Country Profile: Venezuela

Venezuela is currently facing a severe socioeconomic and political crisis marked by hyperinflation, widespread hunger, and a mass emigration of its population.

Last December, The Hives broke ground by becoming the first international rock band to perform in the country for over a decade, playing at Caracas’s 6,000-capacity Concha Acústica de Bello Monte.

“Because of the sanctions, it became an unviable market,” Matthew Greer of ATC Management, told Variety last year. “Hopefully, The Hives can be part of the journey to reopen the country and have bigger artists go down there.”

“Because of the sanctions, it became an unviable market”

The performance was coordinated by AGTE Live, founded in Barquisimeto, Venezuela in 2005. The leading promoter in this market, it also operates in the US and Europe, bringing artists like Cuban salsa singer Rey Ruiz to Madrid, Paris, and London this year. The promoter will also bring Colombian band Morat to the Estadio Olímpico (24,264) in the capital city of Caracas in November.

Spartans Producciones is a relatively new market entrant, launching last November with a show at Valencia’s Wynwood Park featuring Los Borjas, a reunion act comprised of Venezuelan cousins Ronald Borjas and Luis Fernando Borjas.

Arena Market: Venezuela

Swedish rockers The Hives became the first Anglo band to play Venezuela in a decade when they stopped at the 6,000-capacity Concha Acústica de Bello Monte amphitheatre in Caracas as part of a Latin American tour. The show came after the US eased sanctions which, combined with an economic and political crisis that has crashed the bolívar and left half the population in poverty, have made the nation a no-go zone for commercial tourers.

While you wouldn’t say Venezuela was out of the woods, its economy has been on the up in the past couple of years, and the government has relaxed restriction on US dollars. That has led in turn to visits by stars such as Argentina’s Fito Páez, Italy’s Eros Ramazzotti, and Mexico’s Alejandro Fernández, though tickets are clearly only accessible to a relatively small elite and entertainment-starved fans prepared to take out a loan.

The 50-year-old, 20,000-capacity Poliedro de Caracas indoor arena, a reminder of Caracas’s status as a frequent touring stop from the 70s to the 10s, when it hosted shows from Queen, Guns N’ Roses, Backstreet Boys, Kylie Minogue, and others, remains the travelling superstar’s indoor venue of choice. More modestly, there’s the Terraza del CCCT (the Centro Ciudad Comercial Tamanaco) a 5,000-seat, outdoor event centre in a shopping mall in Caracas that has been in use since at least the early 2000s.

Next to the Poliedro, at La Rinconada on the edge of Caracas, however, funds have also been found for a gleaming new 40,000-capacity baseball stadium, Estadio Monumental Simón Bolívar, which opened last year and has this year welcomed Luis Miguel, Maluma, and two nights of Karol G. Colombian stars Morat opted for the 24,000-capacity Estadio Olímpico de la UCV for their show in late June.