Pass is our digital ticketing solution designed to protect against theft and secondary ticketing, reducing fraud and providing promoters with peace of mind that their tickets are where they should be,” says Joanna Comberska of Eventim Poland.

“While fanSALE is our fan-to-fan fair value resale platform that gives customers confidence that they can resell their tickets legitimately and buyers confidence that they are buying from an authorised reseller.”

“Illegal ticket resale at inflated prices is still a big problem”

“Illegal ticket resale at inflated prices is still a big problem,” says Ticketmaster’s Suska. “We’re ramping up our ticket resale capabilities to build a safe, reliable marketplace where fans can buy and sell tickets at face value or regulated prices.”

Then there’s AleBilet. “We strive to be the most secure and customer-friendly secondary ticketing platform in Poland,” says Kołakowski.

“As the current market leader, we achieve that through our procedures, namely paying sellers after events, closely monitoring order delivery, supporting multiple types of tickets … as well as responsive and helpful customer support.”

International/domestic splits & genres
The Polish TOP 100 Spotify chart consistently shows local artists dominating, with 80% of songs by Polish musicians.

“The most popular genres are pop, rock, electronic, and hip-hop.”

“The ratio of foreign to domestic artists on the Polish concert market is quite balanced, with a large number of both international and local acts,” says Sara Kordek, creative director of promoter Good Taste Production. “The most popular genres are pop, rock, electronic, and hip-hop.”

Cultural analysis
“An increasing number of TikTok and Instagram stars are emerging in Poland’s music industry,” says Wartacz.

“The historic concert tour by Polish artist Dawid Podsiadło sold out seven stadiums and played to nearly half a million fans in total – more than 1.5m people were interested in purchasing his tickets on eBilet,” adds Troński.

Kordek says: “Dynamic pricing is becoming increasingly popular in Poland, especially in the context of large concerts and festivals.” Also, following a fine by the Polish consumer protection authorities, all-in pricing has become common among major ticketing companies.

Country Profile: Poland

There is something of a mixed-speed economy for live music here, where the very big does very well but everyone else struggles.

Weronika Tomkowska of Charm Music Poland says that huge shows recently by megastars like Taylor Swift (three nights at the National Stadium in Warsaw in early August) and Ed Sheeran (two nights at Gdańsk Stadium in July) do not give a full picture of the market in 2024.

“While stadium tours are flourishing, one-day events, small arenas, and club-level tours are suffering,” she says. “There’s only a limited number of shows a regular person can afford to purchase tickets for. If you add stadiums with ticket prices ranging from €100 to a whopping €500, it affects people’s budgets severely.”

Tastes in the market are becoming increasingly international. Last September, the K-pop Nation x Korea Music Festival became the first K-pop stadium event to be held in Eastern Europe, with multiple acts playing the Warsaw National Stadium.

“While stadium tours are flourishing, one-day events, small arenas, and club-level tours are suffering”

Tomkowska says the gap in the market left by the collapse of festival organiser and promoter Follow The Step earlier this year “was quickly filled by other promoters taking over their historical relationships with agents and acts.” These include Live Nation, Alter Art, Fource, Winiary Bookings, and Knockout Productions. She also cites Prestige MJM (with whom Charm cooperates on a booking basis), Good Taste Production, and LIVE Agency as other local players of note.

The biggest challenge for the Polish live business would appear to be a lack of venues, or, more specifically, a lack of venues encompassing all sizes.

“Poland offers a wide range of clubs with colourful histories [and different] characters and styles but is very limited when it comes to capacities,” explains Tomkowska. “There is a vast range of clubs from 150-cap venues through to 1,000-cap ones, finishing with a mere 2,000-cap. The next venue, capacity-wise, would be Torwar, a small arena [4,838].”

She continues, “There are no clubs that would fit 3,000 or 4,000 people. This puts promoters in a very difficult position of either sending an insignificant offer with a very small potential of confirmation or risking it with a jump to an arena.”

“There are no clubs that would fit 3,000 or 4,000 people. This puts promoters in a very difficult position of either sending an insignificant offer with a very small potential of confirmation or risking it with a jump to an arena.”

There are investment plans to build a new major arena with a similar capacity in Warsaw, the nation’s capital, with a tentative opening date of 2030 being discussed. Tomkowska feels this might be an optimistic deadline. “Knowing the speed and quality of any large construction projects in Warsaw, we might have to wait longer than that,” she says.

The knock-on effect of all of this could be a looming “demand shortage,” according to Tomkowska. “The market is ruled by stadium and large arena tours with significantly expensive ticket prices,” she says. “People simply will not [be able to] afford to go to one or two shows each month, so will limit themselves to one or two a year.”

“The vast majority of Polish artists don’t have an outside booking agency that deals with booking shows, setting up tours, and bringing in festival offers”

She cites successful tours by Slovenian Eurovision band Joker Out and Polish/Balkan act Kayah & Bregović as highlights, alongside the huge global megastar shows. On a domestic level, however, things are more convoluted than one might expect.

“The vast majority of Polish artists don’t have an outside booking agency that deals with booking shows, setting up tours, and bringing in festival offers,” reveals Tomkowska. “In most cases, it’s done by their management. It makes it harder for promoters to actually book these acts for single shows or tours. I’ve noticed a shift from that in recent years, so we’ll have to watch out for new windows of opportunity.”

There is a complex dynamic at play in Poland’s live music business, where the positive rubs up against the negative. “The geopolitical situation in Poland improved our standing on the international market, and we started to attract more and more established major artists and bands,” says Tomkowska. “It benefits the economy but hurts the club and grassroots scene.”

Arena Market: Poland

“Poland is the undisputed leader in the market in this part of Europe,” says Konrad Kozioł, vice president of Arena Gliwice. With huge fan demand, national inflation on the decline, and knock-on effects from the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War next door subsiding, Poland’s live entertainment scene is thriving– albeit ultra-competitive.

For dual-venue Arena Gliwice, which boasts a 17,000-capacity main hall and 3,300-cap smaller space, 2023 was a big year. It hosted 410,000 people across 266 events, an increase of 5.5% growth in attendees and 12.6% in events. Ticket sales are “at an all-time high,” and competition is changing the way venues host events, according to Kozioł.

“We’ve decided to step into the role of promoters and co-promoters, instead of just renting out the venue,” Kozioł says. “Some of our upcoming shows, such as The Smashing Pumpkins or Eastwood Symphonic, fall into this category, and we’re looking forward to taking on even more projects like this in the upcoming years.”

Acting as promoters involves taking on all production- related tasks, such as for Bryan Adams’ stop in December 2023, a show that drew 12,000 attendees. Though things are slowing down slightly for 2024, Kozioł says “it’s only temporary, and we’ll be seeing an upward trend soon enough.”

“We’ve decided to step into the role of promoters and co-promoters, instead of just renting out the venue”

Over in Kraków, the team behind TAURON Arena Kraków (20,400) echoes this trajectory as the next 18 months look stronger than last year in terms of bookings, according to Karolina Korusiewicz, sales and marketing director.

In 2023, the venue hosted 730,000 attendees across 420 events. Billie Eilish, Lenny Kravitz, Nick Cave, Jonas Brothers, and Andrea Bocelli will all stop by the southern venue in 2024.

But success has not been without challenge, as Poland’s largest venue looks to provide updates to its smaller arena. While not formalised, this could include installing curtaining to diversify event opportunities, shortening the walk to parking, and increasing electrical connectivity.

One hurdle is waste prevention and minimisation, Korusiewicz says. Last year, it joined the Waste Minimisation in Large Events (MINEV) project, a multi-year, EU-backed initiative aimed at making big events more ecologically conscious.

“This challenge awaits every venue in the world,” she says.

“This challenge awaits every venue in the world”

In northern Poland, Gdańsk’s Ergo Arena (10,900–15,000) is facing a few challenges of its own. Ticket sales and shows have bounced back post-Covid with 500,000 people attending over 100 events within the past year. Despite a celebrated local scene – approximately 80% of its sell-outs are provincial productions – board advisor Kamil Kukulka says its location may mean the venue is being left off international tour routes.

“We notice more and more top international shows coming to Poland, however [they mainly go] to the southern region of Kraków and central area of Warsaw. We are missing them in the north, especially in our top tourist season of May to August.”

Nevertheless, the venue team is starting to expand its surrounding entertainment district, with plans to build hotels, offices, and a sports centre to attract tourist visitors to the Baltic seaside town.

In southern city Katowice, roughly 80km from Kraków, Spodek Arena (11,000) is also investing in its future. Nearly €3m is being invested in renovation projects, set to be completed by the end of Q3, including renovating backstage facilities, adding energy-efficient LED lighting, and expanding the ice rink’s seating capacity.

“We have been happy to see a growing number of shows over the past 18 months, which has meant two or three events per weekend, a situation which was not the case before to such an extent”

General manager Marcin Stolarz says the future looks bright for the multi-venue complex, which also includes a gym, hotel, and parking.

“We have been happy to see a growing number of shows over the past 18 months, which has meant two or three events per weekend, a situation which was not the case before to such an extent,” he says.

Spodek Arena hosted 218 events in 2023, welcoming 533,338 attendees. Korn, Sepultura, and the Harlem Globetrotters will all stop by this year.

And in the middle of Poland, Łódź’s Atlas Arena (13,805) is celebrating 15 years in operation this year. Take That, Jacob Collier, Melanie Martinez, Sting, and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds will visit before the year’s out.