Market Report: Romania
Post-Covid, the Romanian ticketing market has, according to Andreea Pop, CEO of Bilete.ro, become increasingly fragmented.
“Major companies are seeking to enter all areas of entertainment, while smaller entities are focusing on niche events,” she says, adding that attendance numbers are rising, as promoters try to bring bigger and higher quality productions into the country and that “people are just discovering their appetite for events – Romania is an emerging market ripe for picking.”
Primary ticketing
The two biggest companies remain iabilet.ro and bilete.ro, the latter of which was bought two years go by dominant Baltic ticketing firm the Piletilevi Group. Other players include Entertix and MyTicket, operating under one company but with two brands, and CTS Eventim. There’s also bilet.ro, a niche white-label company.
Distribution of sales
According to Emil Ionescu, general managing partner of iabilet.ro, 99% of the tickets they sell are online. But while Pop notes that the pandemic significantly increased people’s engagement with digital tickets, there is still a noticeable preference for cash payments. “In our business, 25% of the market still demands printed physical tickets,” she says.
Secondary ticketing
“Locally, there are no players on the secondary ticketing market,” says Guido Janssens, managing partner of promoter Emagic. “Obviously, the usual suspects like Viagogo and StubHub rear their heads once we put major international acts on sale.”
“Locally, there are no players on the secondary ticketing market”
Bilete.ro is planning to deliver a secondary market solution in the near future, and Eventim has already introduced its fanSALE platform for large events. “The platform provides a secure and easy-to-use way for fans to resell their tickets, ensuring a reliable and trustworthy experience, says Miroslav Emanoilov of Eventim Romania.
Cultural analysis
Romania remains a tricky territory for promoters. “Pre-pandemic, Romania was well on its way to become a more mature event market, with more fans buying their tickets shortly after the show was announced,” says Janssens. “But Covid reversed this trend.”
“We are repositioning ourselves as more than just a ticketing company to support the ticket sales with our marketing and data analysis.”
“The market is getting more and more demanding as we see a rise in expectations from promoters who see us as an extension of their marketing team and where we are being asked to provide quality marketing services to our partners,” says Eventim’s Emanoilov. “We are repositioning ourselves as more than just a ticketing company to support the ticket sales with our marketing and data analysis.”
There’s also a complicated – and expensive – labyrinth of tax regulations to navigate.
Country Profile: Romania
Romania remains a tricky territory when it comes to international touring. While demand exists, particularly when it comes to top-tier, A-list music stars, various issues remain for those not able to sell out Bucharest’s Parliament Square or 56,000-capacity Arena Națională.
“Romania’s main problem with respect to touring remains the lack of proper venues and infrastructure, despite improvements in the last couple of years,” says Guido Janssens, managing partner of Emagic Live, which has done much to open up the Romanian market in recent decades. “Explaining certain taxes to international agents can be challenging as well – there is VAT, copyright, and local tax but also a Red Cross tax, a historical monument tax, and a musical stamp tax.”
Alongside Emagic, Best Music Live, Barracuda, and Marcel Avram all promote major international acts in Romania; ARTmania, D&D East Entertainment, Events Romania, Fun Time Production, and German Quality Entertainment are also significant promoters.
Infrastructure challenges extend to grassroots artists. “We can’t build new artists in the country through club tours, since there are hardly any clubs suitable for live shows outside Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca,” says Janssens.
“We can’t build new artists in the country through club tours, since there are hardly any clubs suitable for live shows outside Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca”
“Even the country’s biggest artists have difficulties selling out anything bigger than a 2,000-capacity venue, and lots of them are making ends meet by performing at private events like baptisms, weddings, and birthday parties or at publicly funded free events.”
What is proving successful, however, is featuring smaller international acts on a popular festival stage – ensuring fans will want to see them again as soon as possible. The festival and event market is trending towards being more focussed musically or conceptually – local rap, trap, and hip-hop festival BEACH, PLEASE! is growing rapidly, while ROCKSTAD EXTREME FEST and NOSTALGIA also cater to a very specific audience and have seen significant success in recent years.
And following several huge, high-profile, sold-out stadium shows over the last few years – Guns N’ Roses, Depeche Mode, Ed Sheeran, and a record-breaking two-night stand from Coldplay this summer – Janssens thinks this will stimulate demand further. “There’s definitely a growing interest from agents and managers in bringing their acts to Romania now, and this should result in more stadium shows over the coming three years,” he says. “For us personally, 2025 is promising some more exciting shows.”
Arena Market: Romania
Romania remains a challenging territory when it comes to international touring. Aside from issues with infrastructure and a lack of dedicated suitable venues for large shows, the war in Ukraine looms large.
“2024 hasn’t been so great regarding touring – there are not so many bands on tour – and it seems like 2025 might be the same,” says Emil Ionescu, general manager and founder of promoter BestMusic Live and ticketing firm iaBilet.ro. “Bands are considering not touring in this part of the world as sometimes it’s not financially viable.”
Even those who do wish to perform face the issue of venue availability. “We don’t have a proper venue in Romania,” says Ionescu. “Just sports halls, which we can hardly get; stadiums or parking lots; and auditoriums meant for public speaking, not events.” He says there’s just one venue in Bucharest – the Arenele Romane, with a 5,000-6,000 cap. “We all wish someone would build a proper concert venue in Bucharest.”
“We all wish someone would build a proper concert venue in Bucharest.”
One of the largest options for tours is the Romexpo, a 14,000-cap hall that can be significantly expanded given that it’s just one part of a multi-hall exhibition centre. Elsewhere, there’s the 4,060-cap multipurpose indoor Sala Palatului, which has previously hosted Tom Jones, and Cluj-Napoca’s BTarena, a multipurpose hall for sports and music concerts that can welcome up to 10,000 people. This year, the latter is due to host Plácido Domingo, DJ BoBo, and the We Love Retro festival, which will feature East 17 and Whigfield.
Despite these limitations, it’s not all bad news for Romania. “Trap hit hard in Romania, and sales are good for festivals such as Beach, Please!, and SAGA, who book big names in trap,” says Ionescu. “Also, rock names are still selling medium-sized events.”
He adds: “There are years where you say things are bad and everything turns out good and years where you say it’s good and it ends up bad. I would say the touring market gets healthier and healthier every year but with many ups and downs.”